White Salmon native hikes Grand Canyon in wheelchair

By Alana Lackner: Columbia Gorge News

Geoff Babb and his team of “mules” made the 20-mile round trip down the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon, nearly six years after their last attempt. All photos courtesy of Ethan Mentzer for AdvenChair

Growing up in White Salmon, Geoff Babb had always been a huge lover of nature and spending time outside. Between his work as a fire ecologist and his love for outdoor activities like skiing and backpacking, his active lifestyle had always been really important to him.

Then, in November 2005, he had a stroke that changed everything.

It could’ve killed him, and it almost did. It left him in a wheelchair, with only limited use of one of his hands. However, Babb wasn’t ready to give up the outdoors and all of the things he loved, despite the limitations of his chair.

Geoff Babb in hiking wheelchair AdvenChair on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon

“Being outside was really important to me,” Babb said. “But I found out right away that the standard wheelchair wasn’t going to allow me to be outside the way I would like to be. So I started experimenting and modifying a standard chair.”

Babb and his friend Dave Neubauer, a helicopter mechanic, were able to modify his wheelchair, increasing the size of the tires, adding a detachable front wheel and handbrakes, and a harness that could let a small team guide him up and down steep terrain.

After a bunch of trials in the new all-terrain wheelchair, which they had dubbed the AdvenChair, they were ready to take on Babb’s dream: The Grand Canyon.

Geoff Babb supported by his team of “mules” on the Bright Angel Trail in his hiking wheelchair, the AdvenChair.

In 2016, they tried to take it into the Grand Canyon, but after about two miles, the frame broke. They had to get assistance from the Park Service to get back out.

Despite the disappointment at the time, Babb said that, in the long run, he was grateful the chair had failed then.

“That was actually a very good thing,” he said. “Because it caused them to redesign the chair from the ground up, literally.”

However, in 2017, as they were working on developing AdvenChair 2.0, Babb had another stroke, 12 years to the day after his first one. He found himself having to recover all over again, having to relearn how to eat and use his right hand again.

Geoff Babb and his AdvenChair team with his hiking wheelchair on an exposed trail in the Grand Canyon

Even another stroke couldn’t stop Babb, though. He was still determined to make his new AdvenChair  a reality, and to make it down the Grand Canyon, for real this time. By late 2019, AdvenChair 2.0 was a reality, and then in June 2021, AdvenChair 3.0 followed.

Then, finally, in May 2022, Babb and his team would take on the canyon again. And this time, they would succeed.

They set off down the Bright Angel Trail, the same as last time, but this time they would make it down and back: Over 20 miles, 10 times the distance they achieved in 2016.

The Bright Angel Trail is not a gentle one, either. It goes down 4,800 feet, with water bars, rock obstacles, and stretches of mud and sand. It was a four day trip, with the team taking on five miles of intense terrain a day. But even so, the chair held.

Of course, Babb didn’t do it alone. The AdvenChair takes a team of people, and he had a group of 10 people to help push, pull, and lift him on his way.

“I’m just really grateful for all my friends and family that helped make things happen,” he said.

The all-terrain wheelchair AdvenChair doesn't need trails to be accessible.

Though Babb currently lives in Bend and has for many years, he said White Salmon still influences his love for nature and the outdoors.

“It’s hard to not have a love for the outdoors when you look out the window and see Mount  Hood, as we did in the Gorge,” he said. “And to be able to go play in a creek and then getting older and being able to climb on Mount Hood and Mount Adams … Being able to be immersed and being in a wheelchair really caused me to have to think about how I can continue that relationship to the outdoors. It’s been a big driving force in my life. Not only to get myself out, but to allow others to be outside.”

This desire to help others in wheelchairs who, like him, may miss their connection to the outdoors, is why Babb sells and rents AdvenChairs.