His climb is set for the last week of summer.
“My first thought was, That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,’?” said Wampler’s wife, Elizabeth. “But I know him. He wouldn’t say it if he didn’t mean it.”
Wampler said his desire was fueled about a year ago while visiting Yosemite with a couple of friends Mark Wellman, who in 1989 became the first paraplegic to ascend El Capitan, and Steve Muse, who in 2008 was the first quadriplegic to scale it.
“I looked at both and said, If they can do it, I can do it,’?” Wampler said.
But he is not doing the climb for himself. His goal is to raise $2 million for the Stephen J. Wampler Foundation, a nonprofit he started that sponsors camps for children with physical disabilities.
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