Watching him in a hospital bed, his right foot amputated following a traffic accident, friends worried what would become of Tom Whittaker, a man who lived for the outdoors.
But all Whittaker wanted to talk about was his next adventure."I remember how devastating it was for everyone," Ike Gayfield said of that day in 1979. "I remember being amazed visiting him in the hospital, even on morphine and drugs, him still having hopes and aspirations. Even not knowing what the next years and months would bring, he was still wanting to get outdoors."
Less than a year later, Whittaker was outdoors again, first kayaking and later renewing his love of mountain climbing.
So while the rest of the world marveled, Gayfield wasn't surprised when Whittaker, 49, became the first amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 27.
It was the third try for Whittaker, who teaches in Prescott College's adventure education program, which teaches students outdoor activities such as mountain climbing.
Whittaker said "a certain amount of compulsive behavior" helped him finally reach the summit. But he also was driven by a desire to raise perceptions of what disabled people can do.
"You don't have to do that much as a disabled person to be exceptional, because people don't expect much," Whittaker said.
Gayfield has known Whittaker since 1976. Back then, Gayfield ran a mountaineering shop in Pocatello, Idaho; Whittaker was an intern with Idaho State University's outdoor program.
"He was always looking for something new and different and difficult," Gayfield said.
That didn't stop on Thanksgiving Day in 1979, when Whittaker was hit by a drunken driver in the Black Hills of Idaho. Both legs were fractured, and doctors had to remove his right kneecap and foot.
But it wasn't long before Whittaker was once again doing what he loved.
One of his first activities after the accident was kayaking because it didn't require use of his right foot, Gayfield said.
"They still didn't have the prosthesis worked out, and there was Whittaker out on the Salmon River with his leg in a coffee can," Gayfield said.
While a personal victory, the trip taught Whittaker that not everyone was convinced he was still a competent outdoorsman. Gayfield said some of Whittaker's old climbing and kayaking buddies no longer wanted him on their trips because they didn't think he could handle it.
Those experiences helped Whittaker come up with the idea of Cooperative Wilderness Han-di-capped Outdoor Group, or C.W. HOG. The Idaho-based group organizes trips and gives disabled mountaineers a chance to challenge themselves.
The group sponsored a 40-mile climb from Lukla, Nepal, to the Everest base camp that coincided with Whittaker's trip to the top of Everest. About 14 people, including relatives of some C.W. HOG members, made the climb.
Whittaker said he never really considered climbing Mount Everest until someone organizing a trip in 1989 invited him along. A friend had recommended him for the team.
He agreed to go and reached the 24,000-foot mark before turning back.
"To climb Mount Everest as a disabled person is a very audacious idea. I realize now I didn't have a chance," Whittaker said. "I learned on that trip that dreams are sequential. They are like building blocks."
His second trip in 1995 turned out to be more frustrating. Fixed lines were not installed near the top of the peak, and Whittaker decided it was too dangerous. So he turned back, just 1,500 feet from the top.
"I was very angry. If felt, rightly or wrongly, that the people I was with had written me off and not taken me seriously," he said.
But on that trip, a fellow climber brought back a stone from the sum-mit. He told Whittaker to take the stone back where he got it from and "go finish the job." Whittaker wore the stone around his neck during this year's trek and dropped it at the top of the ice-shrouded peak.
Whittaker climbed Everest using a specially designed prosthesis called the Flex Foot. The lightweight, L-shaped metal piece has its own crampons, the spikes that mountaineers use to grip icy moun-tain surfaces.
But even this year's trip was not without travails. Whittaker twice made his way up the peak only to turn back because of illness and fatigue.
His final attempt came just days before a major tropical storm hit the mountain and the climbing season ended.
Angela Hawse, a member of the team that climbed Everest with Whittaker, said she had little doubt that he would make it to the top as long as the weather and his health held out.
"I knew if he wanted to get up there, he could do it," she said.