AN AMBITIOUS COUPLE HEAD TO EVEREST DEAF AND DEFYING HEIGHTS

DESPITE NOT BEING ABLE TO HEAR, SCOTT LEHMANN AND SHAYNA UNGER ARE CLIMBING THE WORLD'S HIGHEST PEAKS AND INSPIRING OTHERS

- JOHNNY DODD

After more than a week of navigating glaciers, icefalls and crevasses while hauling sleds loaded with 100 lbs. of food and gear, Shayna Unger and Scott Lehmann inched their way in thin Alaskan air toward the peak of Denali looming in the distance. The couple—both born deaf—had spent countless hours memorizing their route for the June 2021 trek but had also packed paper and pens in case they needed to communicate with others on the mountain, where more than 120 climbers have died trying to reach the top.

By 7 p.m. they were standing on the snow- covered 20,310-ft.-high apex, ecstatic to be the first deaf climbers to reach the summit. “We were in awe that we’d made it to the top of North America’s tallest peak,” Unger says using American Sign Language (ASL) and an interpreter. Adds Lehmann: “It was a great feeling.”