AdvenChair’s Geoff Babb Named One of Conde’ Nast Traveller’s Top 25 People Making the World More Accessible

Taking a break at the river’s edge on the Shevlin Park AdvenTour

It’s not every day that someone from one of the world’s most renowned travel publications puts you on one of their Top 25 lists. So it’s easy to understand why Geoff Babb, founder and co-inventor of AdvenChair, a Bend-based all-terrain wheelchair, was somewhat taken aback when he learned that a writer from Conde’ Nast Traveller spotlighted him last week.

“While we are doing our best to spread the word about AdvenChair, we have never had any contact with Conde’ Nast before,” said Babb. “So I almost thought it was a joke at first.”

Babb soon realized that being one of an elite group featured in an article titled:  Breaking Barriers: 25 people who are making the world more accessible for 2025 was something to take pretty seriously.

As Conde’ Nast writer and internationally known disability influencer Sophie Morgan put it: “Inclusive travel has come a long way in recent years. It’s almost like the travel industry has finally begun to understand more clearly that Disabled travellers are, well, travellers. And who do we have to thank for this progress? The unstoppable, stereotype-shattering champions of accessibility who, like me, are dedicated and determined to turn inaccessibility barriers into a concept as outdated as a fold-out road map.”

Babb earned his place among these most important trailblazers for the world of accessible and inclusive travel by creating a wheelchair that thinks it’s a mountain bike. After surviving a brain stem stroke in 2005, he was committed to continuing his exploration and enjoyment of Central Oregon’s endless trails with his family and friends. Over the course of the past 10 years, the AdvenChair has evolved into a durable, versatile, human-powered vehicle that can handle virtually every type of terrain, while easily converting into a regular wheelchair for indoor excursions and easy transportation.

Since making it available to the public for purchase and rental in 2021, AdvenChair has enabled people of all ages and disabilities to commune with nature, while connecting with those who accompany them. AdvenChairs have taken folks to places like Machu Picchu in Peru, the Camino de Fatima in Portugal, and the floor of the Grand Canyon (and back) via the steep, treacherous Bright Angel Trail, which Babb accomplished with a team of 10 friends (affectionately known as “mules”) in 2022.

“I can only imagine that Ms. Morgan, who is a paraplegic, came across AdvenChair on social media and did some research,” said Babb. “It’s an incredible honor to be included along with two dozen other pioneers and advocates for disabled travel.”

Babb credits partnerships with Wanderlust Tours, Visit Central Oregon and the Oregon Tourism Commission for helping AdvenChair establish connections with international travel entities like Untours Foundation and Conde’ Nast.

“It’s been incredibly helpful for us to receive recognition and support from Sarah Payne at Untours,” said Babb. “I can only imagine what a paragraph in Conde’ Nast Traveller could lead to. I’d love to take Ms. Morgan for an AdvenChair ride and thank her personally.”

advenchair.com

Take A Seat For Adventure

AdvenChair creator Geoff Babb, seated, during a training hike at Smith Rock State Park in central Oregon’s high desert region.

by Andy Nemann for innovations, in February 2025 PN Magazine

All-terrain wheelchairs aren’t anything new, but a former forest firefighter has designed a chair that allows even more adults and children with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D) to go off-road while promoting time with family and friends.

The AdvenChair is a patented and convertible hiking wheelchair designed for people with higher levels of SCI/D or limited upper arm mobility, such as from a stroke.

Showcased at last November’s TravelAbility Emerging Markets Summit in San Francisco, the chair is made so the rider is pushed or pulled by one to six people. Inventor Geoff Babb believes that aspect of the AdvenChair allows his creation to do more than allow people with limited mobility to experience places such as mountain trails.

“We think that adventuring is a team sport, and it really takes a team of people to move the chair,” Babb says. “The AdvenChair not only allows people to be out, but it brings peopletogether to do that.”

A Mountain Bike Chair

A beefy-looking chair with a heavy-duty orange frame, the AdvenChair has several unique features that help it stand out from other all-terrain wheelchairs.

One of the biggest is the AdvenChair’s ability to easily be converted from an off-road chair to one better suited to operate and maneuver indoors.

The All-Terrain Mode utilizes a removable 20-inch front wheel with shock absorbers that helps the chair navigate rugged, soft or steep terrain with the stability and durability of a mountain bike. When it’s time to head inside, use a bathroom or even get on a bus, 6-inch caster wheels are lowered into place and the third wheel is removed. Both modes allow a user’s feet to rest on a multi-position footplate with a minimum of 6 inches of clearance.

It’s only natural that the AdvenChair offers the stability and durability of a mountain bike, since it utilizes premium mountain bike parts for the wheels, tires, brakes and handlebars.

The main wheels are 27.5-inch Maxxis High Roller tires with a Cush-Core inner tire suspension system that allows them to be used with low tire pressure. The height-adjustable handlebars at the back of the chair have hand brakes for the 180-millimeter disk brake rotor. The padded seat is adjustable to fit young children up to large adults and features adjustable armrests and hand grips.

Those mountain bike parts also help make the chair easy to disassemble and fold into a compact size that can fit in the back of a small hatchback trunk or stow on an airplane. Babb says using them makes the chair easy to maintain.

“Wheelchair parts are expensive and not as accessible or as available as mountain bike parts,” he says. “This way, you can go to any bike store and get what you need.”

Try & Try Again

As with so many inventive products, this one wasn’t created overnight. It took a few prototypes, several years, and a rough trip to the Grand Canyon to get here. An avid outdoorsman, Babb was working as a Bureau of Land Management fire ecologist in Bend, Ore., in 2005, when a near fatal brain stem stroke left him in a wheelchair and with limited use of one hand.

Babb adapted and found ways to do things outside, such as sit skiing and horseback riding, but he realized he was being limited not so much by his body, but by his rigid wheelchair. With the help of his friend and helicopter mechanic Dale Neubauer, Babb modified his wheelchair with more robust tires and a third wheel to create the first AdvenChair.

Babb and his family used his new creation to explore several parks in Oregon and Washington, which eventually led to a 2016 attempt to visit the bottom of the Grand Canyon via the famed Bright Angel Trail. Unfortunately, a broken axle 2 miles into the descent forced a return to the top of the canyon’s South Rim and the realization that a whole new off-road wheelchair was needed. This one would be designed from the ground up to be less like a wheelchair and more like a mountain bike.

“I was kind of crushed when the first design failed, but we knew we had to start over again and keep going,” Babb says. “Fortunately, I had some some friends who were creative and led me down this path. I certainly had to learn to be open to talk about engineering and prototyping.”

With the help of CAD designer Jack Arnold and Neubauer, along with Babb and his wife, Yvonne’s, direction, AdvenChair 2.0 was born. Everything with the new chair was going well in 2017 when Babb had another stroke.

Despite the personal setback, a determined Babb steadily recovered from his second stroke. Several minor modifications were made to the chair, and the first production run of the current AdvenChair rolled out in June 2021.

Bringing People Together

Available for individual purchase ($11,950), the AdvenChair has seen strong growth through its own rental program, tour groups, schools and nonprofit groups.

Located in the popular outdoor recreation destination of Bend, Ore., the AdvenChair can be rented for a half day, a whole day, a week or three or more weeks with prices ranging from $75 to $850. The chair has also been popular with local companies such as Wanderlust Tours (wanderlusttours.com) and school programs such as the Northwest Regional Outdoor Science School.

Babb says he hopes to have people exploring and enjoying the great outdoors in AdvenChairs throughout the world in the next five years, but he believes he’s created something more than an off-road wheelchair.

“It just means a lot to me to see smiles and hear the laughter of people that are working together to work through a difficult area and problems,” Babb says. “For me, early on, not being able to rock climb, hike or bike again was kind of hard. But being in the AdvenChair, I feel like I’m really part of the adventure again as a team.”

Video: THE GREAT OUTDOORS: New AdvenChair tours are making tough Central Oregon hikes wheelchair accessible

New wheelchair-accessible tours are now available for Central Oregonians who want to experience hiking in some of the rougher terrain of our region. A special chair is making the adventure tours possible.

Central Oregon Daily

Imagine you’ve been an outdoor enthusiast all your life and you suddenly experience a medical problem that prevents you from exploring like you did before. That’s what happened to a Bend man who endured two strokes and ended up wheelchair-bound, cut off from the places he loved going.

But rather than give up, Geoff Babb designed a wheelchair that can go pretty much anywhere.

It’s called the AdvenChair. It’s basically a wheelchair built sturdy as a mountain bike on a long, durable three-wheel frame that can roll over uneven terrain.

"Our philosophy is anywhere somebody can physically take you, you can go. The chair will do it," said Jon Hunsaker, a friend of Babb. "Eleven people took him to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Four days and three nights to go down and back up, 10 miles both directions. The fitter you are, the better, but if you want to go around Shevlin Park, Geoff and I do it, just the two of us. I can push him and be fine on a level paved surface."

Babb helped invent the AdvenChair after suffering two strokes that limited his ability to reach the places he loves. It's obvious watching him riding in the AdvenChair, taking in the scenery, that outdoors is where he prefers to be.

"It means a lot because I used to live outside. Being able to get into a place and working hard with good people. It’s just like I was hiking or climbing myself. It means a lot," Babb said.

In the rough stuff, like the trails at Smith Rock State Park, the rider must have assistance.

"You can do it fairly easily with four. One person up front. It depends on whether you are going uphill or downhill. Two people on the sides to keep it balanced, to keep the center of gravity from going too far," Hunsaker said. "Then a driver who actually drives with handlebars like a bicycle. They have disc brakes that are designed for the mountain bike industry."

This excursion marks the launch of wheelchair accessible tours—called AdvenTours -- in association with Wanderlust Tours of Bend to places previously thought unreachable.

"I think it went really well," said Jared Garfield, Wanderlust Tours co-owner. "Our mission is to get people outside in whatever capacity they are ready for. We want to meet people where they are at."

Wanderlust Tours of Bend is scheduling more AdvenTours for people riding in these all-terrain wheelchairs. They can also arrange private tours. But the wheelchair rider must bring friends who are willing and physically able to help push, pull and stabilize the chair as it passes over uneven terrain.

Darren McLoed introduced himself as a volunteer, a team leader, a chair leader and "a mule."

"My job is to keep people safe. Making sure people are hooked up the right way. Making sure people aren’t overexerting themselves, expending energy we shouldn’t and making sure it’s enjoyable. Rotating people so we aren’t all worn out. Making sure we get to good viewpoints. Scout it out. Check the trail. Making sure everyone is hydrated."

Was the first organized wheelchair tour of Smith Rock a success?

"Yes. Absolutely."

"When we have family and friends come visit us, one of the first places we take them is Smith Rock, and we always have to stop right here at the parking lot," said Kathy Foreman of Bend. "So being able to go down further, much further into the park so my husband, Lincoln, can look up close and touch things and hear more geological information about the area, it’s great for him."

Hunsaker described taking a person in the AdvenChair on a trail as a team sport. "It’s a family sport. We highly encourage people to be involved. It brings people together."

Though it appears the rider in the chair is letting the mules do all the work, they are in fact helping by maintaining their balance by holding on to handgrips and shifting their body as the chair angles and pitches over the terrain.

"One of the passions of what I’m doing here and what I’ve become involved in is seeing the smiles of accomplishment on the faces of the people we are taking out," McLoed said. "When we accomplish that, their caregivers, their families, everyone around them, it grows from there. To come out here and see that on people’s faces that need help getting where we are going. That’s the part that drives me."

This was the farthest Lincoln Foreman had gone on a rough trail in the AdvenChair.

"It’s good. Kind of narrow and steep, but it’s pretty," he said.

Does he trust his mules?

"I have no choice," he responded, which earned him a round of laughs from the mules who just finished pushing and pulling him up a steep hill.

"For our athlete today, he’s been to Smith Rock before. He hasn’t made it more than 100 feet from the parking lot. In addition to that, today was the first day he got to see Monkey Face. That’s the kind of stuff that makes me so happy. It really reminds me this is why I do what I do," Garfield said.

AdvenChair, Wanderlust Tours team up for AdvenTours, accessible guided outings in special Central Oregon places

Getty Images

The first AdvenTour will be offered the morning of Saturday, July 13 at Smith Rock State Park.
image courtesy of SmithRock.com

What do you get when you combine AdvenChair, developer of the world’s most durable all-terrain wheelchair, with Wanderlust Tours, Central Oregon’s leader in naturalist-guided adventures? You get AdvenTours, a variety of accessible outings that allow people with mobility challenges to explore Central Oregon’s most iconic wild places with expert guidance. 

Thanks to a grant from Visit Central Oregon’s Future Fund, a program that supports local tourism projects benefiting both visitors and residents, AdvenChair is making two new chairs available to Wanderlust Tours and kicking off a season of both publicly offered and private accessible tours – AdvenTours, if you will. 

As Oregon makes strides in providing access to the outdoors across the state, locals and visitors alike will be able to take advantage of this new partnership. For people with mobility challenges looking to take in Central Oregon’s most spectacular natural sights, or even a wobbly grandparent who wants to join a family outing, one of these guided adventures could be just the ticket. 

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the AdvenChair team to facilitate accessible tours in the Bend area,” said Courtney Braun, Owner of Wanderlust Tours. “For more than 30 years, Wanderlust has led folks into Central Oregon’s great outdoors to let Mother Nature do her magic. And now, those with mobility challenges can join us for adventures in these beautiful areas to come away inspired, educated and with great stories to tell.”

The first AdvenTour will be offered the morning of Saturday, July 13 at Smith Rock State Park. Adventurers will have more than two hours to take in views from the rim of the canyon, as well as explore trails along the Crooked River, where they can get close-up glimpses at climbers challenging the walls. 

Video: ‘Dreams are coming true’: ‘DREAM BOLDLY The Grand AdvenChair’ film, featuring inventor Geoff Babb, to debut at COCC

KTVZ interviews Babb and Outback Film Director Marcia Volk a few days prior to the event.

"DREAM BOLDLY: The Grand AdvenChair" is a documentary film that's making its debut Friday evening at Central Oregon Community College.

The 48-minute documentary features the story of Bend adventurer, entrepreneur and disability advocate Geoff Babb and the effort that led to the creation of the AdvenChair.

Babb suffered a near-fatal brain stem stroke that left him in a wheelchair and with only limited use of one hand. While the stroke forever changed his ability to move, Babb created a different way to enjoy the outdoors.

"His incredible and infectious will to dream boldly made me want to do the same," film director Marcia Volk said of Babb. "It was always my dream to create a documentary, and now we’ve both realized huge dreams.”

The AdvenChair, Babb's invention, is an all-terrain human-powered wheelchair that lets people with disabilities get off the beaten path.

"We built this chair from the ground up," Babb said Wednesday. "We used mountain bike parts, mountain bike wheels, brakes and a seat from a sit-ski." Babb said.

In the film, he takes the wheelchair on a rigorous four-day expedition down and back out of the Grand Canyon. 

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"After a stroke or some injury or illness, things will be different. But it doesn't mean you can't do things. You just have to find a different way to do them." Babb said. "Until you're really there, it's hard to imagine what it was like. I'm really excited to share that."

The documentary is currently in review by film festivals from coast to coast, and even the famous festival in Cannes, France.

"Thanks to Geoff, both of our dreams are coming true." Volk said.

The debut event takes place on Friday from 5-7 p.m. at Wille Hall on COCC’s Bend campus and will feature a presentation and Q&A with the filmmakers and expedition team following the film.  Tickets are free, but donations are encouraged to support the film.

The Oregon Outdoor Alliance and Stroke Awareness Oregon also will be attending, to share information about their organizations’ important work in Central Oregon.