During 30 years as a mountain guide, Alex Kosseff has taught thousands of people how to rock climb. But none of them were quite like Felix.
Felix was one of 35 Ukrainians who learned about adaptive climbing this month, thanks to a 5-day training provided by Colorado nonprofit Paradox Sports. Despite a life-changing injury and a country still at war, Felix and other wounded veterans came to western Ukraine to learn how they could still get outside and use their bodies.
“He’s lost a foot. He’s lost a home. His family is displaced. He lives in Kyiv, which is under daily attack. His brother is on the front lines,” Kosseff said. “But there’s this level of acceptance and resolve that’s remarkable to me. And here he is climbing, doing something that he can share with other people.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the ongoing war has resulted in roughly 100,000 amputees across the country, The New York Times reported last month. Though the war remains fierce, Ukraine has seen a rise in initiatives to help these veterans readjust to their new reality. Often, these initiatives focus on teaching them an outdoor sport through adaptive techniques and special prosthetics. One such program brought Paradox Sports, an adaptive climbing group, to Ukraine this month.
“It is really remarkable that in the midst of a war, these people are like, ‘You know what we need to do? Take people rock climbing.’ They’re trying to rebuild already and imagine a future for the country and the veterans,” Kosseff, the executive director of Paradox Sports, told GearJunkie. “With no defined endpoint to the war, they feel like that work needs to happen now rather than wait for the resolution of the conflict.”
A Push to Help Veterans Readjust
For nearly 20 years, Paradox Sports has been helping people with disabilities learn how to climb. But all the nonprofit’s work has been in the U.S. or Canada. So, bringing their training to another continent — and in a war-torn country, no less — was a new experience for Kosseff and the two other trainers who traveled to Ukraine in early August.
Kosseff was joined by DJ Skelton, a co-founder of Paradox Sports and a disabled veteran of the U.S. war in Iraq, and Sam Sala, the nonprofit’s program manager. Over the course of 5 days, they taught a dozen disabled Ukrainian veterans (often through interpreters) how they could use special prosthetics or specific belay systems to rock climb — even for those with paraplegia or other severe physical disabilities.
The group spent the first part of the trip training in climbing gyms in two small cities in western Ukraine, far from the frontline. Then they moved the training outdoors to real rock at one of Ukraine’s many crags.
A Fitting Place to Heal
It’s not surprising that organizers chose rock climbing as one of the outdoor sports for the country’s veterans. Ukraine has a rich history of mountaineering, and many well-known climbers. Many of the country’s mountaineers have joined the war effort.
The work of Paradox Sports isn’t merely to teach individuals, either. Many of the participants in the nonprofit’s training are leaders at climbing gyms across the country or work for organizations dedicated to outdoor sports like adaptive climbing.
That includes Second Wind, a Ukrainian nonprofit that’s also dedicated to helping wounded veterans learn to rock climb through adaptive techniques. The group gained notoriety after a documentary chronicled four veterans of the program climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2025.
“We were really pleased that this group had a high level of climbing skills already,” Kosseff said. “A lot of my background is about working with volunteer-based organizations. I facilitated a discussion about next steps, how they can carry this forward, and what they might need to make that happen.”
Adaptive Techniques
The training from Paradox Sports focused on three areas. The first is about increasing “awareness of what’s possible for people with disabilities,” as well as “basic disability etiquette for instructors,” Kosseff said.
The secondary and more technical part is about bringing in special gear and adapting the climbing environment itself. Paradox brought multiple prosthetic climbing legs made by Evolv, along with special climbing shoes. Kosseff and others also trained participants how to set up assisted belay systems, sort of like a specialized block-and-tackle.
“We had a number of people in the training with leg amputations. So they were able to use those prosthetics,” he said.
Finally, Paradox showed how to help veterans with very limited mobility. This involves setting up complex pulley systems that allow those with functional upper bodies to pull themselves up a rope, rather than trying to climb a wall.
Rehab in the Middle of War
Paradox was able to conduct the training thanks to funding from nonprofit Razom for Ukraine, and also gave away climbing equipment donated by Petzl.
As for those organizing within Ukraine on behalf of the country’s wounded veterans — they’re mostly women, Kosseff said. It’s clear that so many men remain on the frontline of the war, or have been injured or killed. Despite that, Kosseff said he witnessed “a level of national unity I’ve never experienced anywhere else in the world.”
“There’s this incredibly strong commitment to ending the war and somehow preserving their national autonomy, but also serving the needs of their community,” he said. “I’ve traveled a lot around the world for work, but this was by far the most emotionally intense experience I’ve ever had. They’ve been displaced within their own country and fought this gruesome war. Even the non-combatants have had so many traumatic experiences.”
Helping veterans is clearly a major focal point of Ukraine’s current efforts. Ukrainian veterans often lack jobs and connections to their former comrades who are still fighting in the military. They’re going home to live with their families, raising concerns that they won’t have access to community connections. The work of groups like Paradox Sports is an attempt to maintain the country’s unity — and they hope to return for more training next year.
Instead of seeing people “downcast” from Russian attacks, Kosseff said he and others felt “an overwhelming sense of warmth.”
“It’s mind-blowing that people are moving forward,” he said. “The level of resolve of these people to help their veterans — it’s remarkable.”
