Help Team Catalyst With 2023 Paraclimbing Season

At a Veteran’s adaptive sporting event in Colorado eight years ago, they had a mobile climbing wall set up outside where they were letting disabled veterans try out rock climbing. I inwardly laughed and scoffed at the idea that a guy who had no use of his left arm, was partially paralyzed, and eating through a feeding tube could ever take part in such a sport. To my thinking, climbing was a 4-limb sport. Who ever heard of a one-armed climber? Flash forward to two years ago. My daughter really started getting into rock climbing, joined her high school climbing club, and has become a fixture at our local climbing gym. At one of her practices, one of the managers asked me if I’d like to climb. I shook my head politely and told her that I didn’t think it was in the cards for a one-armed guy like me (my arm was fully amputated in 2016). She just smiled and said their motto was that they could get anybody up on the wall. I chuckled; I was happy just watching my daughter do the climbing, I insisted. A few months later, I hear that Catalyst Sports offers rock climbing to people with disabilities to try once a month at the same climbing gym. That first day, I wore a chest harness and a side climber went up with me to make sure I put my feet right and didn’t get stuck in any dangerous swings. My belayer did most of the work pulling me up, but I made it to the top. I kept climbing every month with Catalyst. In the beginning, it was mainly just something I could share with my teenager. But I got more into the sport. After a few months, they were sending me up without a side climber. 

At the end of 2021, Catalyst was putting together a climbing team to take part in national and international competitions. I was still wearing a chest harness and didn’t think I was anywhere close to being able to compete. Ever since watching sport climbing in the Tokyo Olympics, my daughter and I have been obsessed with climbing competitions on YouTube. Over the past two years, we’ve watched every men’s and women’s bouldering and lead comp, no matter what continent it was on. We each had our favorite climbers and made sure to follow them all on Instagram. I’ve also been avidly watching the paraclimbing competitions. But to my dismay, I’ve seen very few climbers with no use of one of their upper limbs (my category is AU1). In fact, one of the world competitions in Innsbruck was the first where they had enough AU1 climbers to compete. Usually, the one or two AU1 climbers at comps have to compete in a different category. I’ve never seen another AU1 American climber. 

Last summer, my chest harness came off. I was climbing under my own power on the same routes as everyone else (admittedly, just the easier routes). I joined the Catalyst Climbing Team and competed in a regional competition in Chattanooga this past December. Then, early this month, I competed at Nationals in Austin, TX. I won my category and made the US Team!! 

Now, I’ve got my sights set even higher to the Paraclimbing World Cup in Salt Lake City in May, representing Team USA. My category has been merged with another category and I’ll actually have some tough competition this time. I may not take home any medals but I’m competing more for the upper limb amputees half my age who are sitting on their couch thinking climbing is strictly a 4-limbed sport. 

Several of my Catalyst Climbing Teammates will also compete in SLC, so we are each doing a 30-day Challenge to raise funds to help us with the high costs of attending the event. Flights to Utah, food, lodging, and local transportation for the athletes and our coaching staff isn’t cheap, not to mention the costs we’ve put into our training and equipment leading up to the competition. I’ve pledged to climb (!!!)Three Thousand(!!!) feet in April to meet the challenge. That’s like, 1 foot a day! Nope…my smart-ass kid is telling me that’s incorrect…!!100 FEET A DAY!! Furthermore, if I fail to reach 3,000, I pledge to go the rest of my life wearing a cone on my head while my daughter constantly walks at my side yelling “SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!”

Please support me with a donation and cheer us on if you see us doing laps at the gym. Every little bit helps; $25? 1 cent for every foot I climb? 1 dollar per foot?? Or, you don’t even need to make a donation to my page. Check out the pages for my fellow teammates. They are all amazing and inspiring. I feel so fortunate to climb with them! Thanks so much for donating and following my journey.