An inspiring event

Every once in a while you hear a truly amazing story. See the picture above? It's from the Open Panel discussion at the FivePoint Film Festival held in Carbondale, Colorado that I was lucky enough to visit. It's an amazing collection of people.
Starting from the right:
Lynn Hill - first ascent of the Nose in Yosemite and general all-round super climber. Of course, I arranged to get a book with her autograph on it :)
Irene Beardsley - first American female ascent of Annapurna and still after over 50 years
Kelly Perkins - heart transplant recipient who is now climbing. Amazing
Sari Anderson - Team Nike Adventure Racer
and the woman on the left, Amanda Boxtel, who suffered paralysis from a skiing accident 17 years ago and is learning to walk again. Through the absolute wonder of stem-cell research, she is now regaining control of her legs again. What a phenomenal and game-changing medical breakthrough. She has to fly to India currently as it's not officially run in the States yet but after seeing the video footage of her walking again, it's truly amazing. She still has a long road ahead of her to full normality but considering that she still rides a mono-ski and openly uses her fantastic personality to promote and support other charities, you could only be inspired.

As it happened, it was an interesting discussion and a very interesting insight into the minds of some truly exceptional people. I have no idea who was more inspiring but I know I left with a lot of insightful ideas.