Zuko Carrasco worked as a professional mountain guide for a decade, leading clients on hundreds of adventures. But everything changed when a trust fall accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Despite that, Carrasco refused to let his physical limitations define him, and in the fall, he set out to scale Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan, using just his arms. LA Times investigative reporter Jack Dolan joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” with more on Carrasco’s climb.

In 2015, Carrasco was leading a team-building exercise involving trust falls off a platform 40 feet in the air. He was the last to jump off the platform, but no one was waiting below, pulling his rope. He fell, and was severely injured, which led to depression. 

“He’s a mountain guy. [His identity is] physical strength. It’s his ability to retrain. And it’s his ability to encourage other people through their own exhaustion and their own fear to get to this summit that they’re going to be telling their grandkids about. He was so devastated to lose that core of his being that he seriously considered suicide. But the trouble was, he couldn’t move his limbs, so he couldn’t figure out how to do it,” Dolan shared. 

However, Carrasco went to Europe for physical therapy and was introduced to the handcycle. The apparatus gave him a new lease on life. 

“Instead of pedals for your legs, they have cranks that you move with your arms. He gets on this thing, and… for the first time in God knows how long, he’s actually moving under his own power. He’s going fast. And he’s just absolutely awake, just in love with it,” Dolan recounted. 

Eventually, Carrasco began competing in races and climbing major peaks on his handcycle with help from friends. But, Dolan said that Carrasco wanted to climb a peak all on his own. 

“[Carrasco] felt that he was just way too reliant on his friends pushing him and helping him. So the idea of climbing El Cap, which is this vertical wall of granite, it’s an icon internationally as an adventure destination. But the beauty of it is that it’s vertical. He can hang on the rope and do little pull ups and move himself up. And he measured it. It was like four inches at a time. It took him 5,000 little pull ups to get to the top. But he managed to do it. And although his friends set up the ropes and set up everything, the actual move was almost entirely him,” Dolan said. 

Now unable to work as a mountain guide, Carrasco has turned his story into a career in social media. Dolan spoke about Carrasco’s next planned adventures. 

“The plan is to do a thousand-mile bike ride through the Andes Mountains, which just goes up over amazing peaks and incredible work. And, again, the joy of it for him is that once he’s on the bike and once he’s spinning, it’s crazy that he doesn’t need anybody else’s help. And that’s the real sort of salvation for him. That’s the sense of independence he craves so much. 

You can follow Carrasco’s adventures on Instagram @Zuko_Carrasco.

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