Darren and his team – from left, Lucy Shepherd, Matthew Biggar and Dwayne Fields. Picture: Matthew Biggar
PARALYSED adventurer Darren Edwards has had to abandon his world record breaking attempt to reach the South Pole by Christmas.
After encountering a week of insurmountable challenges he and his ‘Redefining Impossible’ team reluctantly cut short their 222 kilometre sit-ski expedition to the Pole.
Among the teams’ biggest challenges were battling Antarctica’s Sastrugi – sharp, wave-like ridges and grooves carved into the snow surface by relentless, strong winds – and coping with minus 45 degrees temperatures.
Darren, 35, the only spinal injured person ever to attempt the challenge, said: “We don’t have the rations to keep going, we can’t afford a re-supply and members of the team are carrying injuries.
“The reality is we are not covering enough distance each day, so we are far too slow to reach the Pole in time and that hurts. But we learn more from our failures then we do our successes.”
Darren broke his back in a climbing accident in Snowdonia in 2016 and organised the expedition to challenge perceptions of disability and empower others to redefine the impossible in their own lives.
He said: “This has been one hell of a journey of redefining impossible. Being in hospital nine years ago, being told I would never walk again, I would never have dreamed it possible that someone with a spinal cord injury could go to the South Pole.
“This journey has been about much more than reaching the South Pole. This is about empowering people to achieve things in their lives – the things they couldn’t have dreamt would have been possible. Hopefully this journey inspires people to redefine impossible in their own lives.”
