Paradox Sports, a Colorado organization that’s serious-but not too serious-about adaptive outdoor sports, hosted its third Gimps on Ice adaptive ice-climbing gathering on March 12¬-14 in Ouray, Colorado. The irreverent assembly brought together climbers with a variety of physical disabilities to the 100-foot deep, mile-long Uncompahgre Gorge, home to the Ouray Ice Park, the world’s largest ice-climbing park.
“Ice is the great equalizer,” said Malcolm Daly, Paradox executive director and amputee. “None of us can climb it without adaptive equipment. We just go one step further.”
The group brought together climbers with amputations, blindness, brain injuries, and other physical issues to learn ice-climbing skills and build inspiration they can take back to their own communities. A survivor of the January 12 Haiti earthquake who could barely walk on her two-week-old prosthesis joined not only other amateurs on the wall, but elite ice climbers as well.
According to Paradox, in the past three years, the group has helped more than 300 athletes, half of them veterans and 25 percent of them women. Via its website, the Paradox community shares information about adaptive equipment for a variety of what it dubs “human-powered outdoor sports,” including rock climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, fly fishing, and skiing.
For more information, visit www.paradoxsports.org
