I received this email recently from the father of one of our kids were able to take on his first outdoor climbing experience in The Gunks this past October. Climbing is such a powerful sport and experience and I love being able to pass it onto others.
On October 6, 2012 my son Collin was invited to attend
his very first outdoor climb at Peters’ Kill climbing area in Gardiner, New
York. The Athletes with Disabilities
Network organized the event. At only 11
years old Collin already had six years of experience climbing indoors with Peak
Potential ( http://peakclimb.org/ ), but I was very unsure of his ability to
traverse smooth, large boulders outdoors.
However, I should have known not to underestimate my son’s drive to
overcome adversity.
On December 21, 2001 my wife and I sat beside the NICU crib
of our newborn baby boy, a newborn with an extremely grim prognosis. Collin had suffered an
intraventriuclar/intracerebral hemorrhage sometime during 22-32 weeks
gestation. The idea of little league, karate, playing an instrument and rock
climbing never entered our minds as we contemplated Collin’s uncertain
future. Our only prayer was that he
would make it through the night. Our
prayer was answered that night and so many more after that. Collin’s hemorrhage caused a weakness in the
right side of his body called Hemi-paretic Cerebral Palsy. Over the past 11 years of his life Collin has
met many physicians of various disciplines, as well as occupational and
physical therapists that have helped him face and overcome the many challenges
he deals with everyday. It was along
that journey that we met Dr. Cheng and it was Dr. Cheng who introduced us to
the world of rock climbing.
On this mild day in October, we were immediately greeted
when we arrived at Peters’ Kill area by amazing volunteers who took time out of
their weekends to help children and adults climb steep rock faces. Their smiles and positive spirits immediately
provided Collin and me with reassurance that they would take good care of
him. The volunteers provided him with
appropriate climbing and safety gear.
They went over the fundamentals of external rock climbing and the
commands to ensure that clear communication would occur between climber and
belayer. We then broke up into groups
and Collin started climbing. We hadn’t
anticipated that his knees would take such a beating and in hindsight he said,
“we should have brought some kneepads,” but Collin never complained and it
never slowed him down. Collin relies
heavily on his strong left arm when climbing and has to use his legs to push
himself upwards. His entire right side
is very weak and his mobility is limited.
When he climbs he uses his right hand to hold the rock and to keep his
body square to the rock face, but it takes extreme concentration for him to
hold the rock and pull himself up. When
he initially started climbing at age 5 we thought he would never be able to
traverse a difficult rock course with only one hand and two feet doing all the
work, but the volunteers at Peak Potential showed him that it was
possible.
As he climbed throughout the day we were surrounded by
encouraging volunteers and other climbers with disabilities and even some with without
limbs. Everyone, both young and old,
looked out for each other throughout the day.
For Collin, watching adults who face similar challenges climb alongside
him provided him with tremendous inspiration. When Collin reached the top of a
huge rock face he not only heard me shout with amazement , but he also heard the
volunteers and other climbers clap and yell in celebration. I could not be prouder of him.
I can’t thank Athletes w/ Disabilities Network, and
Ronnie Dickson, Director of Adaptive Climbing enough for making this amazing
experience possible. I hope people reading
this will find inspiration for themselves or loved ones with disabilities that
they too can overcome huge obstacles and achieve amazing results with the support
of volunteers, family members, doctors and sponsors.
Sincerely,
Collin’s proud father,
Brian
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