Media
Films and podcasts featuring Timmy
The Dark Wizard
HBO
An unflinching portrait of Dean Potter, one of the world’s most influential and controversial climbers, BASE jumpers, and highline walkers.
Soundscape
Red Bull
Blind adventure athlete Erik Weihenmayer ascends a huge rock face in the Sierra Nevada. Using camera work and animation, the film brings to life a concept by adaptive climbing pioneer Timmy ONeill.
Wild Life
National Geographic
A portrait of Kris and Doug Tompkins and their fight to preserve Patagonia.
180° South
Netflix
A band of bliss-seeking surfer-mountaineers sets out — in 2007, by boat — on a journey to Patagonia, South America, in this adventure documentary.
Brothers Wild
Reel Rock
Two brothers, Timmy O’Neill, a pro climber, and Sean O’Neill, who is paralyzed from the waist down, push the limits of adaptive climbing, conquering the 3,000-foot face of El Capitan. Then it’s on to the Ruth Gorge of Alaska, where they cross a treacherous glacier to climb a remote rock wall. In a storm-stricken land that would challenge even able-bodied climbers, Timmy and Sean face their greatest challenge yet.
Podcasts
No Barriers Podcast
Taking The Sharp End: Celebrating Life with Adventurer, Timmy O’Neill
On Episode 310 of the Enormocast, the inimitable Timmy O’Neill returns. Since Timmy’s Enormocast in 2020, several life-changes have gone down: a marriage, a kid, and maybe most impactful of all, Timmy suffered a stroke in Patagonia not long after his first Enormocast (not the Enormobump he was looking for!). O’Neill is a long time climber, sworn part of the Stone Monkey Tribe, bitchin’ kayaker, big wall speed demon, but nothing prepared him for spending weeks wondering if his life would slip away at any moment. That emergency, and a very close call with his son Cody, has renewed Timmy’s faith in life, love, and sucking the marrow out of every moment. Timmy is also currently living the dream as the touring drummer for Par Avion, a surf rock act out of Santa Monica, CA. A charmed life indeed for a Philly kid and former court jester of Camp 4.
Enormocast
310: Timmy O’Neill – The Charmed Life Must Not Yield
Hailing from Philadelphia, Timmy O’Neill left after one semester of college to head out and design a life for himself. He quickly became known as the “Urban Ape,” scaling buildings around the country, like the Chicago Tribune Tower, without any ropes. Now, he’s a seasoned Patagonia-sponsored climber with a lengthy and impressive resume that includes setting world speed climbing records in Yosemite, and first ascents around the world in Venezuela, Patagonia, Pakistan and Greenland. Timmy is also a world class slack liner, mountain biker, and kayaker, and recently guided completely blind kayaker, Lonnie Bedwell, down the Zambezi, a class V River.
Alpinist
A Life of Adventure and Positive Impact: Timmy O’Neill
Timmy O’Neill’s climbing career spans more than 30 years. He’s traveled the world, gaining climbing accolades and wisdom about life, and once spent 60 days living in a cave in Joshua Tree National Park, sharing his food cache with mice who also called it home. His resume of first ascents includes routes in Patagonia, Namibia and Madagascar. He’s spent much of his climbing life in and around Yosemite, where he once held the speed record on the nose of El Capitan after climbing the route with Dean Potter in 3 hours, 24 minutes, in 2001. O’Neill is co-founder of Paradox Sports, an organization that creates opportunities in adaptive climbing.
Today, O’Neill is executive director of the Yosemite Climbing Association. In this episode, Timmy shares his excitement for the expansion of the YCA’s Facelift program and his desire to leave the planet in better shape than he found it. He reflects on 30 years of climbing, and why he values experiences far more than things.