FEATURED PROGRAM:
WAYPOINT ADVENTURE
Waypoint’s Mission is to help youth and adults with disabilities discover their purpose, talents, and strengths through the transforming power of adventure There vision is that all people, regardless of ability, will have opportunities for adventure and through them realize their personal value, strengths and abilities. These experiences will help people become stronger individuals and community members. xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mark Wellman performed the paraplegic ascent of Yosemite Valley’s 2,000 foot Half Dome over 20 Years ago over the course of an extended 13 day battle with the monolithic granite face. In the time since, the sport has continued to adapt and evolve, but with such a high bar set early on, being at the leading edge of the sport has taken an individual coming along with an enormous amount of vision. Enter Sean O’Neil. Sean, a T-12 paraplegic currently living in Maine, has gained notoriety in the past few years for completing large big wall objectives all across America. Teaming up with his brother Timmy O’Neil, the dynamic duo have ticked off three routes on the iconic El Cap of Yosemite Valley, as well as an ascent of Peak 6000, a 1000 foot face in the isolated Ruth Gorge of Alaska. None of these ascents have satisfied Sean. A visionary, Sean dreamed of the climbing on the sharp end. In climbing’s obscure lexicon the sharp end refers to the process of lead climbing. The term comes from leading’s enhanced danger, and increased necessity of focus and skill. While leading, the climber advances their precarious position on the rock upward, all the while, they routinely stopping to place man-made device into the pockets, cracks, and fractures in the rock face. By wedging these pieces into place as they ascend, the climber creates an anchor point. Before continuing upward, the climber clips their rope
ATHLETE
SPOTLIGHT::
MARK WELLMAN,
TIMMY O'NEIL
& SEAN O'NEIL
through a carabiner attached to these devices and trusts that in the event of a fall, the rope running through the most recently placed device will arrest their fall. In the past, paraplegic climbers have relied upon able-bodied partners leading a portion of the rock face first. The paraplegic climber would follow up the rope, hung by the leader, via an ascension device that slides up the rope, but clamps it tightly when a downward force is applied. In this way, the paraplegic climber performs upwards of several thousand pull-ups as they ascend the route behind the leader. This past May, Sean changed this paradigm. Using a specifically designed system of two 3-to-1 pulleys, each attached to one of the wedging devices used to protect the leader as they climb, Sean radically shifted what was thought possible. On May 31, 2013 Sean tied into the sharp end, and climbed to the top of an aesthetic crack system in Yosemite Valley. In doing so, Sean had performed the first paraplegic lead climb. Today, Sean and Timmy O’Neil, or “The Brothers Wild,” as the climbing community fondly calls them, continue their adventures. Each brother reaching for bigger, and more difficult objectives in this vertical world. .
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