{"id":18192,"date":"2017-07-19T09:03:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T16:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=18192"},"modified":"2020-04-27T11:01:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T18:01:58","slug":"maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing","title":{"rendered":"Adaptive Climber Guns for Her First 5.12"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"cb-itemprop\" itemprop=\"reviewBody\"><p><strong>Maureen Beck\u00a0wants to show that adaptive athletes can climb as well as\u2014or better than\u2014anyone else.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maureen Beck smears her toes on the smooth granite, greasy in the summer heat. She leans hard and twists, kicking\u00a0her left foot along the gray, slightly overhanging wall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou got it, Mo!\u201d her partner, Eamon Swihart, hollers from below.<\/p>\n<p>Her right fingers find purchase in a slick seam, and she squeezes a sloping rail with the taped-up bit of her arm that remains below her left elbow\u2014she calls it &#8220;my stump.&#8221; Arms spanned completely, she is a vice. She maneuvers her feet higher, sticking to microscopic quartz crystals by magic alone. For a moment, it seems she rewrites the laws of friction and of physics.<\/p>\n<p>Searching for her next movement, a brief hesitation disrupts her flow\u00a0and the slippery granite spits her off. She lets out a frustrated sigh. She&#8217;s fought with everything she has for every inch of progress, and she knows she can\u2014she <em>will<\/em>\u2014make her way higher still.<\/p>\n<p>Mo was born without her left hand and most of her left forearm. She\u2019s won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifsc-climbing.org\/index.php\/world-competition\/paraclimbing\">IFSC World Paraclimbing Championships<\/a> twice\u2014in 2016 and 2014\u2014 and more than a half-dozen national-level climbing competitions. She works a day job as a sales\u00a0coordinator at <a href=\"https:\/\/eldowalls.com\/\">Eldorado Climbing Walls<\/a>, and in her off-time serves as an ambassador for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paradoxsports.org\/\">Paradox Sports<\/a>, a nonprofit that uses climbing to change what\u2019s perceived as possible for individuals with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNowThisHer%2Fvideos%2F1073147679482773%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s projecting\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mountainproject.com\/v\/days-of-future-passed-aka-our-future-has-passed\/105758080\">Days of Future Passed<\/a>, a sport climb in Boulder Canyon, and her first 5.12. When I meet her at the cliff, it\u2019s come down to one section: a couple moves in a flaring finger crack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy stump doesn\u2019t fit anything below tight .75 [camalots],\u201d she tells me, and this crack doesn&#8217;t fit anything larger than a .4\u2014just barely enough to slot her second knuckles.<\/p>\n<p>But she\u2019s used to navigating her way around the way most people climb, and discovering her own, intricate beta.<\/p>\n<p>In the evening shade, she puts on her sweater. It reads, \u201cLISA CLIMBING,\u201d in bold letters across her back. The printing company had botched the design for the USA adaptive climbing team\u2019s clothing for world championships\u2014LISA instead of USA. She still wears hers anyway.<\/p>\n<p>The sun\u2019s long gone now, and she\u2019ll need a headlight to navigate back down the hill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne more go,\u201d she says, as she ties back in for the day&#8217;s final\u00a0attempt at the route.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>***<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I talked with\u00a0Mo about how climbing has impacted her life, the challenges she&#8217;s faced and her relationship with the adaptive climbing community. Here she is in her own words:<\/p>\n<p><strong>My parents never called me disabled.<\/strong> They never called me handicapped. They never coddled me in any way, shape or form. Once or twice my parents were like, \u201cHey, here\u2019s this special basketball camp for kids with disabilities. You don\u2019t want to go, do you?\u201d And I said, \u201cNo, you\u2019re right, I <em>don\u2019t <\/em>want to go.\u201d They signed me up for soccer\u2014I played goalie\u2014and Girl Scout camp. They made me learn to tie my shoes, cut my meat, everything. There were no excuses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I started climbing<\/strong> at 12 or 13 with the Girl Scouts. It was in middle-of-nowhere Maine, and they had these big boulders the size of houses. They had a single bolt, and a counselor would take the rope in one hand and scramble up. Knowing what I know now, it was kind of sketchy. But it was a really cool way to get girls out there climbing. They didn\u2019t tell me I couldn\u2019t do it. They were just like, \u201cYep, tie in. Go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Climbing\u2019s one of those things<\/strong> that\u2019s perceived as being really hard with one hand. And it is. But it stuck with me for the same reasons that everybody else loves climbing. It gets you outside, it gets you pushing yourself and it\u2019s a sport where everyone fails a lot before those brief, amazing moments of success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m differently-abled<\/strong>. The language that we use for describing ourselves\u00a0sets the standard for how we&#8217;re perceived, and what we believe we&#8217;re capable of.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grades\u00a0don\u2019t matter. Especially\u00a0when you have one hand<\/strong>. But I feel like 5.12 is this line that separates the weekend climber from someone who is really trying. That\u2019s the line for able-bodied people, and if I can do it as a differently-abled person, that will mean a lot.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18338\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18338\" class=\"wp-image-18338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/07\/Maureen2.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-18338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Counting training laps at the gym | Photo: Brian Beck<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>The first climb I ever projected <\/strong>was Reefer Madness [5.11a] in Clear Creek. It\u2019s a techy, pretty steep face climb. Since it was more technique-oriented, I could figure out my own beta. There were lots of hours staring at this blank-ish section of rock and trying to work my way through, but once it clicked, it didn\u2019t feel hard anymore. I think it\u2019s really cool to take something that feels impossible and make it feel like I can do it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I have to get creative. <\/strong>For example, you can find the teeniest crimp, turn it upside down, and I can shove my stump up into that, like an undercling. So I\u2019ll tick things, and I can see people work on my climb after me and be like, \u201cWhat\u2019s this tickmark for? I can\u2019t use this!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Clipping can be tough.<\/strong> There are probably 5.7s I can never lead safely, because there\u2019s a big left clip, and I just can\u2019t reach it. I\u2019m pretty good at working my way around stuff, but it\u2019s a big learning process. I have to think, \u201cIt\u2019s OK I can\u2019t do that one. Good thing there are a million other climbs out there.\u201d Letting go can be tough. I play a lot with longer draws. The crux of the climb I\u2019m working on now [Days of Future Passed] has this big, wide right clip. With my stump in the sidepull, I\u2019m about eight inches too short. We\u2019re experimenting with taping a long draw across the rock.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paradox Sports is a nonprofit<\/strong> that works with people with disabilities to get them outside climbing. It takes a community-based approach and uses climbing as a vehicle for empowerment. It\u2019s kind of corny, but they make dream comes true. They want to teach participants not to <em>just<\/em> be participants. Paradox likes to teach you how to tie knots, teach you how to belay. After the event\u2019s over, you can take your friends climbing. I like that idea of enabling participants, not just serving them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I was born this way.\u00a0I didn\u2019t lose anything.<\/strong> I think people that did lose something can see me and think, \u201cWell shit, she\u2019s been doing it her whole life, so maybe this isn\u2019t that bad.\u201d I think that\u2019s where what we call \u201cOGs\u201d\u2014original gimps\u2014can demonstrate things. Like, \u201cYeah, I can tie my shoes. Not a big deal. I made it this far in life.\u201d The Paradox events are as much about the non-climbing parts as the climbing. It\u2019s getting to know each other and getting to learn from each other.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The first adaptive event I ever did was called \u201cGimps on Ice.\u201d <\/strong>I&#8217;d put off identifying with the adaptive community for a long time.\u00a0I thought they were all touchy-feely and treated everyone like they\u2019re special, like at the camps I didn\u2019t want to go to. But with this event, I thought well, if the word \u201cgimp\u201d is in the title, these guys might be OK. It was in Ouray and put on by Paradox Sports. I went, and people climbed hard all day. Like really hard. And they didn\u2019t quit at night. There was a big party after, a big kegger, and we drank heavily together. I thought, \u201cMan, these are my people.\u201d\u00a0It sounds funny, but it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p><strong>World Cup competition is like a fun family thing.<\/strong>\u00a0The next one is in Scotland, and I need\u00a0to be in the best shape of my life. Everybody wants to win, obviously, but really the competition is almost second. There\u2019s this bigger picture to it all. Because we all do things differently, we\u2019re able to learn from each other a little more than able-bodied climbers swapping hangboard tips. It\u2019s more deep and intimate than that.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18340\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18340\" class=\"wp-image-18340 size-article_body\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/07\/Maureen3.jpg?resize=1024%2C1542\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1542\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-18340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climbing a hand crack in Vedauwoo, WY | Photo: Timpson Smith<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>If I\u2019m not climbing<\/strong>, I\u2019m usually fly fishing. My husband\u2019s not a climber; he\u2019s a fisherman. So every time I go fishing I call it my \u201cstay-married day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>When my husband and I started dating<\/strong> in college, he told me he had all this climbing experience since he was from Colorado. But it took weeks before he finally went climbing with me. It turned out, he <em>hates <\/em>to climb. But by then, it was too late. I liked him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I had a prosthetic, mostly for aesthetics<\/strong>. I realized I can do more without it. It\u2019s not comfortable. It\u2019s hot and sweaty. I would equate it to walking around in your ski boots. You can, but why would you want to? I just stopped wearing it and haven\u2019t really looked back since.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s a pressure\u00a0on disabled athletes<\/strong>. We\u2019re put on this pedestal. We\u2019re supposed to inspire people. We\u2019re supposed to always be shiny and successful. It really bugs me at a gym, when I goof off and I fall on a climb that\u2019s really easy and someone says, \u201cWow, that\u2019s amazing, you\u2019re great!\u201d No I\u2019m not; don\u2019t say that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s about the community<\/strong> and the approach at Paradox. Someone can call us and say, \u201cI have one leg.\u201d We say, \u201cSo what? We work with 20 other people who have one leg. You\u2019re not that special.\u201d That\u2019s why I\u2019ve fallen in with the adaptive community\u2014because I\u2019m not special anymore. I\u2019m not the one girl at the gym everyone\u2019s oohing and aahing over. I think that\u2019s my bigger dream, that one day there are so many adaptive climbers I can walk into any gym and not get a look. I want to normalize the abnormal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Once I\u2019m off my sport kick<\/strong>, I wouldn\u2019t mind getting more into offwidth. I\u2019ve identified how small of a crack I can climb, but not how big. I think that\u2019ll be my next project.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019ve definitely come around <\/strong>to the idea that you wouldn\u2019t be talking to me if I had two hands. No one cares if a random chick climbs 5.12. I think it just lets me spread my message\u2014anyone <em>can<\/em> climb and everyone <em>should<\/em> climb. People can have a disability and not just succeed for a warm and fuzzy feeling, but actually get out there and kick some ass.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maureen Beck\u00a0wants to show that adaptive athletes can climb as well as\u2014or better than\u2014anyone else. Maureen Beck smears her toes on the smooth granite, greasy in the summer heat. She leans hard and twists, kicking\u00a0her left foot along the gray, slightly overhanging wall. \u201cYou got it, Mo!\u201d her partner, Eamon Swihart, hollers from below. Her [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":18344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1381,734,726,727,651,728],"internal-tag":[1679],"class_list":["post-18192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climb","tag-adaptive-athlete","tag-climbing","tag-force-of-nature","tag-latest-posts","tag-women","tag-women-stories","internal-tag-pre-redirect-climbing"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/climb\/maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Adaptive Climber Guns for Her First 5.12","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/07\/Maureen1.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/07\/Maureen1.jpg?fit=1500%2C696"},"articleSection":"Climb","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["adaptive athlete","climbing","force of nature","latest posts","women","women stories"],"dateCreated":"2017-07-19T16:03:53Z","datePublished":"2017-07-19T16:03:53Z","dateModified":"2020-04-27T18:01:58Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Adaptive Climber Guns for Her First 5.12\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.rei.com\\\/blog\\\/climb\\\/maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.rei.com\\\/blog\\\/climb\\\/maureen-beck-wants-to-normalize-adaptive-climbing\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rei.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/Maureen1.jpg?resize=150%2C150\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rei.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/Maureen1.jpg?fit=1500%2C696\"},\"articleSection\":\"Climb\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Michelle Flandreau\"}],\"creator\":[\"Michelle Flandreau\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Uncommon Path \\u2013 An REI Co-op Publication\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[\"adaptive athlete\",\"climbing\",\"force of nature\",\"latest posts\",\"women\",\"women stories\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2017-07-19T16:03:53Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-19T16:03:53Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-27T18:01:58Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/rei.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/07\/Maureen1.jpg?fit=1500%2C696","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18192"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158571,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18192\/revisions\/158571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18192"},{"taxonomy":"internal-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-tag?post=18192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}