Good news travels fast.
Smith Rock Records the First Wheelchair Ascent to the Burma Road Summit
“Boldly going where no chair has gone before” is the mantra for AdvenChair, the all-terrain wheelchair designed to allow everyone to visit wild places not necessarily on graded trails. Geoff Babb, the local inventor of the AdvenChair, and his team use Smith Rock State Park as a proving ground for that premise, each time pushing the envelope to make the chair more resilient to hiking trail challenges. This time the goal was the Burma Road summit, with a total elevation gain of 1156 feet. They did the roughly 6-mile round trip in just over 3 hours, over gravelly steep hillsides, around boulders, and at times, very narrow trails.
Geoff Babb reaches the Burma Road Summit in his AdvenChair
image courtesy of Amy Kazmier
“Boldly going where no chair has gone before” is the mantra for AdvenChair, the all-terrain wheelchair designed to allow everyone to visit wild places not necessarily on graded trails. Geoff Babb, the local inventor of the AdvenChair, and his team use Smith Rock State Park as a proving ground for that premise, each time pushing the envelope to make the chair more resilient to hiking trail challenges. This time the goal was the Burma Road summit, with a total elevation gain of 1156 feet. They did the roughly 6-mile round trip in just over 3 hours, over gravelly steep hillsides, around boulders, and at times, very narrow trails. A huge accomplishment, considering Geoff’s first time in a standard wheelchair at Smith Rock in 2006 almost landed him on his head when the tiny wheels caught on a crack in the pavement.
Team AdvenChair posed for the first wheelchair ascent of Burma Road Summit
When a stroke in 2005 left Geoff in a wheelchair and with only limited use of one hand, he found ways to get back to his beloved outdoor activities through adaptive sports such as sit-skiing, but when it came to getting off the beaten path, it was the inflexible chair he had to overcome, not his attitude.
Fast forward to 2022, and the AdvenChair is in its third iteration, helping people with mobility challenges reach amazing spaces, even Machu Picchu, the 15th-century Inca citadel at 7,790 feet in southern Peru.
An off-roading wheelchair allowed Robert and Nelly Kapen to visit Machu Picchu with several family members.
Courtesy of Nelly and Robert Kapen
For Geoff, this latest test at Smith Rock is all about his immediate goal—reaching the bottom of the Grand Canyon on a 4-day trip planned for the end of April. The first time around in 2016, the axle broke 2 miles into the trip. Since then an inner suspension system and more refinements have been made to the “chair that thinks it’s a mountain bike.”
Broken axle on AdvenChair Grand Canyon first trip
image courtesy of AdvenChair
The Burma Summit was a huge milestone in testing various terrain and team logistics necessary for the expedition. The backcountry permit was approved back in December of 2021, and now the logistics begin for taking a team to support this human-powered endeavor in such rugged terrain.
To adhere to his vision of adapting to wild spaces, the AdvenChair is non-motorized. It requires a team of at least two “mules” to assist the rider in navigating switchbacks, steep grades in both directions, and more. Straps and poles help to guide the chair, but it’s the coordination of the team that is critical to the success of the more challenging trail conditions. The many test trips to Smith Rock have involved various team members. An attempt was made several years ago in 2016 to reach the Burma Road Summit, but it was the fairly recent addition of more switchbacks to the trail system that made it finally accessible last weekend!
Team AdvenChair descends the Canyon Trail into Smith Rock State Park
image courtesy of Amy Kazmier
Team AdvenChair heads up the switchbacks to Burma Road
image courtesy of Darren Mcleod
On this particular day, Geoff’s team included the strength of his wife Yvonne, two first-timers, three longtime friends, and someone who has been on two other outings with the team. One of the earliest members of Team AdvenChair is Air Operations fire team member Amy Kazmier. Always smiling, Amy oftentimes is out in front, leading the pack. She’ll be covering logistics for the Grand AdvenChair to the Grand Canyon, to make sure they are cooperating within the backcountry permit system of the NPS at the Grand Canyon, as well as providing for a great experience for all team members of the Grand AdvenChair and other hikers into the canyon, with the help of a team that includes various support roles, such as a food unit leader, the "mules,” and sherpas.
Amy Kazmier sets the pace for Team AdvenChair down the Burma Road
image courtesy of Darren Mcleod
For Amy, these outings do have an ultimate goal, other than to get outside with friends enjoying the beautiful places of central Oregon. For her, it is about “testing our agility, stamina, and strength, in this case, to get to the bottom of the “Big Ditch” with 3000 water bars (raised drainage for trails) with the whole AdvenChair team and back up to the top of the rim in 4 days in one piece, safely with the whole team.”
“The Burma Road is a hike that is a goal of many...to get to the top! It’s not that easy just hiking it with your buddies, human or fur babies, and even for me, working on a fire team in Air Operations! What draws me to these adventures with Geoff, the AdvenChair, and the various team members that show up each time is the cooperation for a cause greater than all of us! It is always amazing to see the smiles on other people’s faces in disbelief or encouragement!”
—Amy Kazmier
A fairly recent addition to the team, Darren Mcleod, Amy noticed was keenly observant on the positioning of straps and people around Geoff as they navigated the technical sections. It turns out that Darren brings field experience of teamwork and overcoming obstacles, in more ways than one. As an Army veteran, he was given routine steroid injections to keep on going with pain. At 54, he has endured 7 surgeries of multiple types, with two of those in the past 2 years due to a decreased supply of blood to his hips. Like Geoff after two brain stem strokes, he has greatly exceeded his doctors’ expectations. After he reached his goal of hiking 4 miles a day, he reached out to lend his support to Team AdvenChair. Now he’s been invited to be on the Grand AdvenChair in April.
“My desire to be part of Team AdvenChair comes from Geoff’s strength. I’d like to be like him—where it’s not about me. It’s about getting rid of the scale, to get beyond the individual, and all about the team. Sharing smiles with everyone at the end of the day.”
—Darren Mcleod
Darren Mcleod recently joined Team AdvenChair
image courtesy of Amy Kazmier
Team AdvenChair descends Burma Road
image courtesy of Amy Kazmier
Team AdvenChair is all smiles at the top of Burma Road
image courtesy of Amy Kazmier
Congratulations Team AdvenChair on reaching this milestone. We wish you all the best on your Grand AdvenChair in April to the “Big Ditch!”
Video: OPB'S Oregon Field Guide Airs "Adventure Wheelchair" Episode Filmed at Smith Rock
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) Producer Jule Gilfillan and videographer Kristen Henderson had their work cut out for them filming at Smith Rock State Park during the hottest July on record. For 24 days, the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. The filming for this part of the “Adventure Wheelchair” story on AdvenChair for the OPB show, Oregon Field Guide, had already been postponed once. Both the film crew and the AdvenChair team decided to go for it by getting an early start.
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) Producer Jule Gilfillan and videographer Kristen Henderson had their work cut out for them filming at Smith Rock State Park during the hottest July on record. For 24 days, the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. The filming for this part of the “Adventure Wheelchair” story on AdvenChair for the OPB show, Oregon Field Guide, had already been postponed once. Both the film crew and the AdvenChair team decided to go for it by getting an early start.
A weekly TV news magazine exploring the ecological issues, natural wonders, and outdoor recreation of the Northwest for over 30 years, OPB’s Oregon Field Guide has been coming to Smith Rock State Park to cover a range of stories, from rock climbing to geology. This time they needed to add oppressive weather to the logistics of filming mobility challenged subjects navigating conditions that can pose an issue to a lot of visitors to the park.
OPB Producer Jule Gilfillan and videographer Kristen Henderson capture AdvenChair inventor Geoff Babb in one of the two AdvenChairs headed into Smith Rock State Park down the Canyon Trail.
With an objective to show the responsiveness to all-terrain conditions for “the wheelchair that thinks it’s a mountain bike,” all set out down the paved, then “scree”—or pea-size gravel, Canyon Trail to descend the steep slope into the river canyon below. As the AdvenChair is human-powered, this required stopping and starting a team of human “mules” to lead the two wheelchairs down the slope, stop, and reshoot for lighting, angles, etc, all as the sun begins to shine more intensely than anticipated with the weather app.
A challenge for any producer is to keep on schedule for all sorts of timing reasons. In this case, Jule had to get the shots she wanted to demonstrate the breadth of the AdvenChair while being aware that one of her non-mobile film subjects couldn’t regulate his body temperature on his own. She constantly checked in on them, adjusting locations to keep everyone close to the shade and hydrated while getting proper light for the shot.
In the end, Jule and Kristen have captured some great footage at Smith Rock to help tell the story of how AdvenChair opens up wild spaces to those with mobility challenges.
Their episode “Adventure Wheelchair” on OPB’s Oregon Field Guide covers interviews with the team behind this all-terrain wheelchair, the assembly process, and culminates with the AdvenChair in action on the trails at Smith Rock State Park. Great job Jule and Kristen!
When OPB’s Bend correspondent Emily Cureton aired a radio story about Geoff Babb’s “AdvenChair” in 2019, I knew the Oregon Field Guide audience would be as intrigued as I was to see the chair in action. I reached out to Geoff and the story was born!
Working with Geoff, Yvonne and the whole AdvenChair crew was eye-opening in ways I hadn’t expected. Not only had a community collected around the project, but had also generated a powerful bonding experience that is easy to miss in our busy lives. Working on this story reminded me to slow down and savor everything that life brings.”
— OPB Oregon Field Guide Producer Jule Gilfillan
Smith Rock—proving ground for local inventor's all-terrain wheelchair.
Geoff Babb’s first ride in his wheelchair to the park back in 2006 was not pretty. He promptly did a face plant as the front wheels got stuck in a crack in the sidewalk. But while a near-fatal brain stem stroke left him with only limited use of one hand, he soon found his inflexible wheelchair to be the biggest obstacle to having fun in his beloved outdoors again. He set out to do something about it.
The AdvenChair in full test mode at Smith Rock State Park
BY SMITHROCK.COM
PHOTOS BY MICHELLE SIMMONS
Geoff Babb’s first ride in his wheelchair to the park back in 2006 was not pretty. He promptly did a face plant as the front wheels got stuck in a crack in the sidewalk. But while a near-fatal brain stem stroke left him with only limited use of one hand, he soon found his inflexible wheelchair to be the biggest obstacle to having fun in his beloved outdoors again. He set out to do something about it.
Over the last 13 years Geoff and his team, including his dedicated wife Yvonne, helicopter mechanic Dale Neubauer, and CAD designer Jack Arnold, designed, tested, and tinkered to create a totally new human-powered off-road chair that thinks it’s a mountain bike—the AdvenChair. All this, in spite of a second stroke 12 years to the day after the first one.
GEOFF BABB, CREATOR OF THE ADVENCHAIR
“While the (second) stroke forced me to learn how to swallow, eat solid foods, and use my right hand all over again, it heightened my determination to bring the “AdvenChair 2.0” to reality. Not just for me, but for the millions of people around the world with limited mobility, and even more limited one-dimensional chairs.”
GEOFF BABB
Geoff was back at Smith Rock recently with the latest iteration of the AdvenChair to test once again, as the prototype gets refined through the Spring 2019, with a limited first production run based on funding scheduled for Fall 2019. He shared his Journal entry from the day for us to share with you.
AdvenChairing is a team sport.
By Geoff Babb
Photos by Michelle Simmons, The Suitcase Studio
My wife, Yvonne often refers to the AdvenChair as the “community chair” because so many people are involved with it, whether designing it, telling the story, or on the trail, where it takes a team to push, pull, and/or maneuver the chair. This was the case last week on a hike at Smith Rock State Park.
Our timing was perfect as we set a date a week in advance for a photoshoot of the newly powder coated AdvenChair to have high quality pictures to use on the website. With temps in the 50’s and blue skies, matched with stunning rock formations, conditions couldn’t have been much better.
Checking out the front wheel. Click to enlarge.
Photographer Michelle Simmons had a list of shots in mind – moving on the trail, people talking, close ups of the chair, and various group shots, and designer Jack Arnold wanted to watch how the chair performed, particularly the front wheel.
In the parking lot several people helped me transfer out of the van and into the AdvenChair while others readied the straps, poles, and shoulder harness needed for pulling.
Soon we were headed down the steep trail into the Crooked River Canyon. Amy Kazmier used the disc brakes to easily control my speed, but just in case, Dave Green and Kirk Metzger followed with nylon straps attached to the chair should she need help.
Amy Kazmier is on the disc brakes to safely descend into the park, with Dave Green and Kirk Metzger as backup on nylon straps and Brian Tandy on lead.
With her two-year-old daughter Addison on her back Danielle Cochran pushed me across the footbridge at the Crooked River. This was Danielle’s first outing with us, but she was already a valued team member after she and her husband Joe had donated coffee through their business Smith Rock Coffee Roasters to the Indiegogo fundraising campaign.
As Brian Tandy pulled me with two fiberglass poles attached to a shoulder/waist harness, the team easily moved me through rocky spots and across smooth boardwalks before really testing the system. Michelle asked for a photo near the water, so the team guided me about 50 feet down a log and earth staircase to a small beach. With a combination of teamwork, strength, and finesse I was quickly back up the stairs and onto the trail.
Moving through rocky spaces. Click to enlarge.
Heading down the stairs to the beach. Click to enlarge.
Heading across the boardwalk to the beach. Click to enlarge.
Hanging out on the beach. Click to enlarge.
At Smith Rock descending into the canyon from the parking lot is optional. From the bottom though, the climb out is mandatory; but three pullers and a pusher (with some rest breaks thrown in) quickly pulled me the 200 yards to the top.
Headed up the hill out of the canyon.
Around a picnic table we debriefed with an AAR – an “After Action Review” in military and firefighting parlance, but in this case, I’ll coin the term “After AdvenChair Review” – to discuss the day.
Everyone was impressed with how easily the AdvenChair rolls and how well the weight is balanced. Jack shared his ideas on upgrades to strengthen the front wheel and to improve the footrest and steering tubes. Through the test, AAR, refine cycle we’ll continue to improve the AdvenChair.
At the “After AdvenChair Review”
And a fine day was had by all!
With teamwork Michelle was able to get some good shots for the website, Jack got important feedback on the design, new people were able to experience the AdvenChair, and we all enjoyed a stellar January day.
Thanks Geoff for sharing your Journal entry with us and for all you are doing to help so many others with mobility issues get off the beaten path!