WHAT THE PRESS HAD TO SAY ABOUT OUR FIRST EPIC ENDURANCE CHALLENGE MAKING HISTORY AT THE GRAND CANYON
Blind man conquers the Grand Canyon, Air Date: 11/09/14
Dan Berlin knew walking the Grand Canyon from rim to rim and back to the starting point was going to be tough. He is virtually blind and every step is a potential pitfall, which is why he realized the only way he could do this was with friends. Barry Petersen reports. |
Watching the sun rise, four friends reflected on the accomplishment they completed the night before— running across all 46 miles of the Grand Canyon, the span of the national landmark. A feat for any athlete, theirs was even more special because four of them were guiding their friend Dan Berlin, who is blind.
|
The team guiding Dan Berlin across the Grand Canyon had been running for 22 hours when they stopped, at 3:30 a.m., to admire the moon. One of the guides, Alison Qualter Berna, felt a pang of guilt because Berlin, who is blind, couldn’t see it. But he didn’t mind. For him, experiencing the Grand Canyon in his own way—through the smells, fall breezes, and simply feeling the moon’s presence—was just as powerful.
|
Five friends sat together at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, near the low-slung stone building the mule trains from the rim head to, Phantom Ranch. It was the middle of the night, in the early hours of Oct. 8. The five had run 35 or so miles, mostly continuously, from the South Rim of the canyon, down to the river and up the other side to the North Rim. They’d passed Phantom Ranch the day before, and now they were back.
|
On October 8, at age 46, he became the first blind person to complete the Rim to Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon, a 46-mile trail run with an enormous 20,000 feet of elevation gain. Guided by four sighted athletes and starting on the South Rim, Berlin and team finished in 28 hours-an achievement for any ultrarunner, but obviously exponentially more difficult for someone who can’t see rocks or steps in the trail, or the dropoffs on the side of the trails.
|
|
Dan's history making 20,000 feet was covered around the world.
|
what the press had to say about
our 2015 Machu Picchu Run
![]() |
"Blind Runner Completes 26-Mile Inca Trail - Dan Berlin became the first blind person to run the length of the 26- mile Inca Trail in Peru, according to a press release by travel company Intrepid Travel. With three teammates — Charles Scott, Alison Qualter Berna, and Brad Graff—Berlin finished the route to Machu Picchu in 13 hours..."
|