As his support crew was making itself busy pitching tents, preparing dinner and setting up camp on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro, Chris Waddell was grinding away on his custom-made, four-wheel mountain bike just a few meters down the slope.

That distance might have been close enough to share a conversation with those milling about the campsite, but for Waddell, the distance was agonizingly far away.

"I was so physically exhausted, and my forward movement was so minimal," Waddell said, describing the painful journey he endured through the scree fields of loose, shalelike rock. "I'm 10, 20 feet away from the end of the day, and I literally can't get there."

But he did get there — and beyond.

Waddell's journey to the top of Kilimanjaro — a summit of 19,331 feet and the tallest free-standing

mountain in the world — was one no person like him had ever done before. A paraplegic since a tragic skiing accident in 1988, Waddell is the first person to summit the mountain in a handcycle.

And with each torturous rotation of the crank, Waddell moved a few inches closer to the peak while also blazing a trail, he hopes, for disabled people around the world who might enjoy an hour or two on the trails or beside a stream.

"There were a lot of people who looked at us and said 'What are you thinking?' " Waddell said. "But I wasn't doing this just for me. I think there was something more to it."

A 12-time Paralympic medalist in a variety of skiing races, Waddell said his trip to the top of Kilimanjaro — and the bike he made it on — was about proving an injury like his is not the end of a person's participation in outdoor recreation.

"Sports, as a disabled person, is a great way to break down barriers," he said. "It forces people to rethink what being disabled is."

For Waddell, a Massachusetts native, losing the use of his legs was obviously a life-changing moment. But it was not a life-ending one.

After reteaching himself to work the slopes on a monoski, he became one of the world's best at it. But he knew there was more.

When not being lifted up the mountain, he was limited in his mobility by his wheelchair. Waddell could zoom down paved roads and sidewalks to his heart's content.

But hiking the trails around Park City, the town he has called home for the last 10 years, was out of reach — almost like the campsites 20 feet ahead on the Kilimanjaro scree fields.

Waddell believes the bike he used to ascend the famous mountain might be what many are looking for.