Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 18, 1995                   TAG: 9501200010
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

ON HIS WAY TO THE TOP - ROANOKE NATIVE PREPARES TO TAKE HIS PASSION FOR

Evans, 25, who grew up in Roanoke and lives in Beaumont, Calif., is part of a five-member team training to climb McKinley in June. The mountain is the highest peak in North America, with a summit at 20,320 feet.

That in itself would qualify Evans for a gone-where-few-have-gone-before award, but his team member Eric Weihenmayer represents an additional facet of the trek.

Weihenmayer, a teacher, wrestling coach and experienced mountaineer living in Arizona, will be the first blind person to attempt Denali.

``Eric doing this is expressing to the world that non-seeing people can do just about anything they want to,'' Evans said during a recent visit to his parents' home in Roanoke County. ``I'm fortunate to be a part of it.''

HighSights '95, as the expedition is called, symbolizes the heights to which blind people can aspire. The American Foundation for the Blind, a national, nonprofit organization, hopes to raise $2 million through individual and corporate sponsorships of HighSights '95.

The AFB is the leading national resource for the blind and visually impaired and the organizations that serve them. The funds raised will support Braille literacy and employment programs for the blind. Helen Keller worked for the AFB for 40 years.

Evans' passion for peaks was not ignited until he went to college in Colorado after graduating from Patrick Henry High School. Rock climbing in the Roanoke area was limited, though he got a taste of it in the New River Gorge.

He now teaches climbing and outdoor-living skills at a science school for inner-city children in Los Angeles.

His heart remains here, though, even as he dreams of tackling the high peaks around the world. ``These mountains are so beautiful, and I didn't appreciate it until I left them,'' he said.

His journey to Denali has already begun. Evans has studied everything he could find on the great peak, including a book on surviving it. (Thirty five people have died on the mountain since 1982.)

A certified mountain emergency medical technician, Evans knows the necessity of training physiologically, as well as physically and mentally. His schedule includes rigorous cross-training workouts, as well as frequent climbing trips.

Perhaps more so than in other pursuits, experience is the best teacher. Evans has climbed 31 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains, several in winter, many alone, and has climbed in every Rocky Mountain state.

But sometimes the heights can bring you down to the depths. His latest trek was his scariest.

Just after Thanksgiving, on a solo ascent of Mount Whitney (the highest in the contiguous United States), Evans encountered a storm with 70-mile-per-hour winds that dumped three feet of snow in 24 hours. At 12,000 feet, he was caught in a snowslide and buried up to his waist.

``Everywhere I walked I was dislodging plates [of snow],'' he said. ``It makes a sickening sound as the snow releases.

``I laughed. I cried. I prayed. It was the most emotional day of my life,'' Evans said.

In a bad moment, adventurers of any sort plead to some unseen power for their safety, in return promising to ``never do this again.''

``I know I'm lying to myself now when I say that,'' he said. ``Climbing is what I do.''

For Evans, the summit is not the ultimate quest. Though it is a reason to continue, the trek up is the real adventure. And safety is always the first consideration.

``I feel like people who die on mountains often have the attitude they're going to conquer it,'' he said. ``If the mountain wants you to climb it, it will let you. If it doesn't, it will give you signs and tell you this is not the way it should be. That's when you need to get off.''

Evans' respect for his blind team member grew when he climbed boulders in the dark and rappelled down a rock face blindfolded. ``I was shaking when I did it; I felt so helpless not knowing what was in front of me,'' he said.

The Denali expedition is expected to take a month - roughly, three weeks to ascend and one week for the descent. The group will be airlifted onto a glacier at 7,800 feet and will have ice and snow beneath their feet until their journey has ended.

National magazines, such as Climber, Rock and Ice, and Outside, are each donating a full page ad to the AFB climb, and the group will greet the world on ``Good Morning, America'' from the face of the mountain. The Wall Street Journal is publishing a human interest story on the expedition.

Locally, Blue Ridge Outdoors will sell HighSights '95 T-shirts, donating the proceeds to the fund-raiser and will sponsor a slide presentation to acquaint potential donors from other areas with the project.

Blue Ridge Outdoors is also acting as a liaison for Evans with manufacturers of needed equipment, helping to reduce the costs.

Evans will return to Roanoke immediately after the trek is over - ``My mom insists'' - and will give presentations to local organizations.

And then?

Aconcagua, Argentina. Height: 22,835 feet.

Ultimately, Evans has set his sights higher and higher until he reaches Everest, and then he wants to attempt some unclimbed peaks, perhaps in the Himalayas.

But, he expects to settle here ``after the big peaks are done. I plan to grow old in these old mountains.''

For more information on the AFB or HighSights '95, or to sponsor HighSights'95, contact the American Foundation for the Blind, 11 Penn Plaza, Suite 300, New York, N.Y. 10001, or call (800) 232-5463.