Timmy O'Neill
American rock climber
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Timmy O'Neill (born 1969) is an American professional rock climber, guide, and comedian.[1] He is nicknamed the "Urban Ape".[2]
O'Neill is originally from East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, one of seven children.[3] After whitewater kayaking as a child,[3] he began climbing as a teenager, scaling the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and climbing in Yellowstone.[1][2] He left Temple University after one semester and worked at the Old Faithful Gift Shop in Yellowstone, and in Yosemite.[3] He has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2000.[4] He climbs buildings, including the Chicago Tribune Tower, without ropes.[2] In 2001, along with Dean Potter, O'Neill set the-then speed record for the "Nose" climb on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, climbing it in three hours and twenty-four minutes.[1]
O'Neill has been featured in several climbing films including Return2Sender, Front Range Freaks, and most recently 180 Degrees South.[5] He also produced "Return2Sender", which won Best Climbing Film from the Alpine Club of Canada.[6] He narrated and co-wrote the non-fiction comedy "Across the Atlas", about an adventure in Morocco that turned out to be less epic than the participants hoped.[4] One of his comedy personas is "Dr Steven "Death Zone" Clark",[7] in his "Mallory Revisited" play.[3]
With Dennis “DJ” Skelton he co-founded a non-profit organization for disabled outdoor sport athletes, Paradox Sports, in 2007.[1][3] His brother Sean broke his back jumping off a bridge into the Mississippi River and is still a climber.[4] Paradox Sports is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that improves people's lives by creating an adaptive sport community built to inspire. Currently, O'Neill is the executive director of Paradox Sports.[8]