Adaptive Climbers Festival
Story by Drew Woolley and Jen Calhoun
After Shane Farver’s lower-level spinal cord injury, the rockclimbing enthusiast realized he needed to learn new ways of moving through the world, whether scrambling up rocks or making his way through shopping malls and office buildings.
“Early on in my recovery, a friend of mine said, ‘A cool thing about climbing is the problem-solving aspect of it. You have to figure out how to get from this hold to that hold as efficiently as possible using your body as it is and kind of figuring those things out,’” Shane says.
It’s the same for people with disabilities, he says. “We have to be problem-solvers, because—very often—the world is not made for us.”
Today, Shane is the communications director and a member of the organizing committee for the Adaptive Climbers Festival. The three-day event offers people with disabilities a chance to learn rock climbing and other outdoor skills while camping and communing in Eastern Kentucky’s Red River Gorge.
“We really emphasize the notion that we do not take people with disabilities rock climbing,” Shane says. “We teach people with disabilities how to rock climb. The nuance there is we’re not here to take you on a ride. We’re here to empower you and help you see what’s possible in rock climbing and hopefully provide some confidence elsewhere in your life.”
Sweet Setup
The idea for the Adaptive Climbers Festival came about during a hot tub hang with a few adaptive climbers and their allies. “They were talking about the fact that outside of the competitive environment, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for people with disabilities to rock climb,” Shane says.
The first Adaptive Climbers Festival was in 2018 at a climbing area in northwest Alabama, but by 2022, the event found its home at Lago Linda Hideaway, a 410-acre wonderland that offers cabins, RV sites, and campgrounds surrounding a 5-acre lake.
“We have our run of the place,” Shane says. “Once we figured out that setup, we didn’t want to hold it anywhere else. We also have other partners who help us out, including the local search and rescue folks. It’s a huge coordinated effort.”
Moving Mountains
The event offers about 30 clinics, including courses on rappelling and anchor-building, which show attendees how to set up their ropes for climbing. Most of the courses are led by people with disabilities.
“That’s kind of our ethos—the idea that we’re here to empower people and to give people opportunities to grow and lead,” Shane says.
The Adaptive Climbers Festival has grown from about 30 participants to about 150 in 2024, including attendees from across the country, as well as some from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Spain.
Restoring Freedom
The first time Beth King saw a recumbent tricycle, she thought it was a joke. She rarely left the house for anything other than doctors’ appointments after retiring from the military in 2014 due to injuries she sustained three years earlier when a rocket-propelled grenade brought down her Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan.
Then, after battling a traumatic brain injury, rehabbing for permanent damage to her spine and back, and undergoing a bilateral joint replacement for severe pain in her jaw, Beth’s occupational therapist wanted her to hop on what to her looked like a child’s toy.
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When she showed me a picture, it looked like a Big Wheel from when I was a kid,” says Beth, who was not happy about the idea. “But halfway through my first ride, I realized I’m out here by myself, no one’s running after me to catch me. And I really found that liberating. I felt a sense of independence I hadn’t felt in years.”
She then took part in the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride, introducing her to the world of adaptive sports. Now based in Missouri, Beth has trained in javelin, rowing, discus, and powerlifting, even competing at the 2022 Invictus Games in the Netherlands. She hopes to qualify for the Paralympics in 2028.
“It’s what saved me. I was really struggling with depression, suicidal thoughts, and isolation. I just couldn’t deal with anything. And it gave me something to train for, to get out of bed for,” Beth says. “Sports made me realize that I could still do all the things that I thought I lost.”
Finding Inspiration
Realizing she was losing almost all function in her feet, in 2023, Beth decided to have her right foot amputated, allowing her to begin learning to walk with an artificial one. Last year, she completed her first year of welding school, a goal she set after retiring from the military.
“I think sports really gave me the confidence to advocate for myself. To believe that I didn’t really lose as much as I thought I had,” she says. “If you had asked me a year ago if I’d be welding right now, I would have said, ‘No way.’ I couldn't see a life bigger than the box I had put myself in with my injuries.”
Once she finishes school, Beth hopes to be able to make adaptive equipment for more people. “I don’t think people always understand that it’s not just sports equipment. It’s freedom,” she says. “It’s a regular life and feeling like you’re a part of things. To have a place where people can go and just have fun and play a sport, even if it might look different. I think people are starting to realize that it really does matter.”