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Paralympic Athlete Scaling Mt. Shasta
It's been a grueling journey so far, and, will get harder. But four paraplegics are continuing their assent of Mt. Shasta.
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(May. 28, 2002)------One of the climbers scaling Mt. Shasta is four- time Paralympic Medalist Muffy Davis, of Park City.
Shelley Osterloh give us this update on the most ambitious attempt ever by climbers with her disability,
in the history of mountaineering.
Muffy Davis won three silver medals at the Paralympics on a mono ski.
Now this wheelchair athlete is using another adaptive device to climb California's 14,162 foot snow covered Mt. Shasta.
Davis showed off her new snowpod to Utah High School students last week.
It's a motorless device propelled by arm power and 42 gears.
Tonight, Davis and the team will have to scale some steeper terrain and will have to use safety ropes for the climb.
Davis, three other wheelchair athletes and a support team of 20 started climbing Sunday night.
They climb at night because the snowpods work better on cold hard snow.
The first night they managed 6 hours of climbing to the 8200 foot level.
Monday night they climbed for 13 hours to 9600 feet.
All of the pod climbers are doing well, but are tired and sore.
Shelley Osterloh/Reporter: DAVIS ADMITS IT WILL BE AN INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT CLIMB, SOMETIMES ATTACHED TO SAFETY ROPES. BUT SHE HAS ALWAYS OVERCOME CHALLENGES.
Muffy Davis/Paralympic Medalist: IT'S NOT GOING TO BE EASY, IT'S GOING TO BE A LOT OF HARD WORK, TEAM WORK AND SUPPORT. AND WHEN WE CAN ALL GET TO THE TOP AND CELEBRATE THAT AND CELEBRATE THAT WHAT IS THE SUMMIT THAT ANYONE WANTS TO GET TO. WELL HERE WE CAN DEMONSTRATE THAT YOU CAN GET THERE.
Davis says, regardless of whether they reach the summit, they will have changed the sport of disabled climbing, and perhaps a few minds.
Muffy Davis: WHEN THEY SEE PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY AND THEY DON'T LOOK AT WHAT THEY ARE LACKING AND WHAT THEY CAN'T DO, BUT MAYBE LOOK AT THEM IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT AND SEE ALL THAT THEY STILL CAN DO, AND ACCENTUATE THAT.
THE SKY IS THE LIMIT, IF YOU CAN THINK OF IT, YOU CAN DO IT.
The climb is expected to take another four days.
