Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Man with cerebral palsy plans to scale El Capitan

CORONADO — Stephen Wampler can’t walk, but if all goes according to plan the 41-year-old Coronado resident will become the first person with cerebral palsy to scale the 3,000-foot El Capitan granite monolith at Yosemite National Park.

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.

Read the entire Union Tribune story here.



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Coronado Times Staff
Coronado Times Staff
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