Second local double amputee, military veteran climbs Manitou Incline
Former Army Staff Sgt. Travis Strong proved his strength Friday by climbing the steep Manitou Incline despite the loss of his legs.
It was Strong’s second round trip on the popular trail. His first climb last summer took nine hours.
“I just decided to go, so I went by myself,” he said. “This time, I finished in five hours. It helped having a group of Fort Carson soldiers with me, and I had more water and energy snacks this time.”
With his gloved hands and muscular arms, Strong, 41, made the climb almost look easy on the sunny, mild, late winter day.
“I never thought about doing it until last summer,” he said, referring to the successful Incline and Pikes Peak climbs of another double amputee and military veteran, Mandy Horvath. “Here was this young woman, injured more recently than I was, making the climb. I thought it was amazing. She motivated me.”
Strong and Horvath are the only two double amputees known to have scaled the Incline.
“I lost my legs during an attack in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2006,” he said. “I was in a Stryker vehicle that was hit by a projectile that went through the truck and through my legs.”
Strong said by climbing the Incline, he wants to show people that despite their situation, anything is possible.
Kera Lewis was moved to tears after seeing Strong on the Incline.
“After thinking I didn’t feel like hiking today, I got up there, and then I passed him on the way up, and I just started to cry afterwards,” she said. “He’s very inspirational.”
David Tennies made a point of shaking hands with Strong on the trail.
“He gives me hope, that’s for sure,” Tennies said. “Makes me feel like we need to do a little bit more with our lives, definitely.”
Strong said he’d eventually like to try climbing the Incline twice in the same day, and raise awareness of suicide among veterans by placing a “22” marker every 22 steps along the trail.
The 22 represents how many veterans take their own lives every day, he said.
Brian Gliba, a former Army captain who also was injured on the battlefield and is Strong’s roommate, said he admires Strong’s spirit.
“It would be so easy to give up, and many veterans do,” Gliba said. “But he has the ability to inspire others.”
