Timmy O’Neill traded a berth with his six Philadelphia siblings at the age of 19 for a bus ticket out west. Along the way, he discovered climbing, whitewater kayaking and adventuring worldwide and currently makes his home in Boulder, CO.
Along with the late Dean Potter he was the first to connect three grade VI climbs in a 24-hour period in Yosemite Valley, California and also smashed the ten-year standing record of the Nose route of El Capitan. He subsequently established first ascents on big walls from the glaciated wilds of Patagonia to the insular, monolithic tepuis of the Venezuelan Orinocan jungle.
He is a founder of Paradox Sports, a national organization dedicated to improving people’s lives by creating physical adaptive sports communities built to inspire and during his tenure as executive director he created a comprehensive Adaptive Climbing Manual and Curriculum, a world's first. In 2015 O'Neill experienced his "Year of Giving Dangerously", and in June spent 10-days with ultra runner Scott Jurek, as pacer and crew, during Jurek's record breaking traverse of the Appalachian Trail, where he completed 47-miles per day for 47-days. In August, along with blind climber and adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, the duo climbed the 2,000-foot, sheer, south face of the Marmolada formation, in the Italian Dolomites, via the Don Quixote route. And finally and perhaps most shockingly, in December O'Neill joined legendary kayaker Eric Jackson, sharing the duties of guide and safety kayaker, during the first blind-descent of the Zambezi River, Class V, (25,000 c.f.s), with completely blind solo-kayaker Lonnie Bedwell.
In January of 2016 O'Neill was awarded the "Humanitarian Bad Ass" award from Elevation Outdoors magazine via a Colorado wide poll and was also named a 2016 Centennial Ambassador for Yosemite National Park. When not hosting global events and sharing his unquenched enthusiasm for life through music and comedy, he contributes ophthalmic surgical care to communities in need in Africa through Cure Blindness, working with mentor and worldwide ophthalmologist Dr. Geoff Tabin. O'Neill is also a 15-year climbing ambassador for Patagonia, Osprey Packs and Clif Bar, assisting with brand and company culture.
