Peak experience
Dani Fisher conquers mountains and ADD limitations

Danielle Fisher’s voice sounds small, shy and hesitant over the phone. Like her 5-ft. seven-in., 130-lb. frame, it’s not at all imposing. But while she may be short and unassuming in stature, 19-year-old Dani has a big, bold achievement to her credit, and someday soon, she may be a world record-holder.

Already a veteran mountain-climber, Dani plans to scale Vinson Massif, in Antarctica, next January, and then the granddaddy of all mountain peaks, the 29,035-ft. Mount Everest in Nepal, next March. If she succeeds, she’ll become the youngest person in history to ascend to the top of the Seven Summits – the tallest mountains on each of the world’s seven continents.

But there’s another mountain Dani’s conquered, too, and in its own way it’s been no less monumental and daunting. Though she has Attention Deficit Disorder, Dani has effectively coped with the vexations and confusions of ADD and developed the focus and mental toughness necessary to accomplish her impressive feats.

Prior to her ADD diagnosis, in sixth grade, Dani was struggling in school. “I wasn’t doing well,” she recalls. “I was smart. I did fine on all my tests, but I had a hard time doing my schoolwork and in class I got distracted easily and couldn’t pay attention.”

The diagnosis wasn’t easy to accept for someone as reticent and withdrawn as Dani. She didn’t speak up in class and was habitually late with her homework.

High-altitude climbing tests you severely, and you’ve got to do your homework to pass those tests, because they can involve life and death, not A’s, B’s and C’s. On the mountains, Dani’s been able to build the single-minded concentration skills to meet those challenges and prepare herself better for living with ADD elsewhere. “I’m able to focus on the mountain more than I’ve been able to do anywhere else. One of the main reasons for that is that you’re in a routine, and down here you have things that interfere with routines all the time.”

Mike Woodmansee, her climbing partner and mentor, puts it in perspective.

“The mountain is such a dangerous place that when you’re surrounded by people who are focused on getting to the top of it, things are all business,” he explains. “You have to pay close attention to a very basic set of things. There’s a very quick regimentation just around the equipment, setting up camp and melting water at a place like Denali (in Alaska, a peak which Danielle already has scaled), and then you have the objective: you’re conscious of the pace you’re maintaining relative to your climbing partner, so you just have to do things in an ordered way.”

Dani finds the responsibility an excellent treatment in itself for the attention deficits she confronts in the real world. “It’s hard for me to follow directions and get things done, like chores. Even if I want to do them, it’s tough to actually follow through.” When climbing, Dani approaches her tasks in a more regimented way than others might do, says Woodmansee.

“I can be very intuitive on the mountain but Dani has to be a little more calculated.”

Like many with ADD, Dani’s treatment is multi-disciplinary, including Concerta and counseling therapy. It presents a balance similar to the one Dani herself strikes in her attitude towards ADD. “I realize that medication helps me. It certainly makes it easier to focus, but I also have to make the personal effort to make my dreams come true.”

Right now, the big dream is adding Vinson and Everest to Denali and the other four summits Dani has completed – Aconcagua, in Argentina (22,840 feet), Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania (19,339), Mount Elbrus, in Russia (18,481 feet), and Carstensz Pyramid, in Indonesia. Each ascent brings Dani closer to making something else come true – living successfully with ADD.

“Since I first started climbing, the person I am on the mountain has increasingly become the person I am in life,” she proclaims. “The more I spend time on the mountain, the more that shapes my life and helps me focus down here.”