A few years ago, I was at a fundraiser for Colorado Outward Bound School. It’s something that we do every year, because we believe in the school and its mission and because we love the CEO and President, Peter O’Neil. At this particular event, the guest of honor and speaker was Erik Weihenmayer. Erik is the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and he is one of 150+ mountaineers who has completed the Seven Summits.

But what he was there to share with us, as if there was anything else that could top those achievements, was his kayaking journey through the entire 277 miles of the Grand Canyon. Did you remember, that he is blind? Have you seen the Grand Canyon? Have you seen the Colorado River? Erik Weihenmayer obviously envisioned it much differently.

Erik began to tell us the captivating story. It was 2014 and he had been training with a friend and paddling coach, Robert Raker. He explained how he used the feeling under his boat and paddle, as well as his ears to understand and navigate. But kayaking is based on sight too. Being able to see the rapids, how they worked, what end they produced, and where they physically were, would be a problem in solo kayaking. It wasn’t only about feeling the water and hearing the obstacles, he would need a system of communication – a guiding system that would be available as quickly as the time it takes to make an instantaneous decision.

At first, they went through some basic communication strategies — whistles, two-way radios, earpieces, verbal commands and several guiding systems. But many of these systems had inherent delays. When you’re in a canyon lacking communications, bad reception or delays of any kind, can be deadly. Pair that with the omnipresent sound of water, whirlpools, and rapids and you have a situation fraught with sensory overload.

I stand in awe of the story he told about the courage, ingenuity, capability and technical advancement that helped Erik and his companion successfully navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

When you think about it, it’s this same type of innovation that we are seeing now in cloud computing, sensors, and autonomous design, that is propelling us to the edge of what we thought was possible. It’s an exciting time to be in a connected world. And being able to make decisions at the point of need, closer to where the action is, sounds like an incredible day on the river to me.

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