MANILA, Philippines -- He is the first and only blind person to conquer the world?s highest mountain and the so-called Seven Summits, the tallest peaks in each of the seven continents.

But don?t think the craggy heights of Montalban were any less of a challenge to American adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, the former schoolteacher and author who was a recent visitor here to deliver his inspirational message to Procter & Gamble employees and a group of blind children and their parents.

Last week, the 39-year-old Weihenmayer decided to check out the local terrain and, with a group of climbers joining him on a two-day trek, scaled a total of 12 rock faces and boulders around Wawa Dam in Montalban (now Rodriguez), Rizal.

Dawn was still breaking last Thursday when Weihenmayer, along with fellow American climber Charley Mace, Procter & Gamble Philippines President James Lafferty, and several Filipino mountaineers and journalists, headed for the hills of Montalban, about an hour's drive to the east of the capital.

Reaching the edge of a hillside village, Weihenmayer and his party had breakfast at a roadside eatery before setting out on the 10-minute hike to the dam.

Weihenmayer tapped his way to the site with two walking poles and with only the sound of a gushing waterfall for orientation. He needed an assist only when the trail narrowed, drawing the team near the edge of a ravine and down a tight passage deemed risky even for goats.

By 7 a.m., Weihenmayer was getting ready at the base of a rock face known to local mountaineering clubs as ''Redemption.'' A rock face gets to be named by the first climber to have conquered it, according to Elmer Cabotage, a member of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines.

Citing a grading system used by rock climbers, Cabotage said Redemption could be a ''5.10'' in terms of degree of difficulty, daunting even for the fittest veteran. Not only is it nearly vertical but also smooth for much of its height, offering very few holds, that is, crevices, ledges, hollows, or protrusions that a climber can grab or step on, according to him.

Gax Ilanan, a Filipino climber with a Mohawk haircut who was once ranked the country's No. 1 rock climber, made the dangerous preliminary ascent of up to 50 feet to install a ''safety line'' for the other climbers.

As he groped for his end of the line and roped up, Weihenmayer was heard asking: ''Is this Manila hemp?''

He recalled that legendary British mountaineer George Mallory had used Manila hemp in his expeditions to reach the Everest summit in the 1920s.

To which a wise-cracking Filipino climber said: ''But he died, right?''

Mallory disappeared on his third trek to the peak of Everest in 1924. His remains were not found until 1999.

Weihenmayer has been justly hailed for his courage and physical stamina, but during a climb, and especially on this day, he had to trust totally his buddies and cling to their every word the moment he left the safety of level ground.

A man with his handicap could spend minutes at a time just running his fingertips over a rock surface and ''feeling'' for his next grip or his next foothold -- and for this he often needs to have directions yelled at him from below.

''There's a ledge near your right knee. To the left. Lower, lower,'' were some of the instructions from Mace that morning.

''There's one right in front of you, just above your head,'' said another Filipino climber.

''His fingers might be a bit too big for that,'' Mace pointed out.

In between grips, Weihenmayer?s spread-eagled body would either shake or grow taut from the strain.

At 15 feet and about 20 minutes into the climb, however, his fingers just couldn't hold on to a shallow crack and he slipped. His mouth made a ''ppfff'' sound as he dropped about three feet before the safety line broke his fall.

Was it first-timer's folly? Was it his large fingers? Redemption may probably have to wait.

But Weihenmayer -- whose rock-climbing conquests include much tougher terrain on the Canadian Rockies, Mt. Kenya, and the ''overhanging'' El Capitan rock wall in Yosemite National Park, California -- was certainly not done for the day.

Just a few paces away from Redemption was another facet of the same cliff, called ''Heaven,'' which Cabotage judged to be a considerably easier ''5.9'' route. Heaven is almost as vertical as Redemption, but is more jagged, thus providing more holds.

While groping for his bag and getting ready to move to Heaven, Weihenmayer inadvertently picked up something from the ground that made him smile.

''This is cool!'' he said.

It was a river snail about the size of an egg. Weihenmayer, left completely blind at age 13 by a congenital disease called retinoschisis, carefully put his special find inside the bag.

The snail may well be Weihenmayer?s first souvenir from the Philippines since he and his parents last visited as tourists in 1978, when he was 10 years old and was still sighted. He recalled having seen the American military cemetery in Fort Bonifacio and the ''beautiful afternoons when rain would come down and cool you off.''

''I've always wanted to go back here and maybe do some climbing. So when Jim (the P&G President) invited me -- and it's a long way from the United States -- he gave me the perfect excuse,'' he said.

During the lull after Redemption, I asked Mace what he thought of his friend's ''unsuccessful'' attempt.

''There were not very many holds in this route. But you know, success is about coming back home from the Himalayas, coming back to your family and to the local bar. Success is about coming back with your 10 fingers and 10 toes still intact. The summit is really optional,'' he said.

Earlier at breakfast, Weihenmayer said that there were people who climbed Mt. Everest but who would not be able to do the kind of climbing that the group was about to do that day.

"Limestone climbing is very difficult. I may be able to hike my way to the top of Mt. Everest but this is really climbing,'' he said.

Everest is mostly about endurance, ''you're mostly on your feet,'' according to him.

''You may be climbing vertical, but it's very short. But what we're doing today is all about upper body [strength]. It's all in what they call the core, your abs, requiring very specific techniques,'' he said.

After the initial setback at Redemption, Weihenmayer appeared to have finally found his groove. He only needed about 15 minutes to scale Heaven at 50 ft.

Minutes later, he completed a third climb, this time up a massive boulder, also 50 feet with a 45-degree angle, in less than 10 minutes.

Interviewed after the first three climbs, Weihenmayer said with a smile that Redemption may have proven difficult because, ''I've been sitting around for the last week, speaking and hanging out, so you really have to get warmed up for these things.''

''But to me that's not the reason I climb. [Is it because] I have to get to the top? No. I climb because I love it and it is fun to problem-solve your way. Whether you get to the top or not, it's a sport and it's about having fun with your friends, you're in a beautiful place, and you're doing your best,'' he said.

Weihenmayer and the team spent the night at a resort and logged in their 12th climb before packing up the next day.

According to accounts reaching the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Weihenmayer was able to complete all but two climbs.

In the end, even Montalban's challenging heights had to bow to the man who, by seeing through the darkness and shattering old notions of the impossible, used the mountain as metaphor so that more can discover the power of blind faith.