Darren Edwards knows a lot
about overcoming adversity. One moment, he was rock climbing in North Wales,
about to finish his route; the next, he was in the hospital, paralyzed from the
chest down after falling more than 30 meters and suffering a severe spinal cord
injury.
But his accident in 2016 did not slow him down. Instead, his life is now dedicated to exploration and demanding challenges.
As a disabled adventurer,
he has completed seven marathons on seven continents, and at the end of this
year, he will ski 334 km in 20 days across Antarctica to the South Pole.
The journey with two
friends will be extremely challenging. They will set up camp on the snow and
melt ice for water. Edwards will have to be especially cautious about
frostbite, particularly in the areas of his body that he cannot feel.
Temperatures will drop to
around -20 degrees Celsius, and the team will face high winds, altitude sickness,
exhaustion and snowstorms.
The goal of his Antarctic challenge is to raise around $400,000 for people with spinal cord injuries.
In 2023, Edwards was part
of a three-person, fully disabled team that skied across Vatnajökull, Europe’s
largest ice cap, in Iceland. Midway through that expedition, he realized that
for the first time in seven years, he was back in the mountains, on snow and
ice—an experience that inspired his 2025 expedition to Antarctica.
Now 34 years old, Edwards
is grateful to his friends and family for helping him achieve his goals,
emphasizing the importance of teamwork in his adventures.
“I am surrounded by people
who empower and encourage me to think bigger,” Edwards explains. “When I said I
wanted to buy a kayak and learn to kayak, they didn’t say no. They said, ‘Okay,
let’s see how we make it possible.’”
“I hope that what I do
today and what I will do tomorrow will help show someone going through a dark
moment that there is light at the end of the tunnel and hope for the future.
I’ve learned to celebrate the little wins.”
“Now, I look at life and
all of its great moments with gratitude because there is always a lesson to be
learned and a future ahead.”
From CNN (edited)
