Climber with Prosthetic Leg Wins Extremity Games

Check out this article Extreme Colorado Climber Faces Up to Adversity that appeared a few days ago in the Denver Post. It’s about Craig Martino, a climber in northern Colorado who took a horrendous leader fall in 2002 in Rocky Mountain National Park after his belayer inadvertently took him off belay in a communication mix-up.

Craig fell 80 feet and by a miracle survived. Two months later he went home with a fused back and mangled right leg. He decided 16 months later to have the leg amputated and was fitted with a prosthetic leg, which allowed him to start rock climbing again.

Now Craig cranks hard routes and goes bouldering again. He also competed in this month’s Extremity Games, an extreme sports competition for atheletes who have lost limbs, where he won gold medals in top-rope climbing and bouldering. In June he took second in the citizen division at the Teva Mountain Games.

It’s always inspiring to see how climbers overcome adversity and pain to continue with their vertical obsession. As Craig wrote about the Extremity Games on the Paradox Sports website: “…the real fun was just being there in that atmosphere of people trying to do what they love and not even knowing they’re disabled. That day we were all just climbers doing routes, having fun.”

Photograph above: Craig DeMartino (top) climbing at the 2009 Extremity Games Photograph courtesy Craig DeMartino