Man born without legs climbs Kilimanjaro on his hands

A man born with sacral agenesis, a rare condition that left his legs without function, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2012 by walking most of the route on his hands.

Doctors told his parents after birth that he might never sit up. At age five he had both legs amputated. As a child he learned to get around on his hands, in a wheelchair or on a skateboard in his Wyoming neighborhood.

He graduated from university in Utah in 2003 with a communications degree and took a job in client operations. In 2008 a friend invited him on a volunteer trip to Kenya. Meeting schoolchildren there led him to work as a motivational speaker for the nonprofit, first in Toronto and later around the world.

In 2011 the group’s founder mentioned climbing Kilimanjaro and asked if he would consider it. He recruited friends Alex and David, lined up medical and training support, and decided to use the climb to raise $500,000 for clean-water projects in east Africa.

The team flew to Tanzania in June 2012. On the first day he covered 80 percent of the route on his hands because the wheelchair proved unusable on the terrain. Porters later rigged a system to carry him in the chair, and the group settled into a pattern of early starts, hand-walking sections through alpine and lunar desert, and rest at higher camps.

By day six they faced snow, ice and high winds on the steep final slopes. On summit day they started at 4 a.m.; a porter carried him on his back for the most dangerous stretch. He walked the rest of the way to the 5,895-metre rim, where the group watched sunrise, hugged and cried.

The climb led to larger speaking engagements. After the nonprofit closed, he continued the work independently and began writing and posting online about the experience of being gay and disabled. He later published a book, Breaking Free, drawn from the lessons of the ascent.

Now 45, he says he no longer has the physical capacity for another such climb but still draws on the memory when he speaks. Asked where his resilience comes from, he answers that he has no other choice if he wants the life he leads.