American rock climbing has long attracted people with larger-than-life personalities — but there’s nobody quite like Maureen “Mo” Beck. Born without a left hand, Beck began climbing in college over 10 years ago, when the idea of “paraclimbing” was still in its infancy. As more disabled people decided to try climbing, Beck became one of the sport’s most talented athletes.
She has won multiple world championships in competitive climbing and ascended routes on real rock so difficult that most climbers couldn’t send them — whether they’re disabled or not. In 2017, Beck even received one of climbing’s biggest accolades: a documentary from independent film studio Reel Rock.
But to Beck, those accomplishments pale in comparison to what she’s most proud of: helping create a community that turns disabled athletes into rock climbers.
When we conducted this interview, Beck was driving across the country to teach an adaptive clinic at the Vermont Climbers Festival. (“When I lived in Vermont, they didn’t even have a climbing festival,” she said.) Right after that, she’ll head to Kentucky to help run the annual Adaptive Climbers Festival in Red River Gorge. And in 2028, she might be competing in the first-ever climbing competition at the Paralympics.
The sport has come a long way in a short time, and no one is more stoked than Beck, who has spent her career trying to pave the way for others. Read on to hear her hilarious takes on qualifying for the Paralympics, alpine ascents with an all-adaptive team, and why she prefers whiskey over beer (you’ll never guess).
GearJunkie: So you officially retired from competitive climbing, but now you’re hoping to compete in the 2028 Paralympics. What happened?
Beck: I did retire. I had all these other things I wanted to do, like with alpine climbing and ice climbing. But I had this caveat. I reached 10 years and went, ‘Okay guys, I’m out … unless we get into the Paralympics.’ And then 3 months after I retired, I got invited to the Paralympics. So I’m semi-retired now. I’m definitely off for the next couple of years until it’s time to turn it back on again and try to make the Paralympic team — which I never thought I would say.
So, you still have to qualify?
Yes, but we don’t even know what that looks like. It’s probably not going to look like just another World Cup or World Championship. It’s probably going to be way harder. As of now, I’m gung-ho about it. But my backup plan if I don’t make it is to weasel my way into being a team manager, so I at least get the T-shirt.
But you’re still hoping to get yourself a gold medal, right?
Of course, I would love to win a gold medal! But I don’t think I’m going to. I haven’t won in a while. There’s so many competitors now that are so young and so strong, and that’s a good thing. I started when the sport started, and to me, I love that for the sport. But mostly, I’m just excited to march around Opening Ceremonies with one of those ugly Ralph Lauren jackets, bawling my eyes out. I’m like a John Wayne patriot. Every time I win a comp and they play the National Anthem, I bawl my eyes out.
Did you ever think about paraclimbing coming to the Olympics?
I didn’t even think it was a goal when I started. We didn’t even talk about it. It wasn’t until able-bodied climbing started making moves that we started going, ‘Well, if able-bodied climbing gets in, we might get in, too.’
For paraclimbing to follow able-bodied so quickly — well, our first world championship was in 2012. To be in the Paralympics just 16 years later — that’s just unheard of. It’s a testament to the growth of the sport. So for me, I think this would be the perfect little bow on a career that started with me as a total dumb-dumb Gumby and finishing with the Paralympics.
So until you have to start training, what are you focusing on in your climbing?
I have some pretty big outdoor goals. I just spent a big chunk of the summer in the Bugaboos, and I’m so in love with that place. I want more trips like that. I was planning a Patagonia trip, but then I’m like, ‘You know, I don’t think I like being cold that much.’
I think the Bugs was perfect: how you camp on a glacier but then rock climb in a T-shirt. I’m trying to identify more remote places like that. Definitely a Chamonix trip, because where else can you take a gondola for most of the approach and then go back and eat cheese when you’re done?
So, what are the other big outdoor goals you’d still like to accomplish?
Well, we had planned an all-adaptive climb of the Moose’s Tooth in Alaska for 2020, but that got dropped. But now I think we’re going to do it this spring, if conditions allow. This winter, I’m making my season about ice to dial in my mastery there. And I really just love the big, remote alpine.
My biggest thing is doing unassisted, all-adaptive. We’re not being guided. We are our own guides. Maybe 20 years ago, you’d only see adaptive ascents that had a guide with them. But now we can do it ourselves because our community just has this depth of experience that we can do these trips on our own.
That’s what you just did in the Bugaboos in July, right? An ascent of the Becky-Chouinard route of the South Howser Tower with only adaptive athletes?
Yes, that was a real treat. It was myself, a leg amputee, someone with a paralyzed leg, and a blind woman who led almost every pitch. That sounds like a walking-into-a-bar kind of joke, but the four of us did the two-day ascent, and it was great. Ultimately, it really was just an amazing trip with three of my best friends. Not everything went right, but we got the summit and we’re still friends, so that’s great.
You’ve been a paraclimber now for over 10 years. What’s the biggest thing that’s changed since you started?
It has never been easier or more accessible to be a person with a disability who wants to try rock climbing for the first time. There are national and regional programs everywhere. It’s easy to be a climber in general because there’s a gym in every town. But so many of those facilities also partner with adaptive recreation.
In college, I had only been climbing for a short time, and as far as I knew, I was the only person doing this. We know that wasn’t true, but it was such an isolated space to be in. My whole career goal has been to create the kind of future that past me would be super jealous of — and we’re living that future now. I can’t believe the opportunities that are out there now.
Is the Adaptive Climbers Festival an example of that?
Yeah, I help run the Adaptive Climbers Festival, which is every October in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. And we just had some kid sign up who’s 14, they have one hand, and they get to come to Kentucky and climb with 15 other one-hand amputees, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, you know how different my life would have been if I could have had that at 15 or 16?’ That’s the growth I’ve seen. The community has never been more integrated, and it’s never been easier to become a disabled rock climber.
What has been the most important change for the creation of that community?
It’s a lot of cultural norms shifting. It’s taking the ‘inspiration porn’ out of it, and treating disabled climbers as climbers first. It shouldn’t be a big deal for disabled climbers to get on a message board and ask to meet for a climb. Just like every other climber, they’re a climber first, and we need to integrate them into the broader climbing society.
A lot of programs in the past were more experiential, like just giving someone a belay on their birthday. And now, with programs like Adaptive Climbers Fest, we’re not taking disabled people rock climbing — we’re turning disabled people into rock climbers, and that’s a huge difference.
So, the other big achievement we haven’t talked about yet: You’re now sponsored by whiskey brand TINCUP, right?
Oh my god, yes. I’ve peaked. I’m done. I’ve never been a big beer drinker because here’s a fun fact: I can’t burp. I just lack the thing in my chest or throat that lets me burp. So I’ve actually been drinking whiskey my whole life — well, since 21-plus [laughing].
I was a fan of TINCUP before I started working with them because it was just my favorite go-to campfire brand that came with its own little glass. The whiskey is a perfect fit because all those Oreos I was eating in the [Reel Rock] film, we always dipped those in whiskey. If you haven’t tried Oreos dipped in whiskey, you haven’t lived. Actually, my plan for Vermont is maple-bourbon Old Fashioneds. That is the way to go. The land of maple!
What else would you like people to know about what you’re doing?
Come check out the highlight of my year — and I say this as someone who gets to do a lot of cool shit. The coolest shit I do is the Adaptive Climbers Festival every year in October. It’s a long weekend in mid-October, and this year is our biggest year ever.
We have over 300 people coming down to the Red [River Gorge]. We rent an entire campground. It’s one of the few places where we have facilitated wheelchair keg stands. So … it’s a time. Some people need special support to do a keg stand, and we’re there for them. We’re there to make dreams come true both on and off the rock.
[Lots of laughing]
We’re breaking down barriers any way we can.
