Gary Guller has always dreamt big. The 36 year-old climber has had his sights set on the epic peaks of Mount Everest since he was 12 years old. An avid climber throughout his teens, Gary constantly challenged his limits. But, on a fateful day in 1986 while climbing with friends in Mexico, an accident changed his life forever. The men plummeted down the mountain more than 1500 feet. The impact broke Gary’s neck and severed the nerves that powered his left arm. Three days passed before rescue teams reached them. Gary lost the use of his left arm and tragically his best friend and climbing partner died from the fall.
Emotionally overwhelmed and grappling with his own identity, Gary didn’t know where to turn. Focusing most of his energies on his physical recovery, he turned away opportunities to sit down and talk through his emotions. “I felt I could address those mental issues on my own but because I didn’t take advantage of the help, it took me a lot longer to come to terms with the loss of my friend, the loss of my arm and why perhaps the accident happened,” remembers Guller. Believing his climbing days were over and his Everest dreams shattered, Gary never imagined that 15 years later not only would he summit Everest, but he would lead the largest ever cross-disabled group to Base Camp.
Searching for a New Identity
For several years after the accident, Gary suffered from chronic, crippling pain. He tried several experimental surgeries in the hopes of regaining some of the mobility in his arm but to no avail. His arm was paralyzed and the weight of it was “a hindrance.” In the end, Gary made the difficult decision to have his arm amputated. “ I thought I’d feel freer. I thought it would erase the accident. In a way, physically it did, but spiritually and mentally it didn’t. It took me 10 or more years to come to terms with it. It made me look much deeper into myself to find out who I was as a person. I thought to myself, ‘surely he is more than this young kid that looked like everybody else growing up in the 70s and 80s in North America.’ It was just a shame that it took all of that to happen for me to take a deeper look,” he says.
The road to self-discovery wasn’t easy. The roller-coaster ride, though it’s ended on a high note, has had some pretty extreme lows. There were periods of heavy drinking and drug use. In the end, it was a road trip through the Eastern States and Canada that would help re-kindle Gary’s passion for the outdoors and climbing. “Cycling and hiking through the mountains really reminded me of why I started climbing to begin with. The feeling you get when you’re in the mountains. It’s as though all the barriers you have in society are down. People tend to be at their best when they’re in nature away from the stuff that pollutes our society. What you see are the mountains, the trees, the animals; not the billboards, the concrete, the pollution.”
Most people would have hung up their climbing ropes but Gary Guller isn’t most people. After his East Coast road trip, Gary followed his passion and continued climbing. He traveled throughout Europe and Asia challenging his abilities and people’s perceptions of the disabled. In 2001, Gary made his first attempt at Everest. It was unsuccessful. “It wasn’t the right time for me, probably more mentally than physically. I just wasn’t ready. When you’re climbing these big mountains so much of it is in your mind, where you are as a person, as a team member and what you’re looking for. I feel, especially in the Himalayas amongst the Sherpas, the Tibetan Buddhists and the Lamas, all of whom have such respect for the land, that you really need to be in a good place mentally and spiritually to get the most out of the experience. If you are, you will get so much more than a summit,” adds Guller.
Spending a lot of time in countries like Nepal where so many people live in poverty, Gary learned one of his most treasured lessons. The people he met along his travels had so little and yet they seemed to have a much greater sense of inner peace. “The one thing I noticed the most was that regardless of whether they had to go somewhere, they always took the time even if it was just one or two minutes. They always treated each and every one of us, regardless of whether we had a disability, as human beings.”
Team Everest
Upon his return home from that first attempt, Gary was invited to speak at a convention of the Coalition for Texans with Disabilities. While he didn’t know it at the time, he was about to meet a group of people with whom he would share the greatest personal and professional triumph of his life.
When Gary arrived, he met a group of people unlike any he had ever encountered; everyone in the group had a disability of some sort. Walking out there and greeting this group, “was a turning point for me. It made me realize I no longer had to go at it alone because I was, in one aspect, being accepted for who I was before anything else. Before I told the climbing story and before I talked about the accident. It was just me, Gary Guller. That was huge for me. It still is. I owe a lot of that to Everest. Connect with people as individuals first, the rest you’ll find out later,” remembers Guller.
When he was finished speaking, one of the audience members asked if Gary would lead a group of them on an Everest expedition, and with that Team Everest was born. Their goal: to raise awareness for people with disabilities.
When the news broke that this group was going to attempt the climb to Base camp, support from across the world came flooding in. Single mothers, the elderly, the disabled, people with friends and family members who were disabled and those who had just encountered a spell of bad luck. “It was just so motivating. It kept growing to the point that it gave me the power and the force to keep going.”
The team began the difficult trek on March 15th, 2003. They would have to battle extreme temperatures, the altitude, intestinal issues from a radically different diet, paralysis from the cold and emotional and physical discomfort. One team member, Gene Rogers who was paraplegic joked with Guller that he’d be fine as long as he didn’t get cold because if he did it would take days to defrost him. The team’s journey was carefully planned. They were accompanied by doctors, aides and the Sherpas.
“We overcame a lot of the challenges by communicating on a fair and open level. Everyone felt confident enough to say what they wanted without worrying it would be held against them later. They knew we were a team and we were in the journey together. We all had different aspects. Different views. Different assets. Different ideas to bring to the table. Someone who uses a wheelchair can bring equally great ideas to the table as the expedition doctor or one of the climbing guides. Nothing was taken for granted or viewed as a stupid suggestion.”
The team experienced its share of setbacks and several team members had to turn back because of physical ailments but on April 6th, Team Everest reached base camp. The team crossed the glacial moraine and sat across from the famous Khumbu Ice Fall exhausted but “radiating this energy, and all the heartache and the injuries were forgotten as we celebrated the success that only comes when people work together,” remembers Guller. Eight of the 14 disabled team members reached Base Camp, which is an extraordinary accomplishment considering that only one in ten able-bodied people are able to do the same.
After the excitement had subsided slightly and night had fallen, the Sherpas approached Gary and suggested one last group climb: the Khumbu Ice Fall. The next day still fuelled by the adrenaline rush of the previous day’s success, the team set out for their final climb: ascending one of the Khumbu ice walls. Some team members stayed i |
