How a Paraclimbing Champion Fell in Love With Alpine Climbing
During an Adaptive Ascent of Lotus Flower Tower
Jim Ewing and Maureen Beck climbed the Lotus Flower Tower in the Cirque of the Unclimbables in northern Canada this summer. It was the first attempted unassisted adaptive climb of the famous route. Ewing fell ill partway up the route, but continued with some help from rigger and photographer Pat Goodman and cinematographer Taylor Zann.
The two climbers from Maine are both missing a limb. Beck was born without her left hand and Ewing had his left leg amputated after a fall while climbing Cayman Brac in 2015. The longtime New England rock and ice climber’s injury happened when he was leading a 5.11 at Dixon’s Wall. He had a number of surgeries in Florida before returning home.
They met last December and after some discussion decided to attempt Lotus Flower Tower and began training in spring. For two very experienced climbers, this attempt quickly proved that even with a lot of training and preparation nothing is ever guaranteed when it comes to alpine climbing.
“It was the first time that working harder and training did not necessarily equal success,” said Beck, a paraclimbing world champion. “I went in feeling prepared, but I definitely learned a lot on my first expedition.” Beck roped up for the first time at age 12 and soon cragged her way through New England. Prior to social media, she believed that she was the only differently abled person in the world that climbed. She and her friends invented techniques using a trial and error process, slowly (and sometimes painfully) learning out how to climb one-handed.
“If I can connect with someone that might not be aware of what they’re capable of and push them towards trying something new, maybe even a little outside of their comfort zone, then putting myself out there in the world as a resource and a motivator is entirely worth it,” said Beck. “One arm? One leg? Blind? In a wheelchair? Bring it on. But will you do me a favour? Being an inspiration doesn’t imply action. I want you to take that inspiration, find your courage, and take action. Change your life.” Beck is now based in Colorado and works closely with the adaptive climbing community through Paradox Sports and the Paraclimbing section of usa Climbing and helps manage the Front Range Adaptive Climbing Team. She has won four national titles, a gold medal at the 2014 paraclimbing world championships in Spain, and defended that title with a gold medal at the 2016 World Championships in Paris.
The two trained differently for the trip. Beck, with competition background focused on her technical skill. “We trained differently,” she said. “I’ve been a competitive climber and athlete for almost five years now. For me, it was more that I need to
get out of project mode and learn how to place gear in something that’s not an Indian Creek Splitter. I needed to learn how to route-find, how to manage ropes and what to wear in the alpine.”
Ewing had to train for endurance because he had the alpine skills from years of expedition climbing. “For me, being a lifetime climber, the rope management and those technical skills were already there,” Ewing said. “I had to focus more on continuing to recover from my amputation, on getting stronger and on climbing as much as I could at the climbing gym. Basically getting in mileage and trying to condition myself to climb a 2,000-foot wall.”
Ewing was halfway up the route when he started throwing up. “I was feeling weak and feverish,” he said. “I was a mess. I finally just stopped and said ‘I can’t do this, I can’t continue. For me, as an amputee, I developed the philosophy just keep moving and you can accomplish some amazing things. I should have gone down when I started feeling sick, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to get the top.”
After a short discussion, they decided that a summit was better than nothing and asked the film crew to assist them with some climbing. “It was a blow to my pride,” Ewing said, “but I wanted to do the route and that was the main idea of the trip. It was certainly, even with the assistance, pretty challenging for me to make it to the top. I don’t know where I got the energy.”
After their trip, Beck travelled to Innsbruck for the World Championships and finished third in women’s AU-2 category and Ewing returned home for work. “We have to go back, we have unfinished business,” said Beck. “Crap, now I like alpine climbing.”—bp