Ex-army officer, paralyzed from the neck down on the left side, wants to become the first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole
An ex-army officer who is paralyzed from the neck down on his left side wants to become the first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole.
Jonny Huntington, who is also a former GB para-athlete, suffered a stroke in 2014 while serving as an officer in the British Army.
The bleeding in his brain left the 38-year-old completely paralyzed from his neck to his left side.
But after ten years of rehabilitation and training, he is ready to ski 900 kilometers of the Antarctic tundra – an expedition he says will take 40 days.
He will drag all his equipment and food in a sled that will weigh more than 110 kg.
Mr. Huntington’s love for skiing was then sparked During his recovery he became a member of the Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team (AFPST).
Jonny Huntington will ski 900 kilometers of the Antarctic tundra – an expedition he says will take 40 days
Mr Huntington, from Kingsbridge, south Devon, will begin his journey from Britain on Monday
He then joined the GB Para Nordic ski team, where he competed at the World Cups in Lviv, Ukraine, and Vuokatti, Finland, from 2017 to 2020, as well as the first European Paralympic Committee Games in Poland in 2020.
The idea for his South Pole expedition came about after he stopped skiing competitively.
Since then he has taken on a number of challenges to prepare for the venture, including completing the 600-mile South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, in one go. In April he also undertook a twenty-day solo expedition in northern Sweden.
For his Antarctic challenge, Mr Huntington will fly to Union Glacier where he will spend a few days on the ice to complete his final preparations.
He then makes a final short flight to the start of the expedition, where he departs from Fuchs-Messner on the edge of the Antarctic landmass and skis solo and unsupported to the South Pole.
Mr Huntington, from Kingsbridge, south Devon, will begin his journey from Britain on Monday.
He has taken on a number of challenges to prepare for the venture, including completing the 600-mile South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, in one go. In April he also undertook a twenty-day solo expedition in northern Sweden
“No one with a disability has done this before, so I think it’s pretty exciting,” he said.
‘I’m going to do it all by myself, without any kind of help, without supplies, nothing like that.
‘You get thrown out of a plane on one side and hopefully end up on the other side forty days later.
“To exist somewhere where life is fundamentally hostile is the ultimate test.”
“I lost a lot of that when I got injured,” Mr. Huntington said.
“When I was about two years post-injury and had just been discharged from the military, I was experiencing quite poor mental health.
‘One important aspect of it came about because I had lost sight of what I felt I should be working towards.
“I know I know what I’m doing, and I also know, after talking to other people who have done successful expeditions, that I’ve done the right level of preparation.
‘I have done everything I can to make it work, but I have never been to Antarctica, it is known that there are quite strict conditions there.
“There are no disabled explorers, it’s not a job, but I just have to figure out how to make this work.”
