Former GB para-athlete over halfway through South Pole solo skiing expedition

A former GB para-athlete who is skiing solo and unsupported to the South Pole says he is more than halfway into his expedition.

Jonny Huntington, 38, from Kingsbridge, south Devon, has faced extreme conditions including freezing temperatures and blistering 24-hour sunlight while covering 911km (566 miles) of Antarctic tundra.

Mr Huntington, who suffered a stroke in 2014 and has a significant lack of mobility and control down his left-hand side, is aiming to become the first disabled person to complete the challenge.

The former army officer, who has been skiing nine to 11 hours and covering between 18 and 23km per day, hopes to reach the South Pole by January 7.

Jonny Huntington has faced extreme conditions including freezing temperatures and blistering 24-hour sunlight (Jonny Huntington/PA)

Speaking via a satellite phone from Antarctica, Mr Huntington told the PA news agency: “It’s been slightly warmer than anticipated.

“The snow conditions have been quite soft so moving has been quite difficult.

“It’s putting a lot of strain on my body.”

Mr Huntington is also dragging all his equipment and food in a sled which weighs more than 110kg.

“It’s an incredibly different landscape down here. I think the most peculiar thing about it is that there is no wildlife at all. There are no trees at all,” he said.

“It looks sort of like one of the desert scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie, like Mad Max or something.

“I have gone weeks without seeing a single even feature in the landscape, which is pretty cool in a lot of ways.

“I think it also means that when you do see the occasional mountain range in the distance, they are incredibly beautiful.”

Jonny is dragging all his equipment and food in a sled which weighs more than 110kg (242lbs) (Jonny Huntington/PA)

Mr Huntington was left completely paralysed from the neck down on his left side when he suffered his stroke at 28.

It took years of rehabilitation before he was able to fully walk again, and even then he was left with restricted movement down his left side.

During his recovery, he became a member of the Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team (AFPST), which ignited his love for skiing.

Mr Huntington 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.

Mr Huntington, who had completed 29 days of his expedition when he spoke with PA, said one of the biggest challenges was being left completely alone with his thoughts.

“I think the difficulty I’ve found is being in your own head every day, it’s very easy to catastrophise stuff,” he said.

“You end up in this kind of negative spiral of thought partly because the landscape is just nothing, there’s nothing to focus on to distract yourself.

“One of the difficulties I’ve had in terms of managing the injury has simply been that you feel something hurting or feel something aching, and you immediately start catastrophising.

“I’ve sort of been using my mobile phone to distract myself, particularly by putting music on to stop entering into these negative thought patterns and stuff.

“I’ve also been reminiscing about stuff that happened 20 years ago because you have no other stimuli.”

Mr Huntington said he is sticking to a daily routine of waking up at 6am and aims for nine to 11 hours on the ice each day.

Jonny says he has gone weeks without seeing a single landscape feature (Jonny Huntington/PA)

Despite being in the middle of a polar desert, he still enjoys a coffee every morning, made using melted snow water heated on a stove.

While he has enough dry food supplies to last until he finishes, he says he is looking forward to enjoying a glass of red wine and a steak once he completes his expedition.

He plans to mark Christmas Day by speaking with his family and making an extra strong cup of coffee.

To find out more visit Mr Huntington’s fundraising page at givestar.io/gs/south-pole-solo-expedition.