First disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole

The first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole is Jonny Huntington (UK), a British Army veteran who suffered a stroke in 2014 which resulted in paralysis below the neck on his left side. Setting out with a sled weighing 110 kg (242 lb) comprising all his supplies and gear, he departed from the Messner Start on the Ronne Ice Shelf on 21 November 2024 and reached the South Pole on 6 January 2025. Across the journey, which lasted 45 days 20 hours 42 minutes, Huntington covered 911 km (566 mi), which themselves are records in GWR's CIH impairment category.

While Huntington is not the first disabled person to ski across Antarctica to the South Pole, he is the first to have done it alone and without any form of assistance en route. Following his stroke, at the age of 28, it took Huntington many years of rehabilitation and physiotherapy to build back the strength to walk, although his left side is still weaker to this day. As he said after reaching the South Pole, “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since getting here. It’s pretty emotional. My right leg is pretty sore, which I think is probably reasonable, because it’s done most of the work.”

The first expedition to the South Pole by an amputee was completed by double-amputee Paralympian Cato Zahl Pedersen (Norway), who lost both his left arm and half his right arm in an accident at the age of 14: he trekked from Berkner Island to the South Pole between November and December 1994, arriving at the pole on 28 December. He was accompanied by fellow Norwegians Odd Harald Hauge and Lars Ebbesen as part of the "Unarmed to the South Pole" expedition. The journey covered a distance of 1,400 km (870 mi) and lasted 56 days. Many within the polar exploration community consider Pedersen to be the first person with a disability overall to trek to the South Pole from the Antarctic coastline.

The first blind person to trek to the South Pole from the Antarctic coast was former Royal Navy Officer Alan Lock (UK), between 25 November 2011 and 3 January 2012. Accompanied by two sighted team-mates, Andrew Jensen and Richard Smith, as well as guide Hannah McKeand, the expedition started from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf and, using skis and sledges, they reached the pole 39 days later, having covered a distance of 890 km (553 mi).