- Rock climbing can be intimidating for beginners, but a group in Durham is helping make this sport more accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.

Producer Miriam McSpadden shows us how Para Cliffhangers is breaking down barriers and helping climbers of all abilities reach new heights and experience the thrill of climbing.

(music) - My feeling when I'm on the wall, I'm just really proud of myself and what I'm able to do.

- There are times that you're climbing, it's something outside, and the goal is to climb something really exposed and really easy, and you just feel this sense of freedom and exploration.

Then, there are times that you're really trying to challenge yourself, to endeavor to step up your own game, to step up your own level.

When you're grabbing super-thin edges and pulling with all the power that you have and just barely making it to the next edge, you know, your body is spent and your mind is spent.

A reality is that you never know how well you can climb unless you're willing to fall, and it's building growth that can be incredibly satisfying.

Para Cliffhangers is a nonprofit focused on getting people climbing who have disabilities.

- I just saw a need.

I used to be on Team USA for para climbing, so when I was in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2023 at the World Cup, I met one of the founders of Para Cliffhangers and asked if we could make a North Carolina chapter.

Our motto is to overcome mountains, and we get together here once a month at Triangle Rock Club.

- Right now, I am setting up our mechanical advantage at Para Cliffhangers.

Some of our climbers want to have someone go up the wall with them just to help really kind of adapt their route to them as they're going move by move.

You know, you can offer a knee, you can kind of help place their hand, whatever they need to kind of get to the next move.

- When I turned 21, my PT visits stopped, and climbing has helped me with PT and OT.

This community is so important because I'm meeting new friends.

- People often don't realize what they're capable of, right?

There are a lot of skills that we have to learn and execute and adapt in this world.

The reality is that climbing is something that can be accessible to everyone, and so the focus is to, you know, do what we can to make it accessible for anyone who is stoked.

- I was so surprised what my body was able to do.

I have cerebral palsy on my left side, and I just didn't know that I could rock climb.

I thought that would be something that was hard, and it is hard, but through climbing, I just realized that I just had to move my body in a different way, and that's why I really like it.

And climbers are some of the best people.

The community is so nice, and that really made me fall in love with climbing as well.

So Para Cliffhangers has a lot of abilities that are represented.

Like I mentioned, I have cerebral palsy, so we have people with neurological disabilities.

We have people with amputations, arm, leg.

We have people that are blind or low vision.

- We train with a blindfold because during competition, we have to wear one, but even when we're not doing it for comp, sometimes I actually end up with a little bit of light perception, and it hurts.

- And then your next holds are to the right.

Yes.

- We've had climbers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

We've had people, especially children, who are on the autism spectrum, so more developmental disabilities is also something that we see.

- The most important thing to understand is that everyone starts from a different foundation, right?

We all have different backgrounds.

We're all gonna start from a different capacity of physical output.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that as long as you're climbing and having fun when you're a newer climber, getting better takes care of itself.

- I actually climbed by myself.

I feel excited to do this.

- So whether you've never climbed before or you're the most competitive of competitive people, there is space for you here, and we want you here, and you stand to build yourself up and build other people up because that's a big part of what community is.

- Paracliff Hangers of North Carolina meets the first Saturday of every month at Triangle Rock Club in Durham.

You can learn more information at paracliffhangers.org.