Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

8-Year-Old Girl Shows How 'Impenetrable' Trump's Border Wall Actually Is By Easily Climbing Up And Over It

8-Year-Old Girl Shows How 'Impenetrable' Trump's Border Wall Actually Is By Easily Climbing Up And Over It
Karla R Hancock/Facebook



The owner of a rock climbing facility in Kentucky built a life-size replica of the border wall for climbers to scale.

An 8-year-old girl recently assisted him with testing the belay system attached to the wall segment for climber safety, and was able to easily scale the obstacle.


Rick Weber, co-founder of Muir Valley rock climbing park, decided to test the President's claim that the border wall was "virtually Impenetrable" by putting together a replica of the bollard fence for climbers to climb at "Rocktoberfest", a festival for rock climbers at the nearby Red River Gorge canyon system.

Weber told Time what he thought of the President's claim about the wall and his motivation for building the replica:

"You don't tell a bona fide rock climber something's impossible to climb."

Weber invited a few local climbers to help test the replica and the included belay system installed for climber safety.

Among those who made the climb was 8-year-old climber Lucy Hancock. Hancock and the other climbers used no additional equipment while climbing, just the belay and climbing harness for safety.

An adult climber who also scaled the wall, Erik Kloeker, managed the climb in around 40 seconds.

Karla Hancock, Lucy's mother, told Time that her daughter has long showed an inclination toward both rock climbing and politics.

She said that Lucy is confused by the current discourse on immigration, however.

"To her, it's black and white: If somebody's hungry, and you have the means to give to them, why couldn't you?"

Karla posted a series of photos and videos of Lucy's climb to Facebook.

President Trump has claimed that mountain climbers have said the fence can't be climbed.

"We actually built prototypes and we have, I guess you could say, world-class mountain climbers. We got climbers. We had 20 mountain climbers. That's all they do; they love to climb mountains."
"...This wall can't be climbed. This is very, very hard."

Weber, and other rock climbers, had a hard time believing this is true, however.

"We were all very puzzled because none of us in the climbing community had heard of these 20 people that had supposedly tried this wall."

Weber opted to build the shorter of the two possible wall heights, 18 feet vs. 30 feet, to save some money. Because the flat panel at the top of the wall is the same height either way, Weber said the wall should be equally easy to climb either way. The taller wall just means having to shimmy up the bollard portion for a slightly longer distance.

When climbing, Lucy used the edge of the top panel to climb the flat surface, which Weber allowed because the panels on the actual fence appear to have significant gaps that would allow a climber to get a good grip.

Reactions to Lucy's climb on social media were varied, but many poked fun at the "virtually Impenetrable" wall.




Lucy may have had to use the edge of the flat panel at the top to climb it, but that is largely because of her height. Weber estimates that a climber who is at least 5' 10" could climb the face of the panel even if the gaps at the edges were not there.

The climbers who will have a chance to climb the wall replica at Rocktoberfest this weekend will also help to prove how far from "virtually Impenetrable" the wall really is.

Weber said that his aim in making the replica to climb wasn't to say that the United States should not have a secure border, merely to point out that bollard fencing was not the way to go to achieve that.

"I'm not making an argument that we shouldn't have a secure border. I'm not doing that at all."
"What I'm trying to do is to make sure that we're not blowing a lot of money on some silly nonsense of putting up something that he thinks can't be climbed. Because it can. And will be."

If there's a budding climber in your life, this set of 22 Assorted Deluxe Rock Climbing Holds for Kids with 44 Swing Safe Fasteners + Drill Bit, available here, can be used to create your own climbing wall.

******

Have you listened to the first season of George Takei's podcast, 'Oh Myyy Pod!'?

In season one we explored the racially charged videos that have taken the internet by storm.

We're hard at work on season two so be sure to subscribe here so you don't miss it when it goes live.

Here's one of our favorite episodes from season one. Enjoy!

More from People/donald-trump

Sarah Jessica Parker
Marc Piasecki/WireImage

Sarah Jessica Parker Claps Back At Conservative Critics Who Want Her To 'Shut Up' About Politics And 'Act'

Nothing seems to get conservatives' goats quite like celebrities having political opinions—well, liberal and leftist celebrities, anyway.

They seem to love it when weird right-wing celebs like Kevin Sorbo get on the internet and say bizarre, usually counterfactual nonsense, or when JK Rowling does her darnedest to make her legacy not about Harry Potter but about her weird obsession with trans people.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ann Coulter
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Ann Coulter Faces Fierce Backlash After Saying 'We Didn't Kill Enough Indians' In Deleted Post

Far-right provocateur Ann Coulter is facing fierce criticism after she made a genocidal remark in a now-deleted post on X in response to University of Minnesota professor and Navajo Nation member Melanie Yazzie's speech about colonization.

Yazzie, in a speech at last year's annual Socialism Conference, said "decolonization is the only thing that is going to save us as a species" during a panel hosted by Red Nation, a Native American nonprofit that advocates for Palestinian and Native American rights. She also said that the United States is the "greatest predator empire that has ever existed" and said it should be dismantled.

Keep ReadingShow less
James Gunn
Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage

James Gunn Bluntly Fires Back At 'Jerks' Who Criticize Superman's Pro-Immigrant Themes

Superman director James Gunn issued a response to the "jerks" who criticize the political themes inherent to the superhero's story, expressing his hope that seeing the movie will "make people a little nicer."

Speaking with The Times of London, Gunn stressed that the story of Superman is more relevant than ever considering the ongoing political turmoil in the United States largely centered around the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Keep ReadingShow less

Things People Do In Relationships That Seem Sweet But Are Actually Toxic

Content Warning: Controlling and Toxic Relationship Behaviors

We've all either been involved in or witnessed a relationship where we saw something that we thought was cute or sweet at first, but we eventually found the behavior to be troubling or "too much."

Keep ReadingShow less
A piggy bank surrounded by loose change.
coin bank

'Poor Person Habits' People Won't Give Up No Matter How Rich They Get

When money is tight, we look for every possible way to avoid spending it.

As much as we might find ourselves missing out on some of the nicer things life has to offer, we find ourselves contented by the fact that we will always have enough money in our bank accounts to pay our bills on time.

Keep ReadingShow less