Dee Johnson
Dee Johnson and Associates,
34610 South County Highway J
Bayfield, WI 54814
715-779-3012
deejohnson@centurytel.net

Bayfield, WI woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) first to summit Everest and climb all "Seven Summits"

Home-town hero Lori Schneider will be welcomed back to Bayfield on Tuesday, June 9 with a parade and community gathering. On May 23, Schneider became the first person with multiple sclerosis (MS) to summit Mt. Everest and complete all of the Seven Summits.

On Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., Schneider will be escorted down Bayfield's "main street" in a grassroots parade that will include the town's fire truck, the "Hill's Angels" motor scooter group, musicians, strings of Tibetan prayer flags, and more. The parade will conclude at the Bayfield Pavilion, where a potluck party will feature a proclamation by Bayfield mayor Larry MacDonald, music, summit photos, food and beverages. MacDonald will also share commendations from Wisconsin Governor Doyle.

"Bayfield is fortunate to have Lori Schneider as part of our unique community. She provides inspiration and energy to everyone who hears about her achievements. Her ability to conquer the Seven Summits (plus Mt Ashwabay, the Eighth Summit) and deal with her MS gives all the world a chance to learn how we can persevere and challenge ourselves. On behalf of the greater Bayfield community, I am proud to welcome Lori back to Bayfield after her conquest of Mt Everest," says MacDonald.

The journey to Everest
Schneider's journey to Everest and her Seven Summits quest started as a joyful adventure with her father, when together they fulfilled his dream of climbing Kilimanjaro on his birthday in 1993. Her passion for climbing grew and over the next 6 years she honed her skills on mountains all over the world. One day in 1999, the left side of her body went numb, and after multiple spinal taps and tests for cancer, she was diagnosed with MS. MS is a condition that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and can produce neurological symptoms and physical and cognitive disabilities.

Her doctors told her she would in a wheelchair soon because the disease was progressing rapidly. The diagnosis was devastating and filled her with fear for her future. With treatment, she regained her strength and came to terms with her fear by returning to the mountain, and setting her sights on climbing the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent.

Within a year of her diagnosis, she and her father were on their way to Aconcogua in Argentina, the highest peak in South America, the second of her Seven Summits. Fueled by the need to climb while she was strong, and to regain the power MS had taken from her life, Schneider struggled to the summit at 22,841 feet on the millennium New Year's Eve, 2000. Her father, stricken with altitude sickness, was not able to share this summit.

After climbing Mt. Elbrus in Russia in 2002, Denali/Mt. McKinley in 2008, and Mt Kosciuszko in Australia and Vinson Massif in Antarctica in 2008, Schneider decided to tackle Everest, the "Big Daddy" of them all, in the spring of 2009.

Schneider's training for the Everest climb was grueling, low budget and local. She climbed the 1,283-foot Mt. Ashwabay, a Bayfield area ski slope, multiple times to achieve her vertical climb goal. With a 50-pound pack on her back, she sidestepped on the treadmill at the Bayfield Recreation Center, and practiced climbing and balancing on ladders in her back yard to prepare for crevasse crossings on Everest.

MS Community is inspired
Schneider was motivated by her desire to inspire and help people with MS and other life challenges. "I want to help people move beyond their limitations and the labels that prevent them from living their dreams," she says. Featured in the first World MS Day, Schneider was discovered and cheered on by people with MS all over the world as she carried a special MS banner to the top of Mt. Everest. She received hundreds of messages from around the world thanking her for the inspiration and hope.

On her last steps to the top of Mt. Everest, Schneider says she was thinking about the challenges people with MS face. "Every step up the mountain was difficult and required focus and determination," she says. "My difficulty was short-lived, but many people with MS work that hard to walk across a room every day."

Schneider feels that climbing mountains helped her regain her confidence and conquer her fear after her MS diagnosis. Her next venture will be organizing climbing expeditions to Kilimanjaro to help other people with MS do the same. She will also be giving speeches, weaving together the stories of her mountain climbs with the story of her life.

For more information, interviews, and photos, contact deejohnson@centurytel.net, 715-779-3012.