The State - News from July 20, 1989

A paraplegic ranger took the first of about 7,000 pullups he will need to become the first disabled person to scale Yosemite National Park’s 3,000-foot El Capitan, one of the world’s most challenging rock climbs. Mark Wellman estimated that it will take seven days to complete the climb, led by El Capitan’s most experienced climber, Mike Corbett, who is on his 42nd ascent. Wellman assured friends that he felt physically and mentally up to the challenge as Corbett strapped a pair of specially designed leather climbing chaps on him. “I just want to blast off,” Wellman said at the base of the monolith in Yosemite Valley. A little less than an hour later, he had pulled himself 50 feet above their starting pointing using a pulley-like device designed by Corbett. “Once he touches the rock, he does his own thing, and he does it well,” Corbett said. “One thing I agreed with him from the start: I wouldn’t pull him.”