In June 2021, Shayna Unger and Scott Lehmann made history by being the first deaf-led team to ascend Alaska’s Denali. They reached a height of 20,310 feet during the climb, and soon after, the couple—who hadn’t even unpacked their gear—started making plans for their next, more difficult adventure.
Unger, 33, and Lehmann, 31, will go on their most recent high-altitude journey in the upcoming weeks in an effort to climb Mount Everest, which is the tallest mountain in the world, to its 29,032-foot summit.
Lehmann remembers using American Sign Language (ASL) and an interpreter, “The day after we came off Denali, we looked at each other and said, “Let’s go for it.”
The couple’s wider goal, known as the “Seven Summits,” is to become the first deaf climbers to conquer the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. Their trek to Mount Everest is a component of that goal.
However, the couple is also determined for their mission to be about more than just scaling mountains for the almost 30 million Americans who suffer from hearing loss in both ears.
Before leaving to prepare for their current expedition, Unger, like her boyfriend, worked for years as a counselor and math teacher at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick. “We want to be role models and show our community, especially the kids, that climbing or even just being in the outdoors isn’t something that only hearing people do,” she says. “We want a ripple effect from this,”
Lehmann continues, “It’s not only about getting to the top. “It’s the whole experience, teaching our community what we’ve learned,”
Since Lehmann started teaching himself to climb 11 years ago, the couple, who met in high school, has been dedicated to climbing.
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He opted to educate himself by viewing YouTube videos and reading books after failing to locate any classes for deaf climbers. He claims that he “would frequently show up on the mountain” and “ask anyone who would answer my questions [by recording them on notepads].”
He soon started talking to Unger about his fascination and then started teaching her what he’d been trying to figure out on his own.
He explains, “I wanted to spare her the humiliation of having to ask haphazard strangers on the hillsides. She had direct access to my knowledge, so it was amazing how quickly she picked things up.
Sons are introduced by twins in a “quaternary marriage” to a “Utopia for twins” where the children’s parents got married.
The couple conquered Mount Kilimanjaro in 2015, which rises 19,341 feet above sea level. Soon after, they began climbing peaks in South America, Mexico, and the French Alps.
“Standing on top of a summit is such a feeling of accomplishment,” says Unger, who will have three more summits to scale after Everest before she and Lehmann become the first deaf alpinists to complete the Seven Summits. These peaks are in Antarctica, Indonesia, and Russia.
They both acknowledge that their impending journey to the highest mountain in the world, which they intend to summit in early May with the assistance of two sherpas, will be their most difficult excursion yet.
The couple is prepared to start and is clearly focused on the challenging ascent. When asked if Lehmann would propose to his long-term girlfriend once they reach the top of the tallest mountain on Earth, Unger promptly rejects the idea.
She laughs and says, “‘Don’t even think about it,’ I’ve told him,” confessing that she’s keen to achieve their challenging mountaineering objectives before getting married. “No ring, no Seven Summits.”