BVA members throughout the country joined Lonnie Bedwell, Indiana Regional Group, and Shawn Cheshire, Florida Regional Group, in a unique virtual Town Hall yesterday. The two reflected with moderator and BVA Chief of Staff Timothy Hornik on their upcoming climb of two of the world’s tallest mountains: Mount Everest and its neighbor Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth tallest mountain. The program will be available as a podcast soon with link details to follow.

Scaling Everest and Lhotse on the same expedition has never been done by a blind person, let alone two of them at the same time. In addition, Shawn’s successful attempt at Mount Everest will make her the first ever blind woman to make the historic climb. Lonnie departs for Nepal on April 2 and Shawn on April 7. They plan to return in late May. With the help of sighted guides from Sightless Summits and Choosing to See, the two will be equipped with GPS devices that will allow friends from around the world to follow their locations throughout the trek.

Lonnie is an accomplished extreme sports athlete. In 2015, he was named National Geographic 2015 Adventurer of the Year. He has kayaked some of the most challenging whitewater in the world and is responsible for the first blind descents of Africa’s renowned Zambezi River and West Virginia’s Gauley River. Lonnie is best known for achieving the first blind descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with a team of boaters assembled by Team River Runner. Lonnie successfully climbed Denali last summer with a team from Sightless Summits.

Shawn has been a member of BVA since last September. She joined the U.S. Army in 1994 and served as a helicopter armament systems mechanic for eight years. Following her years in the service, she became an EMT-Paramedic, and in 2009, during a snowstorm, she slipped while treating a patient in an ambulance and sustained a traumatic brain injury that resulted in total loss of vision. The introduction to para-sports ignited her competitive spirit and helped her confront her blindness. She is the founder of the previously mentioned nonprofit organization Choosing to See.

Stay tuned for regular updates about this historic trek and how to follow Lonnie and Shawn!