WOLFE COUNTY, Ky. — 75-year-old retired engineer and climbing instructor, Rick Weber is challenging climbers to compete in scaling an 18-foot replica of a portion of the border wall.
In September, President Trump said that an 18-foot border wall is "very hard" to climb and that "world-class mountain climbers" struggled to climb the wall.
This comment inspired Weber to build a wooden replica. Weber says that he got the dimensions for the duplicate wall from photographs from the President's news conference.
"If you're a mountain climber and somebody says something's impossible to climb, that's pretty much a challenge to say, 'let's give it a go'," Weber said.
Now that the replica wall is built, Weber is challenging climbers to prove that it is indeed not impossible.
Weber is hosting a friendly speed competition this weekend to see who can climb it.
"The wall claimed to be a very good design and it's actually a very good design, if you're a rock climber, it has some features on it to make it very easy to shimmy up the columns," Weber said.
The competition will take place near Muir Valley in Red River Gorge on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12.
More details about the upcoming competition from Weber's Facebook page is posted below.
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