Legless Climber Summits Mount Kilimanjaro On His Hands
June 21 2012, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter
Think you can't achieve the "impossible?" Think again!
A man with no legs has proven there really Ain't No Mountain High Enough by climbing to the top of Africa's tallest peak on just his hands.
Battling freezing temperatures, debilitating altitude and grueling steep terrain, Spencer West, 31 of Toronto, Canada, successfully summited all 19,340 feet of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania despite losing both his legs to a congenital disorder at the age of five.
West reached the rooftop of Africa on Monday after seven days of propelling himself by his arms with only a pair of gloves to protect them from the bare rocks, reported the Toronto Star.
“It was bittersweet and incredible to finally make it after all the hardships we went through to get there,” said the brave climber, who did the mammoth feat with his friends David Johnson and Alex Meers. “I would say it was humbling, beautifully overwhelming.”
On the rare occasions when the route - which transitions through seven microclimates including rainforest, snow fields and lunar desert – was impossible to do on his hands, he traveled on a custom-made wheelchair or when desperate, hopped on the back of native porters.
West was born with sacral agenesis, a birth defect that left his lower spine poorly developed and his legs permanently crossed, as if he was seated. Doctors recommended amputation, and took off his legs at the knees when he was only 3 years old, but further surgery two years later left his legs amputated below his pelvis.