When mountain climber Yury Lishayev broke his back 18 years ago, doctors said he wouldn’t walk again.
Since then, however, Lishayev has kayaked 380 kilometers along the coast of Crimea and continues to climb despite having no feeling in his legs.
The 56-year-old relies on his arms, with crutches strapped behind his back. “No one puts us down but ourselves. Life is bright and splendid when you are not afraid to live,” said the climber.
Wearing a bushy, salt-and-pepper beard, Lishaev has lively blue eyes, which project a young boy in an older man’s body.
Lishayev was 37 when he seriously injured his back. Born in Simferopol, the capital of the Crimean peninsula, he started rock climbing at the age of 13.
Yury Lishayev broke his back in a paragliding crash nearly 20 years ago. Doctors gave him no chance of recovery. But now he climbs mountains and kayaks despite no feeling in his legs.
Although solo climbs were prohibited in the Soviet Union, he often broke rules and pioneered many alpinist routes in the Crimea on his own.
“I love the mountains and they let me get close to them. They are like a woman – something magical,” he said.
Lishayev likes to point out little details about his life experiences, which others would call trite, but to him they mean the world.
“Once I came up to some fishermen and asked for just one fish but they gave me about a dozen. There are many more generous people than we think,” he mused.
His contented life, however, has been anything but easy.
Yury Lishayev masters Crimean mountains, even though he needs crutches to get around ever since an accident nearly two decades ago in which his back was broken. (Courtesy)
Although he often conquered mountains without any safety equipment, his injury didn’t come from climbing. A canopy of his paraglider collapsed, sending him crashing on the rocks. His back broke in three places, and Lishayev spent two years trapped in bed, unable to get up.
Doctors saw no chance of recovery, but Lishayev refused to give up. “That was too harsh of a verdict,” he said.
I love the mountains and they let me get close to them. They are like a woman – something magical.
– Yury Lishayev, mountain climber
Little by little he tried to get up from his bed. Within two years, he was able to walk again on crutches. He had no feeling in the limbs below the knee but “it was like a second birth,” he recalled.
Up to this day, three times a month, the climber goes to the mountains.
He loves nature, especially watching the sunset, and that’s what he believes makes him pagan. “Nature is a part of me. My main religion is being a human,” he said.
Apart from rock climbing, the sportsman also swims in the sea year-round. “I do not lead a life of quiet desperation but stay active and try to travel as much as possible,” he said.
In order to demonstrate that disability is not an obstacle, Lishayev completed a solo trip in a plastic kayak from Kerch to Sevastopol – two towns in the Crimea – in May.
“I know what it feels like to be unable to get up from bed, so I wanted to somehow cheer others up,” he said. To buy a special kayak, Lishaev needed more than 800 euros, which he managed to collect on different Internet forums.
Yury Lishayev has covered nearly 400 kilometers in a kayak on his own in May (Courtesy)
He left Kerch on the May 9 Victory Day and 26 days later arrived in Sevastopol, having covered some 400 kilometers by sea.
I know what it feels like to be unable to get up from bed, so I wanted to somehow cheer others up.
– Yury Lishayev
Lishayev has a supportive family. His daughter and son-in-law are also mountain climbers, although the sport doesn’t interest his wife.
When he’s not climbing or swimming, Lishayev works in a jewelry workshop, which has been has his main source of income for 30 years.
His eyes are getting worse though, he said, but his life experiences show that it’s not the worst that can happen.
“Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright,” he said reassuringly. “In times of trouble, think of an old cripple.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Horban can be reached at [email protected]
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