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Caroline Winstel prepares to scale another wall.

PHOTO: KATIE GRIFFITH

Climbing to the Top

Wheelchair-user Caroline Winstel’s stellar performance at USA Climbing’s Paraclimbing National Championships confirmed a new chapter in her athletic life

BY KATIE GRIFFITH

On any given day at Climb Time Oakley, Caroline Winstel can be found surveying the gym’s 40-plus-foot walls, studying colorcoded routes, or checking tags at the base of each climb while noting its difficulty level. Like many rock climbers, she might plan out a few moves before she even touches the wall; head up, neck cranked to one side, chalky hands above her head mirroring movements required for the sequence above — like climbing an invisible ladder.

There is one thing about Winstel that sets her apart from other climbers at Climb Time, but when she’s on the wall, you’d never notice. Below her ascent, where daisy-chained ropes hang and chalk scatters, a wheelchair waits to meet her. Depending on the day, her descent could mean a skillful and controlled downclimb or an unexpected, muscle cramp-induced fall.

Winstel unclips from the auto belay system and unties a figure-eight knot from her harness. She often retreats to the center of the massive gym, where everyone congregates between climbs. Sharing “beta” (climbing jargon for tips and tricks) with friends or just taking time to rest, Winstel typically lays down and props her legs up on her wheelchair to regulate blood flow.

“Sometimes I’ll come off the wall and you’ll see my legs are full noodles. It

can be a little weird for some people that see me for the first time — and when they see a girl stand up out of a wheelchair,” she says. “ People aren’t used to seeing ambulatory wheelchairusers. They think, ‘Huh, that shouldn’t happen.’ But ambulatory wheelchairusers exist.”

Winstel has an acquired physical disability — or a disability that resulted from an illness or injury — that manifested when she was 18. Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, surrounded by adventurous opportunities, she has always been athletic, but not always a climber. She was a volleyball player her entire life and achieved collegiate athlete status at Tusculum University in 2007.

“First day of college pre-season, I collapsed,” she says. “I get rushed to the hospital. Turns out I have Rhabdomyolysis (a syndrome caused by dead muscle fibers being released into the bloodstream). My muscle enzymes were so high I should have died. It was a really weird experience because my doctors didn’t even know what it was.”

Winstel says she was handed a printout from WebMD and was shooed away.

After confusion about never being able to get back into playing shape and dealing with unsupportive coaches and unhelpful doctors, Winstel spent a lot of her early 20s without answers, trying to fill this new gap in her identity.

Winstel made the move to Cincinnati seven years ago, where she studied history at Northern Kentucky University and also where doctors at University of Cincinnati Medical Center uncovered more about her diagnosis.

“We found out I also had a couple other things: hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos and postural orthostatic tachycardia,” she says. “My autonomic system didn’t function very well, and then my joints and connective tissue also said, ‘Hey, let’s join the party!’”

She explains that she began owning her identity when it became something she wasn’t trying to push away anymore. Winstel also soon realized that trying to actualize her life without sports wouldn’t last long.

These days, Winstel is a part-time Jewish educator, a wife, a proud aunt, a poet and a photographer. She’s currently working a full-time job and is focusing on obtaining a Master’s Degree in experiential Jewish education at George Washington University. In addition, she’s a doctoral student at NKU, where her research piqued an interest in individual adaptive sports, leading her to explore Climb Time.

Last August, Winstel came into the gym as a researcher and left as a climber. It wasn’t something she was expecting to fall in love with, but she credits the environment at Climb Time heavily for facilitating her newfound passion.

“It was one of the first places I went that I wasn’t judged,” she says. “I’ll be in spaces in the real world where people will, like, pet me or be like, ‘She is so cute in her little wheelchair.,’ But at Climb Time, I don’t get that. Everyone just kind of supports you.”

Winstel quickly linked up with Climb Time assistant manager Brent Flenner for lessons.

USA Climbing’s Paraclimbing National Championships weren’t on the radar at first, Flenner says, but Winstel developed extreme goals like climbing outside, lead climbing (a form of sport climbing that involves clipping the rope in as the climber ascends as opposed to the rope already being strung), and completing routes rated 5.10. Sport climbing involves grading routes on a scale that starts at 5.0. Anything beyond a 5.8 is intermediate and 5.11 is considered very hard.

Flenner happily assumed the role of Winstel’s coach and belayer (the person who ties into the opposite end of a rope and feeds or takes slack for the climber as needed) and was the first to encourage her idea of competing at Nationals.

“Climbing is a sport that, in spite of handicaps and disabilities, you can do the same thing that able-bodied climbers are doing,” he says. “Caroline isn’t a strong paraclimber; she’s just a strong climber, and that’s it.”

While the sport climbing grades are surely a mark of progression, Winstel isn’t too concerned with the numbers. She might even be the last to tell you that she can successfully complete a 5.10 — a long way to come after struggling on 5.6 routes in August.

After competing in the Paraclimbing National Championships in June, Winstel might have to get used to recognition as more than just an outstanding member at Oakley. Salt Lake City hosted the Nationals, which offered open registration and a chance to place for the 2021 Paraclimbing World Cup. Winstel only missed the world cup by half a point.

On the first day of Nationals she placed third, and at the finals she placed fourth. Winstel says she’s proud of competing regardless of the outcome, and she’ll continue to climb.

“If one thing came out of all this, I’d love to be sitting at Climb Time and have another adaptive climber walk in,” she says. “I’d love to see folks living with disabilities feel at home in a climbing gym.”

Winstel took an even greater, newfound confidence from Nationals and ticked another goal off of her climbing list — climbing outside in Little Canyon, Utah, directly after the competition and realizing that the entire experience had forever changed what she thought was possible with her body.

She admits that in a lot of ways, climbing gave her her life back. A recent doctor visit was the first in two years that didn’t end with more medicine or restrictions.

“That made me feel like what I was doing mattered and that I have some kind of control,” Winstel says. “Living with chronic conditions, there’s not a lot in your control, but to know that what I’m doing is making an impact and maintaining a baseline, that’s huge for me and it makes me feel like I have power back in my life.”

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