The Cochrane, Alberta, resident (second from the right in the photo) lost the sight in his right eye at the age of 10 after being shot with a pellet gun, and developed sympathetic blindness in the other eye two years later.

On May 25, he became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Logan, in the Yukon's Kluane National Park. At 5,959 metres (19,640 feet), it's Canada's highest peak. Altitude sickness kept two of his teammates from reaching the top. With winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour and temperatures during the May/mid-June climbing season averaging -40 degrees Celsius, weather was also a problem.

Watson got the idea for the expedition 10 years ago while on Alaska's Mount McKinley. "I was climbing the highest mountain in North America, which happens to be in the United States, but out of a sense of national pride I wanted to climb the highest mountain in Canada," the father of two says.

He came within six hours of reaching McKinley's summit before a storm forced him and six other climbers to turn back. The Mount Logan project was put on hold while Watson, who manages the William Watson Lodge in Alberta's parks system, ran successfully for town councillor in Cochrane and sat on a committee reviewing human rights legislation in Alberta.

Two years ago he began to put together a team and the financing to climb Mount Logan. Covering the cost of food, equipment and transportation means mountaineering expeditions aren't cheap. Sponsors such as Scotia McLeod, Yukon Tourism, The Brick and Camper Village helped the team break even.

In mountain climbing, where survival is a daily concern, good group dynamics and teamwork take on added importance. Expedition leader Jay Honeyman, who had accompanied Watson on McKinley, brought the right team of climbers together. "He's a park warden, so climbing and mountain rescue are really his vocation," says Watson, who began mountaineering in 1982. The two men have known each other for 17 years. They were joined by Geoff Skinner, Alex Taylor, Karsten Heuer and Graham Holt. "We had a great team," Watson says.

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut) helped get the word out about the expedition. "When I had climbed McKinley, it had raised awareness of the abilities of disabled persons," Watson says. "But I wasn't in a position to get that message out myself." The CNIB handled the media coverage on his Logan climb, and an extensive website (www.visionquest2000.net) was set up about Watson and his climb, dubbed "Vision Quest."

Harold Grace, director of development at the CNIB, was one of the people Watson approached early on for support. "I do a number of things myself, but I certainly like to keep my feet a little closer to the ground," Grace chuckles. Watson's climb has had an impact on people with disabilities, Grace says.

"It has had a great impact in terms of people realizing they can reach their dream," he says. "For some people that dream is independence, for another person it might be graduating from university."

Bill McKeown, Executive Director of the CNIB, has noted the particular reaction they've received from children who are blind. "We've had some really interesting e-mails from kids saying that they now believe they could do a lot of things," he says.

The climb has also raised awareness among people without disabilities. "It shows that people do challenging and adventurous things in their life. You don't necessarily have to have use of all your senses," Grace says. At a fundraising event in Calgary in June, people were talking about Watson. "Do you think you can get that guy who climbed the mountain to come talk to our group?" they asked Grace.

Bill McKeown has known Watson for 15 years. "People think [because] the guy climbed a mountain, that he's special," he says. "But he's a quiet guy and it hasn't gone to his head. He works hard and doesn't see himself as anything special -- and he's a great role model because of that."

Watson did a lot of canoeing, cross-country skiing and winter camping near Edmonton while studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation and Administration at the University of Alberta. "I always enjoyed the outdoors," he says. He graduated in 1981, moved closer to the Rockies the following year and began mountaineering. "I joke that I fell into it," he chuckles. "I'm not a technical climber. I see myself more as a scrambler or someone that does a bit of mountaineering."

McKeown says he wasn't surprised to hear that Watson was planning to climb Mount Logan. "I didn't think for one second that he wouldn't do it. With Ross, when he said it, you knew he wanted to do it and would do it."

Training for Logan isn't a casual affair. For more than a year, Watson worked to ensure he was in top shape for the expedition. Teammates practised skills together on the same type of terrain they would encounter on the mountain, including crevasse rescue, rope routines and testing equipment.

Mountain climbing requires that teammates be roped together for safety purposes and adapt to the ability of each person. Surprisingly, having a climber who is blind makes no difference. "Because we are a team and are on a rope, we work as team and take everyone's ability into consideration and that dictates how you're going to approach the climb," Watson explains.

Watson always likes to be in the middle so that he can follow other climbers by sound and have other people behind him. "It becomes the most comfortable way for other people to assimilate me into the team and for me to travel," he says.

Watson and his team left Calgary on May 3 and flew to Whitehorse. Then they took a ski plane from the Seward Glaciers at 9,000 feet and followed the King Trent route up the mountain. They were battling -35 degrees Celsius temperatures and 65 km/h winds the day they reached the summit.

"We couldn't see the summit for most of the day because it was shrouded in a storm," Watson recalls. "We weren't sure that we could make it." At 5:22 p.m. they finally did, but didn't stay long because of the weather. "It only allowed us a couple of minutes to give each other the high fives and get the pictures we needed." About 12 to 14 hours after they'd set out from camp five (their final camp) for the summit, the team returned.

For Watson, climbing mountains is a way to challenge himself in a setting he loves -- the outdoors. "Society sets expectations on us, but we set our own limitations," he says. "Everyone is labelled and there's an expectation that comes with that label. If you accept those expectations, you limit yourself... You really have to find your own limits."

-- Hélèna Katz

From Abilities Magazine, Issue 44