ROGERS, Ky. — In Eastern Kentucky's Red River Gorge area, an 18-foot replica of President Donald Trump's border wall is being scaled not only by experienced mountain climbers, but by novices and young children.

One climber even scaled it while juggling.

"You don't tell a climber that something can't be climbed or that it's impossible," said Rick Weber, the 75-year-old mountain climber who built the replica. "That's just a challenge."

Weber, a retired engineer from Indianapolis, decided to build the wall after hearing Trump claim in September that a new section of the wall along the boundary with Mexico is "virtually impenetrable" and "can't be climbed" because, the president said, 20 mountain climbers struggled to climb a prototype.

So a skeptical Weber built his 18-foot wooden replica of the steel border wall at Muir Valley, a nonprofit nature preserve and rock-climbing park he founded along with his wife. The height matches portions of the border wall built by private contractors.

And since the wall has gone up, lots of people have successfully scaled it.

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Peter Favaloro, a 30-year-old novice from Boston, reached the top in about a minute. He told a Courier Journal reporter that he'd seen news coverage of the wall replica and decided to give it a try.

Trump's claim about rock climbers "is silly," he said. "I'm not a rock climber by any strict definition of it, and I got up there pretty easily."

While it took Favaloro almost a minute to reach the top before opting to come back down, it's taken others far less time to climb over.

Erik Kloeker, a 29-year-old climbing guide and property manager of Muir Valley, went over the replica in about 30 seconds in a demonstration for The Courier Journal.

On follow-up attempts, he even juggled multiple items while climbing the wall. "The border wall that they're building could be climbed pretty easily," said Kloeker, who has been climbing for nine years.

Last week, Weber put up a Facebook post saying that a girl who had just turned 8 years old had "top roped" the wall.

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Weber, who plans to hold a competition to see how fast it takes people to climb the wall this weekend, said the replica took a few days to build and cost a few thousand dollars.

Trump tweeted in January that his wall would be finished in two years, but some experts said it could take as many as 11. Trump also said during his presidential campaign that the wall would cost $12 billion, though some have claimed it may have a price tag of roughly $60 billion.

Just last month, the Trump administration said it would redirect $3.6 billion in Pentagon money to step up construction of the wall.

While Weber's 18-foot wooden replica is shorter than the 30-foot section of the steel bollard wall Trump visited last month, the retired engineer said that doesn't matter.

"If someone can climb over this, they can climb an extra 12 feet of bollards," he said.

The replica is also the same height as a section of Trump's wall that a private group completed along the border in May.

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Since it went up, Weber's wall has gone viral in the media — with local and national outlets alike reporting on it. Weber said he has been contacted by television personalities as well, such as Samantha Bee and Bill Maher.

Unaccustomed to the spotlight, Weber said he "hopes to go back in obscurity" soon. But he wanted to make a point.

While he thinks border security is important, he hopes this wall replica sends a louder message that "we just can't stand by and let craziness happen."

"This is a very poor way (to promote border security) and an extraordinary expense to accomplish nothing," Weber said.

"This wall can and will be climbed."

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.