Speakers Bio

Kevin Cherilla has been mountaineering for two decades.  His adventures have taken him to six continents and over 20 countries, and his many accomplishments include summiting Mt. Everest from the treacherous North Side, in Tibet. 

Since 1995, Kevin has traveled the world with world-class, blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer.  Their expeditions in rock and ice climbing, running marathons, biking, and mountaineering have been featured on the front cover of TIME, Outside, Climbing, and Weekly Reader magazines. The pair has also been featured on the Oprah Show, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and many world news programs. Serving as base camp manager for the NFB 2001 Everest Expedition during which Weihenmayer became the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest, Kevin's team broke five world records! Their Mt. Everest documentary, “FartherThan the Eye Can See”, has won 20 international film festival awards, (www.seracfilms.com) along with several Emmy’s.

Since then, Kevin has continued to lead record breaking expeditions.  In 2006 and 2008, Kevin led expeditions on Mt. Kilimanjaro that included Darol Kubacz. Darol is a paraplegic athlete who made it to the highest point in history on Kilimanjaro completely unassisted using only his three wheeled, arm-powered mountain bike. Most recently on June 29, 2009, Kevin led an expedition of 25 people, 8 blind climbers and 17 sighted guides, to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  They broke two world records with the youngest blind climber, Max Ashton age 13, to reach the summit and the most blind people from one team.