California IN BRIEF : YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK : Paraplegic Plans a New Challenge

A paraplegic who climbed El Capitan with help from a partner plans to scale Half Dome, another of Yosemite National Park’s famous peaks. Mark Wellman said he hopes to make the climb in June with Mike Corbett, who scaled El Capitan with him in August, 1989. Because of his disability, Wellman’s climb attracted nationwide attention. Using only his arms to pull himself up, the park ranger made it from the valley floor to the top--3,200 feet--in a week. Wellman, 31, became paralyzed from the waist down when he fell 50 feet while climbing another Sierra Nevada peak in 1982.