Program Spotlight: Adaptive Climbing + Climb Club
Over the winter, our team, led by Katie, facilitated 20 adaptive climbing trips, a significant increase from the previous year. Katie is a die-hard climber who brought her energy, expertise, and excitement to our adaptive climbing program, helping it blossom into a fantastic offering for our participants.
Climbing presents a unique set of challenges. Beyond the anxiety of being way up in the air, participants with mobility, vision, and other challenges often require special equipment or rigging to climb. Over the past few years, Katie has worked hard to learn new techniques, gain new certifications, and partner with climbers like Sam at Peak Experiences to elevate our climbing program in ways we didn’t think were possible. Adaptive climbing experiences allow participants to embrace our challenge-by-choice ethos and overcome physical and mental challenges.
“Since starting adaptive, we’ve been able to give this offering to our other groups, and we’ve had groups as far away as Charlottesville reach out to us to make trips. Sam even figured out how to rig up a system to run one climber’s support dinosaur up the wall to encourage a climber to try it with him,” Katie says about the program’s growth.
Partnering with Sam at Peak Experiences has been critical to the success of our adaptive climbing. Sam is an expert climber and has received extensive training in adaptive systems.
“Sam has vast knowledge and has worked out so many systems; he has worked out ways to meet everyone where they are and set up climbing systems to work for them,” Katie states. “Sam has so much knowledge; he’s able to make it happen and amplifies our experience.”
When Katie isn’t hanging off a jug and encouraging participants to find their next hold, she’s working behind the scenes to continue building our Climb Club- a dedicated group of volunteers and participants who meet weekly to practice climbing together.
“The club model works well. Seeing people more than once and seeing them trying harder stuff every time is so rewarding. I know that when I’m climbing, many of my friends are stronger than I am, making me try harder. With the club model, we’re seeing many people do the same thing in those groups,” says Katie.
Katie refined the club model this winter, and our whole team saw it come to life with a boom in participants, trips, and return volunteers.
“It makes our participants feel like they’re part of a team. It’s awesome to see the groups supporting each other and helping one another grow,” she states. “People are genuinely friends outside of the climb.”
Our climbing adventures are certainly some of our favorites. Climbing is hard. It’s physically challenging. It’s mentally demanding. For a newcomer, it can be a lot to overcome. Time and time again, Katie has brought patience and encouragement to our climbing groups so that volunteers and participants leave excited and ready to return for another adventure.
“It’s been awesome to offer the community so many adventure opportunities throughout the year. Our climbing program has gained a lot of interest in the last few years, and Katie has been the driving force behind it. With the ability to partner with great organizations and businesses like Sportable and Peak Experiences, adaptive rock climbing has been hugely popular! Katie‘s passion for getting people into the climbing community has been inspiring to witness!” Says Executive Director Shep.
As our climbing programming grows, we’re always excited to welcome new participants. Whether you’ve climbed before or want to try it for the first time- we can help!
We always need belayers for climbing trips! Register here to volunteer.