Support Coach Andy's Road to Recovery

Update from Andy’s parents at the bottom!

On behalf of the most awesome person, Andy Baxter, AKA Coach Andy, who has experienced a life altering injury, we are reaching out for your support.

Andy is the owner of Cave Climbing gym, an El Paso small business featuring bouldering, kids classes, memberships, private lessons, and—most importantly—an incredible community. He is also a trained parkour athlete and coach who has taught children’s parkour classes for the last eight years in Las Cruces. He is loved by his current and former students, the climbing community, the parkour community, and of course so very much by his friends and family.

Last week, while training for an outdoor climbing guide certification Andy took a fall that resulted in lower body paralysis due to a spinal fracture and spinal cord injury. He also suffered a significant head injury along with minor scrapes and bruises and a broken rib. Amazingly, he is alive and still with us and we are beyond grateful for that! He is expected to fully recover from the head injury within a year. Unfortunately, the spinal injuries have the potential be permanent and will drastically change a lot of things for him. His family is working to have him transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in the Denver area that specializes in the treatment of patients with head and spinal cord injuries. His stay at the hospital is expected to be two to three months.

During his recovery, his income will be significantly reduced while life expenses such as car payments, insurance and others will continue unchanged. Additionally, as the heart and soul of The Cave, Andy provides the bulk of the labor to keep the gym running. During his absence, additional staff hours will be needed to cover operational hours at the gym. Once he returns from the rehabilitation, there will be additional expenses for adaptations to his living environment both at home and at The Cave and adaptations needed for transportation. We anticipate that there will be legal expenses as well. While we expect many of his expenses to be covered by insurance, many won’t.

Our goal with this GoFundMe campaign is to aid in keeping The Cave running in his absence and to reduce the stress from financial matters as much as possible while he learns a new way of life. His recovery will be long and challenging and we want him to be able to focus on that recovery and not be burdened by financial concerns or concerns about the operation of the gym.

The Cave is home to an amazing and supportive climbing community and to kids who have developed leaps and bounds from Andy’s classes. We very much want to keep our home for the community and for Andy as it is so important to him.

Andy has touched so many lives. He is a spectacular and supportive friend, an amazing coach, and a pillar in the community. If you feel so called, your contribution to this campaign, no matter the size, would be appreciated so much and will help Andy on his road to recovery from this tragic accident.

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Here’s an update from Andy’s parents:

We want to start by extending our deep appreciation for your thoughts, prayers and notes of encouragement sent through social media and other avenues. We have been

On Wednesday, August 7th, Andy was transferred from El Paso to Craig Hospital encouraged and blessed. (https://craighospital.org/) in Englewood, Colorado. Lura flew with him on the Air Ambulance flight and Cliff arrived the next day by car.

The first two days were spent on initial imaging and other tests to establish a baseline, meeting members of his medical team and getting him fitted for a motorized wheelchair. The weekend was fairly low key, then Monday “boot camp” started. His days have been packed with sessions with Physical, Occupational and Speech therapists, his doctors and other specialists. There are also sessions with various specialists, specifically for us (Cliff and Lura). We are able to attend most of his sessions with him if we want, and we usually eat lunch and dinner with him in his room. By the end of the day, we are exhausted.

One of the next milestones is to begin Andy’s transition to a manual wheelchair which should begin this week.

If you would like to send Andy a note, it can be sent to:

Craig Hospital

3425 S. Clarkson St.

Englewood, CO 80113

Attention: Andrew Baxter

Thank you for your generous giving to this campaign and for your love and support for all of us during this challenging time of change in our lives!

Cliff and Lura