A wonder shake climber, by age eight he had scaled the substance of the 11,627-foot Mount Sanctuary in the Canadian Rockies, and by 17 he was recognized to be extraordinary compared to other climbers in the Unified States . In January 1982, in the wake of having rose a troublesome specialized ice course in Huntington Gorge on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, Herr and a kindred climber Jeff Batzer were gotten in a snow squall and ended up plainly bewildered, eventually diving into the Incomparable Bay where they passed three evenings in −29 °C degree temperatures. When they were safeguarded, the climbers had endured serious frostbite. Both of Herr's legs must be cut away beneath the knees ; his friend lost his lower left leg, the toes on his correct foot, and the fingers on his correct hand.
While a postdoctoral individual at MIT in biomedical gadgets, he started dealing with cutting edge leg prostheses and orthoses, gadgets that imitate the usefulness of the human leg. Utilizing particular prostheses that he composed, he made prosthetic feet with high toe firmness that made it conceivable to remain on little shake edges the width of a coin, and titanium-spiked feet that helped him in climbing steep ice dividers. He utilized these prostheses to modify his stature to maintain a strategic distance from unbalanced body positions and to get the hand and solid footings beforehand distant. His tallness could run from five to eight feet.
Because of utilizing the prostheses, Herr moved at a further developed level than he had before the mishap, making him the principal individual with a noteworthy removal to perform in a game keeping pace with tip top level, capable people.