Several mountain climbers have reportedly scaled a wooden replica of President Trump’s steel border wall that was built to disprove Trump’s claims that a portion of the wall is “impossible to climb.”
Rick Weber — a 75-year-old retired engineer, and active rock climber — built a replica of an 18-foot tall section of border wall in Kentucky earlier this month, inviting mountain climbers to compete to see who could climb it the fastest.
Weber said his proposed challenge was inspired by Trump’s visit to a section of border wall in California last month, where he announced that 20 of the most skilled mountain climbers out there had been tasked with trying to scale the wall, but were unable to do so.
Some raised questions over Trump’s claims of a climbing test, however, with award-winning climbers saying they “never heard of any climbers ever being recruited to try and climb a border wall.” Weber too said he was skeptical of the climbing test, prompting him to create his climbing challenge.
As of Friday, Oct. 11, The Courier-Journal reports that numerous people have already scaled the replica wall, including an 8-year-old girl, even though Weber’s competition isn’t until this weekend. {mosads}
According to the Courier-Journal, 30-year-old Peter Favaloro of Boston reached the top of the wall in about a minute. The novice climber told the publication he traveled to climb the wall after seeing news coverage about it.
Another climber, 29-year-old Erik Kloeker, made it over the wall in approximately 30 seconds during a demonstration for reporters. He later climbed the wall a second time while also juggling.
Weber, who is certified by American Mountain Guide Association as a Single Pitch Instructor, admits his wall is not exactly the same as Trump’s but says it doesn’t matter. He says if you can climb his wooden wall, you can climb the larger steel wall.
The section of border wall Weber replicated is closer in style to a 18-foot steel bollard wall erected by a private company in May of this year, but is made of wood instead. The new section of wall Trump spoke of in California last month is a steel bollard wall that includes beams filled with concrete and stands at 30-feet tall.
Trump ran on the campaign promise of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a pledge that has led to funding battles with lawmakers. Trump has since declared an emergency in order to reallocate billions of dollars in military funding for wall construction.
The section of wall touted by Trump in September is one of the first new sections of the wall built since his emergency declaration.
Weber’s official competition is set to take place Friday and Saturday. On Friday afternoon, he posted to Facebook that the fastest wall-climb so far was 17.25 seconds.