Martin Parnell

During the lazy summer evenings, my wife Sue and I had enjoyed watching the TV show Expedition Impossible.

This show involved teams of three people attempting to tackle some of the toughest terrain in Morocco.

The scenery was been spectacular and the teams had to repel down cliffs, raft down raging white water rapids and crawl through a labyrinth of caves. The show was produced by Mark Burnett and you might know him for shows such as Survivor, Shark Tank and The Apprentice.

Burnett has an interesting background. Born in England, he joined the British Army and between 1978 and 1982 served with the Parachute Regiment in the Falklands. In October 1982, he decided to leave for the United States, where he took a live-in nanny position with a family in Beverly Hills. Though he had no experience in that field, because of his military background, the family realized the advantage of having a nanny and security guard all in one and hired him.

After a year, he moved on to another family in Malibu, taking care of two boys for $250 a week. He was eventually given a position in the insurance office owned by the boys’ father.

Two years later, on weekends, he decided to rent a portion of fence at Venice Beach and sell T-shirts for $18 each. Realizing he made more money at this, Burnett left his insurance job.

In February 1991, he read a newspaper story about a French adventure competition called the Raid Gauloises. With four other members, he joined the Raid, and called his team American Pride. Aside from adventure, he saw a business opportunity in the competition, bought the format rights and launched a similar race in America, called Eco-Challenge.It launched his career in TV production.

Over the years Burnett has produced many shows, but his heart is in Adventure racing. On Expedition Impossible each team has a theme. In this series, teams included the Police, the Fishermen, the Football Players, and the Cowboys. One of the top teams was No-Limits and one of their members, Eric Weihenmayer, was the star of the show. Eric is blind.

Weihenmayer was born in 1968 and, on May 25 2001 became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Weihenmayer is an acrobatic skydiver, long distance biker, marathon runner, skier, mountaineer, ice climber, and rock climber.

In September 2002, he also completed the Seven Summits, successfully climbing the seven highest peaks on the seven continents. He completes these amazing feats with the guidance of a friend who was also a team member on Expedition Impossible.

In early 2006, Sue and I had the pleasure of meeting Weihenmayer. A movie was being made of his life, including his ascent of Mount Everest. It was called Touch the Top of the World and was being shot in Calgary and Banff. They were looking for extras to play a crowd scene at a local school.

In the final episode of Expedition Impossible, No-Limits had to go against three other teams and placed second.

Weihenmayer had shown that, despite his disability, he was able to keep up with the other competitors and proved that he is the perfect role model for people without sight. As he said, in his life, “There are no limits”.

© 2011 Martin Parnell

mjparnell@shaw.ca

www.marathonquest250.com

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