Sunglasses shield the enduring physical evidence of Jill Wheatley’s toughest campaign ever.
The experience nearly claimed her life, but it is now the driving force and fuel behind her six successful summits on the world’s highest mountains, including the mighty K2.
A Life-Changing Injury She Calls ‘Serendipity’
Wheatley grew up in Ontario and later became a physical education teacher at an international school in Bavaria, Germany.
On weekends she competed in duathlons around Europe.
But in 2014, life dealt him a fatal blow.
While teaching a physical-ed class, he was hit in the head by a baseball. The impact was so great that it left him with a traumatic brain injury and 70 percent vision loss, leaving him permanently blind in one eye. She also developed an eating disorder.
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She spent 26 months in seven different hospitals, many times wishing it would all end.
Jill Wheatley in hospital after suffering a brain injury.
Supply: Jill Wheatley
“I would hide the medicine and try to break the monitor and pull the feeding tube,” Wheatley said.
“I really didn’t think life was worth living with a disability and I did everything I could to end it,” she said, lowering her voice. “This is as dark as it gets.”
healing in the mountains
She eventually ended up in an intensive care treatment hospital for traumatic brain injuries in Colorado.
The mountains and nature she had once loved—a distant memory from her hospital bed—were once again winking at her from the corner of her room’s open curtains.
“I remember thinking: ‘If they’ll let me out there, I can figure it all out,'” she said.
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Despite her emotional fall into what she describes as a very deep crevice, the doctors and nurses refused to let her down there. They finally pulled her to the surface almost two years after that fateful day at the Ball Diamond.
“Hundreds of hands and hearts, when all was said and done, who did not leave my side when I really gave up on myself.
“They are people; These are the reasons why I am here today.
Ten months after being released from the hospital, with no depth perception and just 30 percent vision in one eye, she set out to find comfort and healing in nature.
Jill Wheatley is on a mission to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world. It is called Project Vision 8000.
Supply: Jill Wheatley
Wheatley traveled to Nepal where a friend convinced her to run in Nepal Annapurna 100 with them.
“He knew my strengths, knew what I was doing and really encouraged me and I thought: ‘There’s no chance.'”
But she not only crossed the finish line, but made it to the podium.
“I had energy that I didn’t know I had, some strength in what’s really challenging with TBI (traumatic brain injury) as a reference point,” she recalls.
Jill Wheatley is on a mission to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world. It is called Project Vision 8000.
Supply: Jill Wheatley
Project Vision 8000
The momentum of that race changed the course of his life and he finally looked at the top of the mountains he started running around.
Project Vision 8000 was born. And in 2022 he begins his mission to stand on top of the world’s 14 tallest mountains at an altitude of 8,000 meters above sea level to show himself and others the power of choice and possibility.
“I didn’t get to choose (my injuries), but I did get to choose how to react.
“I’m choosing to embrace the life I lost in challenging myself in ways I never thought possible,” Wheatley said.
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Colour, texture and touch help guide her up the mountain and while she said she needed patience on her descent, she never felt too tired to move on.
“The only thing constant is change, so when the weather turns really bad or a storm is coming or I’m struggling a little bit with altitude or energy, I know it’s going to pass.”
Jill Wheatley is on a mission to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world. It is called Project Vision 8000.
Supply: Jill Wheatley
So far, she’s had some problems standing up among giants, but she admits she continues to struggle to overcome what she calls “the mountains of her mind.”
“I look different. The right eye is closed and (I) am not comfortable without hiding it behind my sunglasses, even though I know very well that what really matters has nothing to do with looks.
Having faced death before, Wheatley said she has a lot of respect for the mountains and the mission she’s on. But she is not scared. At every snowy summit, she smiles and makes a quick video with a bated breath: “So grateful” she whispered into thin air.
Jill Wheatley is on a mission to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world. It is called Project Vision 8000.
Supply: Jill Wheatley
Wheatley’s successes have now landed her some impressive record lists, but she’s not interested in them. She is going back to Nepal this spring to start the second part of her project including Mount Everest.
Her motto continues to inspire her: “To lose sight to gain sight.”
Click here to support Wheatley’s Vision 8000 effort.
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