Jonny said; “It still feels weird to be in Antarctica. We’re getting on pretty well and so far, I’m hitting distances.”
Surprisingly, it’s not been the frozen polar temperatures he’s been most worried about, but the heat and strength of the sun that has been a challenge. Also hampering Jonnys progress has been the need to navigate over sastrugi, wind formed ice formations that can grow to the size of cars sticking out of the Antarctic ice.
“For me, one of the things with my left leg is that pulling the pulk over the sastrugi requires a lot of pull force from the back of your legs. Due to my disability, my left leg doesn’t really produce enough force to get me and the pulk moving over one of these divots. So, I have to take extra care to make sure I’m positioned correctly to get myself up and over. In flat light you can’t really see texture well, so seeing where lumps are is really difficult. That makes it easier to fall in a hole, but it also makes it much harder to get yourself positioned well for it.”
Due to Jonny’s disability, the lack of mobility and control down his left-hand side, exacerbated by the cold climate of Antarctica, has proved a constant challenge with the uneven and sometimes unpredictable snow conditions.
Jonny added; “I have taken a few falls, four in one day is the record, however it is all about getting back up, brushing yourself down and moving on. But it is to be expected. Snow down here is different to that you’d expect in a ski resort. It tends to be pretty hard and icy. And obviously not groomed at all. So, your skis will hit something, and you won’t know if it’s going to be hard or soft. My injury means I have little to no movement in my left ankle, meaning that my leg kind of freely rotates. So, the problem I have is that if the edge of my ski clips on something in the snow it can cause the foot to rotate and the ski to veer towards my other ski. Crossing skis is really not what you want and can often cause you to fall over.”
The motivation that drives me to reach the Pole, and get home, is that I really want to show that no matter what life throws at you – with enough determination everyone can fulfil their own potential.
Day 17
Day 10
Day 7
Day 4
Through his expedition, Jonny will be raising money for four charities including Team Forces.
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ABOUT JONNY HUNTINGTON
Jonny joined the British Army in 2013, training at Sandhurst to become an officer. In June 2014, just eight weeks after commissioning, Jonny was in the gym when he suffered a devastating stroke. The neurological damage left Jonny paralysed down one side. After years of intense rehab, today Jonny lives with permanent brain damage resulting in a significant lack of strength, mobility and control down his left side. During his recovery Jonny became a member of the Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team (AFPST), which fuelled his love of cross-country skiing. This led to Jonny becoming one of the first athletes in a new GB Para Nordic ski team, where he competed from 2017 to 2020 at international level at World Cups in Lviv, Ukraine and Vuokatti, Finland, as well as the inaugural European Paralympic Committee Games in Poland in 2020.
Para classifications and his unique physical limitations eventually made it impossible to compete at the highest levels, however this experience laid the foundations for his plans to be the first disabled explorer to reach the South Pole.
To find out more about Jonny’s expedition and see his progress on an interactive map, visit jonnyhuntington.com or follow him @jonnyhuntington or on LinkedIn.