It’s 5:30 a.m. and the Montana sky is a deep indigo, dotted by the occasional flurry of snow. The temperature is minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit, a bone-chilling cold that seeps in everywhere. Ice climber Kimber Cross is packing the back of a 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness with snacks, layers, crampons, avalanche gear and a custom-built prosthetic ice axe, ready for a day of adventure in Custer Gallatin National Forest’s famed Hyalite Canyon.
Before we hit the road, she checks in with the group, ensuring everyone has what they need for the day. Cross, also a kindergarten teacher, expresses the same kind of care toward her peers as she does toward her students.
The drive to Hyalite Canyon from downtown Bozeman is short yet breathtaking, winding through snowy canyons next to a swiftly running creek. By some measures, the road is treacherous – coated in thick ice and swirling spindrift – but the Outback Wilderness handles it with ease.
Gearing Up
When we arrive at our intended climb of the morning, Cross gears up methodically, pulling on her harness and climbing equipment before donning her crampons and prosthetic, a custom-made silicone liner that locks inside a carbon-fiber sleeve. It allows Cross, who was born without fingers and only a partial palm on her right hand, to use a modified ice axe as an extension of her arm to navigate the ice with maximum comfort and protection.
The familiar chunk, chunk of crampons and cold-forged steel biting into the ice begins, and she lets out whoops of pure joy as she climbs the route.
Chasing an Outdoor Dream
Whether she’s leading friends up frozen waterfalls or teaching her kindergarten class about the wonders of the outdoors, Cross is on a mission to show others how to get outside without fear. “Chasing an outdoor dream can build such a renewed or deepened sense of self,” she says. “Confidence, perseverance, and purpose can grow as one experiences the outdoors and sees the beauty these landscapes offer. It’s a powerful force for the mind, body and soul.”
Cross grew up without seeing anyone with a limb difference portrayed in outdoor sports and the media, much less climbing technical ice pitches. She still pursued athletics, thanks to her supportive family, but often felt alone and deeply self-conscious about her different right hand.
It wasn’t until her 30s that she began to see representation in the climbing world – stories of excellence about climbers who also had limb differences like her. This had a profound impact on Cross. “If I had seen other people like me decades earlier, it would have given me so much confidence as a child and I wouldn’t have felt so alone,” she says.
Inspiring Her Students
Cross teaches at a school in Tacoma, Washington, that serves students from a variety of socioeconomic, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. For many of them, the stories of adventure she shares are their first exposure to outdoor culture.
Her classroom is decorated with pictures of mountains her students have drawn. Some of the sketches depict Cross, scaling giant peaks with her prosthetic device that she says her class refers to as her “mountain robot arm.”
Others are of the students themselves, with carefully written aspirations for their own outdoor adventures. Every couple of years, Cross has the pleasure of teaching someone who has a limb difference similar to hers. Showing them what she has accomplished without hiding her stump is one of the most compelling things she gets to do, she says.
Funding for the Classroom
Much like her outdoor adventures, teaching is not without its obstacles. Chief among them is access to the supplies she needs to engage her classroom of young learners. “It’s a yearly cycle for both teachers and families to come up with funds for supplies,” she says.
“The cost of books, craft materials and the basics, such as pencils, glue, crayons, adds up year after year. That can bring a lot of stress to families or teachers in inequitable ways. Supplies run out, backpacks break. It’s easily forgotten how expensive being a teacher or having children in school is year-round.”
This year, Cross received a grant that’s helping her students thrive. Her classroom is one of hundreds across the country to receive aid from a partnership between Subaru of America and AdoptAClassroom.org, a nonprofit organization that provides funding for school supplies.
As part of the Subaru Loves Learning initiative, Subaru is working with AdoptAClassroom.org to provide funding that will help more than 20,000 classrooms and 300,000 students nationwide.
Thanks to her grant, Cross has been able to purchase inclusive art supplies – including crayons that showcase the depth of different skin tones her students possess – and books that show kids and families of all different backgrounds on their pages. Her first-aid kit is stocked with adhesive bandages in many hues, and she was able to share supplies with a few other teachers too.
As the new school year approaches, Cross is going through the same process she employs before any big adventure: carefully checking her gear, making sure she has a plan in place and letting the excitement build.
“I have big goals for these kindergartners as new learners as well as my own goals and objectives for the season of ice climbing ahead,” she says. No doubt she’ll succeed, indoors and out.
