I generally don’t think that adaptive first ascents are that noteworthy. In fact, I’m reluctant to be wowed by most non-FA FA’s - abled, disabled, or otherwise. I don’t think it’s remarkable for me to be the first brown haired one armed woman with a slight squint at anything climbing (though the FBHOAWWASSA sounds like a real treat). When Jim first approached me about doing a UFGA (Unassisted First Gimp Ascent - pronounced OOF-gah, obviously) of the Lotus Flower Tower in 2018, he made it very clear: this would only matter if it was unassisted. No guides shlepping loads or leading pitches for us. While that climb ended up not going unassisted, it did cement my love of cry puking and fear sharting in the big mountains.
Jim, as the world’s worst motivational speaker
The UFGA followed me ever since. In 2022 I made my first trip to BC’s Bugaboo peaks, in a team of six that just happened to be half gimp squad. We romped about the alpine, climbing casually wherever the granite took us. The tease was there though - what could we accomplish if we commited to a bigger goal? And, for the sake of Jim’s stump and my whiskey allowance, what if we did it with a helicopter?
It was Jim’s idea (they usually are) to assemble a team to get the first UFGA of a truly iconic peak, a route beyond routes: The Becky Chouinard, up the South Howser Tower . Not only to climb it as an all gimp crew, but to fire it off in a day.
Seneida Biendarra, who I swear is blind even when her eyes are open.
Many/most of the pitches were above my paygrade to lead, so we decided to recruit two more members to the team to make it more even. First, Jono Lewis, a BK from San Diego who we’d climbed with a bunch. Second, Seneida Biendarra, a B2 climber from Salt Lake who was new to us, but had the right kind of piss infused spunky attitude that made me sure I wouldn’t want to throttle her on day 5 in a storm bound tent. About six weeks out from our departure, Jono tossed in the towel - he had been battling a stump infection since December and couldn’t commit to not wanting to further his amputation with a leatherman mid expedition. Jim and I mulled over who could possibly replace him at the last minute, then Jim suggested - ‘What about Nat Vorel?’ Nat! Of Course! A medal winning RP3 who with his paralyzed leg has become one of the few adaptive SPI’s in the country who loves doing sketchy shit on gear.
I quickly call Nat. And I mean an old fashioned phone call, even though I hate talking on the phone. It went something like this:
And then that was it. That was the team. Since being riddled with anxiety diarrhea on my first alpine trip, I had spent much more time in the big scairwy mountains, and the Bugaboos in particular felt familiar. For Nat and Seneida, I felt like I was the mentor - maybe not when it came to the physical act of climbing, but in the trip planning, packing, and calculating how much toilet paper to pack.
I recognize the wild hypocrisy of making an attempt special by trying not to be special. We aren’t trying to inspire the masses to make the impossible possible. All we really committed to was to have a fantastic time with other wonky bods like us, and to be proper American’s about it and just load it all to a credit card. No sponsors, no film crew - just a stack of friends doing what they love to do most: chasing the useless art that is alpine climbing.
As a crew, we booked our flights, marked our calendars, and dug in to what would be the greatest adventure of our lives.