Inspiring Devon stroke survivor, Jonny Huntington, approaches his final push to the South Pole

Devon stroke survivor Jonny Huntington is past halfway in his world-first Antarctic expedition, aiming to be the first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole.

Inspiring Devon stroke survivor, Jonny Huntington, has now passed the halfway point and approaching a long final push on his gruelling, world first, Antarctic expedition to the South Pole where he is aiming to be the first ever disabled person to ski there solo and unsupported.

At the mid-point of his expedition, Jonny took the time to send back his thoughts on his expedition experience from the ice, saying:

“The snow conditions have been quite soft, so moving has been difficult and It’s been putting a lot of strain on my body - although that’s not unanticipated.  

“At the minute I am on track to finish in reasonable time.  

“The best way I can describe the landscape down here is that it looks like one of the desert seas from a post-apocalyptic movie. It is completely devoid of anything - I have gone weeks without seeing even a single feature of a landscape.”

About how he is coping with the challenge both mentally and physically, he added: “The difficulty I have found with being in my own head every day is that it’s very easy to catastrophize stuff and you can end up in a negative spiral of thoughts, especially because the landscape is just nothing and I have nothing to focus on to distract myself. 

“One of the difficulties I have had in managing the injury has simply been that when I feel something hurting or aching ,I immediately start catastrophizing that - so I’ll get a bit of pain in the back of my leg and the next thing I’m thinking about my Achilles tendon tearing.

“It’s very easy to end up in these negative spirals so I’ve been using music and podcasts to distract myself and bring myself back on task.”

Jonny is sticking to a regimented routine which is allowing him stick to his distances. He added: “I’m waking up around six in the morning and having a coffee, then until about nine I am doing my morning routine - making breakfast, packing up the tent, brushing my teeth and fuelling myself.

“I then start skiing and I’m aiming for about 22.5 km a day on the ice, which tends to be about nine and a half hours, although yesterday was an 11-hour day, which was pretty tough, and I had less sleep and recovery than I wanted.  

“After the day of skiing I have to stop, put my tent up and go in to my evening routine which involves melting snow on my stove so I can drink, check in with the safety tent and then I’m in bed.

“I am working hard even when not skiing and it’s full-on long days, but I get in the routine- but at the minute I just need to get these distances done.  

“Sleeping here is a weird one because it is 24 hour sunlight so I have to wear a sleep mask, and learning to sleep has been weird but the sun creates a greenhouse effect in the tent so although it may be -10 -20 degrees when I put up the tent, it swiftly warms up and gets really hot, my tent was actually 23 degrees the other day.  

“As I get higher up and there are evenings with no sunlight and it’s windy then inside the tent can get extremely cold, but I have a great sleeping bag.”

Christmas day will be Jonny’s 36th day on the ice with a few treats planned, however Jonny is not going to being distracted from his goal. He added:

“Christmas day is approaching, and as a treat on the day I’ll give myself an extra strong coffee, but I’m down here to get a job done and I’m here to work.”

Through his expedition, Jonny will be raising money for four charities including the Invictus Games Foundation, Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team, Team Forces and The Adaptive Grand Slam Foundation. To donate, visit https://givestar.io/gs/south-pole-solo-expedition

Jonny was born in Cambridge, where he lived until he went to university at 18-years-old and subsequently joined the military. He now lives in Kingsbridge, Devon.

To find out more about Jonny’s expedition, visit www.jonnyhuntington.com see @jonnyhuntington on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Jonny would like to thank the many people who have helped him to take on this challenge including his partners Specialist Risk Group, Team Forces, Collins Aerospace, ACRE Capital Real Estate, and Continuate.