On Wednesday, Reilly reached the summit of the 14,433-foot Mount Elbert on a custom-built four-wheeled bicycle. He averaged nearly 1,300 vertical feet each day, pedaling by hand in a task that turned out to be much harder than Reilly expected.
He thinks it was the first time a paraplegic reached the top of the peak 20 miles southeast of Aspen.Reilly is a student at Oregon State University and grew up on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. He was an outdoor enthusiast and hiked in Alaska's mountains until he was paralyzed in a 1996 car accident.Reilly's uncle, John Nelson, built the 65-pound cycle Reilly used in the climb. Now the pair want to scale Washington's Mount Rainier, but they'll have to build another custom cycle to navigate the mountain's narrower trails.
Copyright 2007 by TheDenverChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
