Paraplegic mountaineer an inspiration to all

The first paraplegic to ascend to the top of El Capitan and the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park shared his story to a room full of occupational and physical therapists at Memorial Hospital Thursday.

"Well I don't really like the word accept, but at some point you have to say life goes on,” said Mark Wellman.

Or life goes up, at least for mountaineer Mark Wellman.

His ascent to the top of El Capitan secured him a place in history.

"I had a physical therapist at my rehab hospital tell me: 'Mark, you have to train like you're training for the Olympics' and I really took that to heart,” said Wellman.

His arms became his legs – and after 6 long days, he reached his goal.

Now hesaid Grall.

Wellman was involved in a freak climbing accident.

He slipped on some gravel when descending and fell 100 feet off the mountain.

He waited more than 30 hours for a helicopter.

He says he was an athlete before- and will remain one-- with or without the use of his legs.