Accessible Climbing
Friday, July 13, 2001
Mike Asbury is part of the
lunch crowd at work and a blast to hang out with. Like most of the
lunch crowd, he gets regailed with
exciting climbing stories and technical
details which would bore most people to tears. Instead, he keeps
saying to us "So when are you going to take me climbing?" The problem
is, while he's very athletic and in very good shape, Mike does not have
the use of his legs.
But this is the 21st century! Technology supposedly enables us to do
pretty much whatever we want these days despite physical setbacks. We
sat down and did some planning, finally coming up with a system. We
would need an overhanging wall with good holds not too far apart. This
situation is rather rare on normal rock where overhang generally means
extremely difficult. Fortunately, the Hopkins climbing wall featured
just such a wall; we would test the system there before embarking on a
multi-hour drive to a natural rock setting with more difficult
access.
Well, twas very interesting. Definitely should have brought a camera.
Getting Mike down the stairs into the gym was very interesting. I have
a brand new respect for what life is like for mobility limitted folks.
But we managed. Got a harness on him and added my chest harness since
(we determined) he is most definitely top-heavy. Fiddled with a couple
of different configurations.
I climbed up the farthest overhanging wall--a smooth incline about ten
degrees off vertical studded with good holds--and rigged two anchors
from the pipe at the top. I then rigged my rope through such that the
two strands hung about two feet apart in a yo-yo or slingshot system.
Amy climbed up on
the yo-yo rope and hung out while I got Mike tied in. Unfortunately,
this put about six feet of slack into the system so by the time Mike
started up the wall, she was about half-way down. Mike got about three
feet off the ground and couldn't get any more good holds. Plus, he was
spending most of his time fighting to stay upright, a situation where he
is naturally uncomfortable. This wasn't working well. With both
climbers dangling in the air at about equal altitude, I pushed Amy back
onto the wall and she climbed up, lowering Mike down. The system was
disassembled and we did some cogitating.
Finally, it was determined that Amy hadn't been enough of a
counterweight. We tied Mike on propperly and re-rigged the chest
harness to be a bit tighter. Amy belayed me to the top on the normal
gym rope whereupon I tied a normal belay escape on my rope. There was
still some slack in the system, but mostly from rope stretch this time.
Plus I weigh significantly more than Mike or Amy so it should be easier.
With a will and a few choice words, Mike started up the wall. At this
point, half the people in the gym were hanging out offering
encouragement and suggestions. I hung there and was slowly lowered down
as Mike went grindingly, hand over hand up. Really makes you appreciate
legs!
Eventually, I was hanging scant inches off the ground and Mike was still
about three feet shy of the top. I grabbed onto the rope and hung off
the floor with all my might. Mike grabbed the last couple holds and
managed to top out after a heroic bit of grunting. "Hmmm, mighty dusty
up here," he commented.
Everyone was lowered down and much celebration ensued. Mike vowed to
work on hand strength, I vowed to work on reducing anchor friction. Amy
and I climbed a few more things and we packed it in for the night. All
in all, a success though not without some on-the-fly improvisation. But
that's about standard around here...
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