Maureen Beck is an American mountaineer, and a specialist in adaptive climbing. Born without a lower left arm, she has won six national titles, and won a gold medal at the 2014 Spanish Paraclimbing World Championships.[1]
Beck is from Ellsworth, Maine and a graduate of the University of Vermont.[2] She was inspired to take up climbing at the age of 12 after a counsellor said she did not have to do it on a camp course. Because there was no support for one-handed climbing, she devised a way of doing it herself. She accompanied Jim Ewing in a climb of the Lotus Flower Tower in the Cirque of the Unclimbables.[3]
The 2018 documentary "Stumped" centered on Beck and her climbing career.[4]
In 2019 Beck was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.[5][6] In May of 2022, Beck placed second at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup.[7]