Ex-army officer paralysed from his neck down on left side aims to become the first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole

An ex-army officer paralysed from his neck down on his left side aims 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 while serving as an officer in the British Army in 2014. 

The bleed on his brain left the 38-year-old completely paralysed from the neck down on his left side.

But after 10 years of rehabilitation and training he is set to ski 566 miles of Antarctic tundra – an expedition he anticipates will take 40 days.

He will be dragging all his equipment and food in a sled which will weigh in excess of 110kg.

Mr Huntington’s love of skiing was ignited when he became a member of the Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team (AFPST), during his recovery.

Mr Huntington, from Kingsbridge, south Devon, is embarking on his journey from the UK on Monday

He went on to join the GB Para Nordic ski team, where he competed from 2017 to 2020 at World Cups in Lviv, Ukraine, and Vuokatti, Finland, as well as the inaugural European Paralympic Committee Games in Poland in 2020.

The idea for his South Pole expedition was planted after he stopped skiing competitively.

He has since taken on a number of challenges to prepare for the venture, including running the entirety of the 630 miles South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, in one go. He also undertook a 20-day solo expedition in northern Sweden in April.

For his Antarctic challenge, Mr Huntington will fly into Union Glacier where he will spend a few days on the ice to complete his final preparations.

He will then take a final short flight to the start of the expedition where he will set off from Fuchs-Messner on the edge of the Antarctic landmass and ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole

Mr Huntington, from Kingsbridge, south Devon, is embarking on his journey from the UK on Monday.

He has taken on a number of challenges to prepare for the venture, including running the entirety of the 630 miles South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, in one go. He also undertook a 20-day solo expedition in northern Sweden in April

‘No one with a disability has done this before so I find it quite exciting’, he said. 

‘I’ll be doing it completely on my own with no sort of help, no resupply, nothing like that.

‘You sort of get thrown out of a plane at one end and you hopefully wind up at the other end, 40 days later.

‘Existing somewhere which is fundamentally hostile to life, it’s the ultimate test.’

‘I lost a lot of that when I got injured,’ said Mr Huntington.

‘When I was about two years post injury and had just been discharged from the military, I experienced some pretty poor mental health.

‘A significant aspect of it came about because I had lost sight of what I felt I was meant to be working towards.

‘I know that I know what I’m doing, and I also know, having spoken to other people who have done successful expeditions, that I have done the right level of preparation.

‘I’ve done everything I can to make it succeed, but I’ve never been to Antarctica before, it famously has quite strict conditions down there.

‘There aren’t disabled explorers, it’s not a job, but I’ll just have to figure out how we can make this work.’