Peter Rieke
Age: 51 Disability: Parapalegic (Paralyzed from the waist down after a 1994 rock climbing accident) Atheletic Accomplishments: Climbed to the summits of Mount Rainier (14,411 ft.), Mount Hood (11,239 ft.), and Mt. Shasta (14,162 ft.) using only his arm strength and his custom built, human powered SnowPod.
Prior to the climbing accident that left him without the use of his legs, Peter had stood atop the impressive summit of Mount Rainier six times. While many felt his climbing career was over, Peter had other thoughts. After three years designing and building the human-arm-powered SnowPod (a hybrid between a bike/tractor with spiked snowmobile treads), he set off to reach the summit of Mount Rainier—and failed.
A second attempt also fell short, but on the third try, Rieke reached the fabled summit in the midst of a whiteout. The grueling climb took 10 days and his team weathered 4 days of tent shredding storms and high winds. When asked why he wanted to ascend the peak, he responded with a Mallory-like: “Because I can.” Since then, Peter has continued to climb in the Pacific Northwest and has led three other disabled climbers up Mt. Shasta
