The Summit Within Reach
Karolina during the Everest Base Camp trek in May 2023
About the project
Dr Karolina Pakėnaitė, also known as Caroline, is a deafblind mountaineer working towards becoming the first DeafBlind person to summit Mount Everest.
The project is grounded in her lived experience of Usher syndrome, a genetic condition affecting both hearing and vision. Born severely deaf, Caroline began losing her sight at the age of 19. While she retains some usable vision and hearing, deafblindness shapes how she navigates, communicates and experiences the world.
Through high-altitude mountaineering, the project explores how touch can enable participation in challenging climbing environments — not only as a means of adaptation and navigation, but also as a way of experiencing the environment, communicating, building connection and sharing the mountain with others.
Everest is the current main objective, but the wider goal is to challenge assumptions about deafblindness and broaden understanding of accessibility, participation and opportunity in the outdoors.
Ultimately… What can we experience in the outdoors when we move beyond sight and sound?
What’s next?
Over the past few years, Karolina has completed the key challenges required for an Everest summit attempt. This has included endurance events such as ultramarathons, alongside multiple expeditions designed to progressively build high-altitude experience.
The Everest summit in 2027 is now the next objective.
Click here to view the progress of the project or make a donation to support the journey.
Get Involved
As sight continues to change over time, timing is an important factor in the journey. However, this is not a path taken alone.
Would you like to join Caroline in training challenges, support the expedition through sponsorship or collaborate on research and innovation related to accessibility and the outdoors?
If any of these resonate, we’d love to hear from you!