Paralyzed Man Climbs Famed El Capitan

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - A 34-year-old paraplegic is the first climber to make it both up and down the 7,569 feet of El Capitan without the use of his legs.

"My adrenaline was just racing today," Trooper Johnson said yesterday, the heels of his hands still numb from the descent. "I was real anxious to get down to the ground. It seemed like the trails were getting long. And some of it was very treacherous."

Johnson - with help from two guides from Yosemite's climbing school - took 5 1/2 days to make the round-trip climb, sleeping on ledges and platforms anchored into the famous rock face in Yosemite National Park.

He began last Wednesday, topped out Sunday evening and finished late yesterday afternoon.

In 1989, Mark Wellman, assisted by one guide, was the first person to climb El Capitan's mostly sheer cliff with only his arms. But Wellman came down on a mule.

Johnson walked the descent trail on his hands, with his legs out in front of him or up behind him, like a wheelbarrow. The guides took turns holding his legs.

"We had to trade off a lot, because he was wearing us out," said guide Dave Bengston.

Johnson, who was disabled in a car accident when he was 17, is a member of the U.S. para-Olympic basketball team and captain of the wheelchair team of the Golden State Warriors.

The fifth of five children, he got his name at birth when his father, on seeing his only son, said, "There's a trooper."

Johnson worked up from smaller climbs to bigger practice climbs in recent weeks. He normally does about 500 pull-ups a day.

Johnson climbed with the guides, using special chaps developed by Wellman. At times, he used a rope ascender equipped with a bar that he pulled on like he was doing chin-ups.

Conquering El Capitan has been on Johnson's mind since he was a small boy.

"It's been eating at me and eating at me and eating at me," he said. "I just had to climb it."