Climb Deaf DC hosts gatherings on the first Sunday of each month at local gyms, and outdoors twice a year. Everyone is welcome, both deaf and hearing! Climb Deaf DC was recently mentioned in this article in Climbing magazine. For more information, follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
Paulus Khouri, Tonya Stremlau and I founded Climb Deaf DC group on December 7, 2015 simply because we were looking for just a few other deaf people to climb with. Soon after, Jinah Williamson hosted the first local ASL Climbing Day on March 20, 2016 at Earth Treks Rockville, drawing 31 people, most of who had never climbed before. We joined forces a few months later. Since then, Brian Florence, Adam Bartley, Neal Matthews, Sam Bragg and Andrew Wisniewski have joined us as co-hosts. We could not function without everyone’s contributions!
Climb Deaf DC has now hosted 72 events and drawn more than 1,500 attendees. We’ve partnered with CorpsTHAT, a deaf conservation corps, for a camping/climbing weekend. Some of our regular members moved to Denver, setting up Colorado ASL Climb (Facebook), and to Rochester, New York, setting up ASL Roc Sends (Facebook | Instagram). A third group that is older than us, ASL Climbing Network (Facebook), founded by Sonya Wilson, also operates in southern California.
Derek Braun 