Karen Darke had kayaked the inside passage from Canada to Alaska, skied across Greenland and bicycled over the Himalayas; all major accomplishments in themselves but for Karen, paralyzed from the ribs down since she was injured in a climbing incident 15 years ago, she had one more thing she wanted to do, climb [El Capitan].
UKclimbing.com: Four days after leaving the base of [El Cap], at around 10pm Karen jugged up in the dark above a 700 metre drop. There was snow in the air, and a viscous wind blew her backwards and forwards as she literally inched up the rope, having made over 4,000 pull ups to get there. I lay on the top, exhausted after leading for the last three days, and watched as she grew nearer and nearer, her headtorch and speed making her look like a diver slowly coming up afraid of the bends. Finally she reached the rim, puling her self tight to the bolts until only her skinny legs hung over the edge. Jemmer appeared beside her smiling having cleaned the pitch. Without help Karen had to wait until I could help her fully onto the top, and for a second I was worried she’d loose it, being trapped by her useless legs one more time on the wall, stuck between heaven and what had often been very much hell. But instead she smiled and with with her usual grace, patience and tenacity, waited a little while longer until it was finally all over.
By the way, Karen has a great book out about her adventures called If You Fall
Photo by Andy Kirkpatrick.