Beginning Adaptive Rock Climbing

Video Transcript

"My name is Kim Millikan, and we're here at the adaptive climbing wall, at the National Ability Center. If you would like to get into adaptive climbing there are many ways to do it. The first thing I would do is check with your doctor, and see what kind of things you should be concerned with if you are going to be climbing. Call an adaptive recreation center, and they should have plenty of the equipment, experience, and knowledge. Also, a lot of recreation centers that are city, and state, and government managed are required to have ADA personnel on staff, and they may know something, as well. That would be the first places I would go. If that didn't occur, I would go to a climbing gym, and I would look for people, I would look for people there who have had experience climbing with people with disabilities, or who have knowledge in general. If you have a bad experience, or you go to an adaptive center that, I would trust my judgment, and I would go somewhere else. I have been to climbing gyms in several countries where I felt safe, and comfortable, and I've also been to others where I did not, and the truth is that if you've done your research, and you've had a couple of good practices somewhere, you will know if it's good or not, and you'll know to run away. If you go there, and you don't immediately don't feel comfortable, go somewhere else, because your life is in the hands of your belayer, and if you're bouldering, you're going to have so much more success with somebody who understands climbing, and understands how to work with it with people who have different abilities, because."