PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: Mountaineer credits MS for passion to hit peaks:
The 33-year-old is an outdoor- sports fanatic and takes every opportunity to climb, ski and bike. He teaches art and climbing to teens at Colorado Timberline Academy, a boarding school in the north Animas Valley, so he actually gets paid to do the things he loves.

But what has made his life full, he says, was the diagnosis at age 24 of MS.

'For me, it's been a gift,' he says. 'I just have this motivation. I can't sit back and let a good day go by. "I went through denial when I got the diagnosis. I didn't want to believe it," he says....."