The Gimp Monkeys

After four nights and five days, Craig DeMartino, Jarem Frye and Pete Davis scrambled to the top of the 1,800-foot Zodiac Wall on Yosemite’s El Capitan on June 9, 2012. It’s a route that’s been climbed countless times, but not like this: the first all-disabled ascent. DeMartino (who lost a leg in a climbing accident), Frye (who lost a leg to bone cancer) and Davis (who was born without an arm) didn’t accomplish the feat to raise awareness or champion their cause. They did it because they are climbers first and disabled second. Martino says, “If a climber is what you are…you want to climb El Cap.” So with four legs, five arms and three heads, they tackled the towering expanse of granite. The Gimp Monkeys follows the trio’s monumental trip up the wall and examines where passion, tenacity, perspective and toughness can lead. Because, as Davis says, “The right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms every time.”