Today was all about inspiration on The 425 Show. Brian Dickinson, Author of The Blind Descent and motivational speaker, shared his courageous story of his solo summit of Mount Everest..

As a former Navy, search and rescue swimmer Brian lives life to the fullest seeking new and challenging adventures. During grad school he set a goal to climb the seven highest peaks, one for each continent. In 2011, Brian took on the tallest mountain in the world, nearly 30,000 feet above seal level, Mount Everest, in Napal.

With month’s of preparation and getting acclimated to the altitude, he patiently waited for his window to climb to the top, with the help of his Sherpa. With the right weather they set out and climbed through the night, when his Sherpa became ill from altitude sickness. After carefully weighing the options, together they made the decision he was going to head back down and Brian would continue to summit – alone.

Brian successfully made it to the top, took a few pictures and radioed the base camp he was headed back down. The celebration of climbing the highest peak, however, was short- lived. Four hours into his decent Brian’s vision suddenly became blurry, his eyes started to burn, and within seconds, he was rendered almost completely snow blind.

Alone at 29,035 feet, he was low on oxygen, and completely unable to see. Brian was forced to inch his way back down the mountain relying only on his Navy survival training, and gut instinct. Using the guide rope he had placed on his to the summit, he slowly made his way back down. At one point Brian couldn’t go any further, he prayed, relied on his faith in God, and vision of coming home to his family.

Exhausted and feeling defeated Brian continued to move on and eventually made it back to base camp, completely blind. What should have taken 3 hours to reach the high camp, ended up taking him 7 hours.

Brian’s book Blind Descent, recounts, in fantastic detail, his extraordinary experience on Everest, demonstrating that no matter how dire your circumstances, there is no challenge too big for God. Brian shares his miraculous story all around the world helping audiences be inspired, gain a new perspective in life and overcoming obstacles. His powerful presentation includes pictures, and videos from his experience, and encouraging audiences to conquer their greatest fears.

For more information, or to purchase a copy of Blind Descent, visit Brian’s website. If you would like to have Brian speak at an upcoming event you can follow him on Facebook, or fill out his contact form. For more amazing photo’s of Brian’s journey, and other hikes visit his Instagram account.

On today’s show we also chatted about what’s happening in the Market on the Eastside. Check out the graph below, we are up 5% in sales price from 2017, and up 2.5% in inventory. This gives buyers more homes to choose from.