Justin Grant is 19 and currently a sophomore at the University of North Texas. In 1998 he was diagnosed with Stargardtz, a rare form of macular degeneration. Since he started loosing his vision he has always held true to the belief that a persons’ limitations are no excuse for striving to reach ones dreams. Despite his visual impairment, he is an aspiring mountaineer and musician.

In 2006 Justin was accepted into an extraordinary group that traveled to the High Andes Mountains of Southern Peru where he would take part in an extensive expedition with 18 blind, visually impaired and sighted students. The leader of this extraordinary team was none other than Erik Weihenmayer, the first and only blind man to summit Mt. Everest. Their journey took them to an altitude of 15,000 ft, and ended at one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu. On this trek Justin learned that even in the face of what appeared to be death-defying odds, blindness never stopped him, or any other member of his team. At the conclusion of the trip, 10 members of the team had begun planning a second Endeavour, this time to Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain on the African continent. In the summer of 2007, eight of the ten students, including all three of the blind climbers and Justin, the only visually impaired climber, reached the lofty summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Although Justin has been to Machu Picchu and the roof of Africa, he and several team mates still hunger to reach the summit of many other mountains; whether they are the top of a mountain or the summit of proving that blindess is no limitation on anyone.