Preparing for the Nevis Challenge has brought back memories of lessons learned during my expedition through the Amazon and across the Andes. Crossing the Amazon we found ourselves in torrential rain, I'd never seen such rain. The environment we had to contend with was harsh because it was wet and humid, and the river bed was muddy.
At times I didn't really understand what was going on but thankfully I wasn't alone! I was able to ask the team to go over what our tactics for getting through the sinking mud patches were! The water was a real problem because I had to make sure I didn't get my two hearing aids wet - it would have been impossible to dry them out because of the humidity. I found taking them out quite emotional - I realized I couldn't hear and felt completely lost inside myself, isolated. Without my hearing aids I would have had great difficulties for the rest of the trip.
In my opinion, having a hearing impairment is one of the worst social disabilities a person can have. Lip-reading helps me in certain situations, but others are most often unaware of my difficulties so don't look directly at me or make an effort to speak louder. This can be quite frustrating, and in the mountains it can be very dangerous.
Walking with a group of people in unknown territory while trying to keep my balance and concentrate on listening is very difficult. Being in these situations makes me reaslise the importance of making people aware from the start that I do have to lip-read in order to be part of the conversation. I have to tell people that I need to be close to them in order to see their lips, but it can still be struggle because some people don't move their lips properly when they speak. This is irritating and makes it much harder for me to make out what they are saying. I feel embarrassed if I leave it half way through the conversation when I have been struggling to hear and am feeling like I'm not making a valuable contribution to the conversation. I often consider deafness as the 'forgotten disability.' Because the hearing aids aren't visible, people forget and need to be reminded. Strangers that I meet can't realise what I am going through.
In the Amazon expedition my fellow participants Zu and Jeremy also had a hearing impairment. We had to convince our expedition leader Ken Hames to have his beard shaved off as the three of us really struggled to lip read him. I was killing myself with laughter and Ken knew we were up to mischief! It took a long time to convince him because he hadn't had his beard shaved for years. We told him that it would make him look younger and most importantly we will be able to lip read him better. So he shaved off his beard!
We'll need to address this problem once again for the Ben Nevis climb. Ten hours on Britain's highest mountain in late May, there is every chance of torrential rain and those of us using hearing aids will have to find a way to protect them. We'll need to be prepared to communicate with our teams without them. This is going to be a major challenge for all. I wonder if everyone knows what they are in for?
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Page first published on Friday 7th March 2008
Page last updated on Thursday 24th July 2008
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