[twisted_ophelia]

Chris Waddell, who is an awesome dude, just got to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro! He climbed the mountain using an off-road handcycle and he is the first para to ever reach the summit on his own power without people pulling him up. He cranked his way up on his bike!

http://usparalympics...s/article/16586

[ClaraTaylor]

LIKE!!

[Yasko]

Nice!

P.S. I don't want to minimize his achievement, but they have said "unassisted" which is hard to believe, just look at the picture of a guy behind assisting him!

[greybeard]

Yasko, on Oct 1 2009, 02:27 PM, said:

Nice!

P.S. I don't want to minimize his achievement, but they have said "unassisted" which is hard to believe, just look at the picture of a guy behind assisting him!

I thought that at first, but don't you think the guys posture is all wrong for pushing? Maybe he's just stopping it rolling backwards.

[twisted_ophelia]

Yasko, on Oct 1 2009, 09:27 AM, said:

Nice!

P.S. I don't want to minimize his achievement, but they have said "unassisted" which is hard to believe, just look at the picture of a guy behind assisting him!

I think by "unassisted" they meant that he didn't use ropes to have any one pull him up. I've seen some other pics of people in chairs hiking or whatnot having themselves pulled up, usually in their chairs, by AB people with ropes. That, imo, is not really climbing the mountain yourself if you've got someone pulling you up over the hard bits. The guy behind him is more there in case he rolls backwards. I saw video of it. He would sort of put his hands out to catch Chris if he started to slip back, not actually push him. I think the video is still on CBS, it was pretty awesome. It takes some serious arm power to bike up Mt. Kili!

Edited because I just read G's post above me, and, yep, that's exactly what that guy is doing. I will try find the video for you guys.

This post has been edited by twisted_ophelia: 01 October 2009 - 02:34 PM

[Yasko]

twisted_ophelia, on Oct 1 2009, 07:33 AM, said:

Yasko, on Oct 1 2009, 09:27 AM, said:

Nice!

P.S. I don't want to minimize his achievement, but they have said "unassisted" which is hard to believe, just look at the picture of a guy behind assisting him!

I think by "unassisted" they meant that he didn't use ropes to have any one pull him up. I've seen some other pics of people in chairs hiking or whatnot having themselves pulled up, usually in their chairs, by AB people with ropes. That, imo, is not really climbing the mountain yourself if you've got someone pulling you up over the hard bits. The guy behind him is more there in case he rolls backwards. I saw video of it. He would sort of put his hands out to catch Chris if he started to slip back, not actually push him. I think the video is still on CBS, it was pretty awesome. It takes some serious arm power to bike up Mt. Kili!

Edited because I just read G's post above me, and, yep, that's exactly what that guy is doing. I will try find the video for you guys.

Yep, I agree, that's what guy behind was doing!
"Climbing" Mt. Kili is a very impressive thing to do indeed and I admire him for that.

[wheeels]

Ah he beat me to it.

That is just amazing, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is something that I have dreamed about doing for a long time.

The guy behind him I think is also for safety, if his ride was to break free of the rocks he is climbing it would be game over for him.

[knightrider]

Great effort! not many AB's can do that. I'd love to give that a go myself. His arms must of been on fire, awesome achievement!!

[twisted_ophelia]

The good thing is that he's made the news all over the world and really showed that having an SCI doesn't mean life is over and done with. He's extraordinary! Definitely, many able-bodied people would not be able to do what he did. The training he did before his climb was super intense, I read. Lots and lots and lots of building up his upper body strength!

This post has been edited by twisted_ophelia: 06 October 2009 - 04:48 AM

[azx43]

Chris Waddell is awesome, and anyone who has the mental and physical strength to summit Mt. Kili rocks and is fully deserving of respect!

I'd just like to point out that he's not the first paraplegic to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro. Darol Kubaczs summited during summer 2008, on his 2nd attempt. He used a 4- wheel handcycle very similiar to Chris's. His wenbsite is uhuruascent.com

I know Darol as he used to be a neighbor and trained in my area to prepare for the high altitude challenges of his climb. We're at over 7,000 feet, and he used to ride many of mtn. and trails to train. Kudos to both Chris and Darol!! I hope they are an inspiration to many!