Paralympian Karen’s amazing adventures in the Antarctic
Calderdale’s paralympic champion Karen Darke has spoken of her amazing adventures and record-breaking challenges sit-skiing across Antarctica.
The gold-medal winning Mytholmroyd paralympian has returned from a research project to the southern continent aimed at breaking world records and inspiring ‘possibility thinking’ – the idea that with enabling technology, team and mindset, people can make the world healthier, happier and more sustainable.
The Pole of Possibility expedition started in December at the 79th meridian west, at Union Glacier Camp and Karen and her teammates skied across the Antarctic plateau approximately following the 79th meridian to the South Pole.
It was an opportunity for new records – a world-first for a female to sit-ski in Antarctica and a world record for the furthest distance ever taken by sit-ski in the continent.
“The highlight was the views. I expected flat white and no views. But actually we were circumnavigating a range of mountains and it was stunning to see that,” said Karen.
"The other highlight was the weather. We had a lot of sunshine which meant we had lots of sparkly ice...As for challenges, all the things people are normally worried about going to Antarctica for were not even on my radar. It was all about how to stay healthy with paraplegia.”
Karen was joined by filmmaker Mike Webster, who recorded the expedition through a documentary, and Professor Mike Christie of Aberystwyth University, who used the expedition as a research platform to demonstrate the impacts of climate change on the Antarctic continent and how this has wider impacts to people and nature across the world.
“Karen said: “In Antarctica, you can’t talk to anyone because there’s not connectivity and so you have to be absolutely connected with where you are and who you’re with. It was a very special experience."
Karen and the Antarctica expedition team worked with various technology businesses on the project, including sponsors Sinequa, BBraun and Anatomical Concepts.
She was testing technology including an ICE/Z-trike, a new adaptive handbike, although she actually completed the mission on a sit-ski.
“Using the bike, I’ve been able to go to places that I couldn’t go into for decades and that has really moved me a lot,” she said.
Karen, a keen runner and orienteer, was paralysed from the chest down in 1993 when she fell off a cliff while rock-climbing at the age of 21.
One of her most profound memories was of first experiencing the outdoors again after her life-changing accident.
“I remember feeling really miserable and sorry for myself for a couple of months and then one day asking the hospital staff to wheel my bed outside,” she said.
“When they did that, I stayed out until one in the morning just staring at the trees and the leaves and the stars in the sky.”
She admits at the time she thought “I’d rather be dead than paralysed” but soon learnt that with friends, creativity and perseverance, most things are still possible.
The former geologist has completed a range of epic challenges since her accident.
In 2002 she paddled a sea kayak from Vancouver to Juneau, and three years later she hand-biked from Kazakhstan to Pakistan.
She went on to become a member of the British Para-Cycling Team, winning a silver medal in the 2012 London Paralympics and gold four years later in
Brazil.
In recent years she has worked with hand cycle companies to help design bikes capable of breaking speed records and enduring extreme environments, setting a world speed record in 2018 by hitting 46.04 miles per hour in the Nevada desert.
Now living in Inverness, she is a transformational
coach and motivational speaker.
Her purpose, she said was to inspire others through sharing her stories and experiences - and as an adventurer whose feats have included skiing across icecaps, kayaking at extreme latitudes, and handcycling the world’s biggest mountain ranges, she has some incredible tales to tell.
She has a real attraction to wild places and mountainous environments, shaped in part by an expedition with Yorkshire Schools Exploring Society at the age of 16.
After studying geology and chemistry at the University of Leeds, she started her working life in the Bolivian Andes researching gold, but after her accident, moved away from being a “rock doctor” to “exploring both outside and within”.
"I think we often take for granted what we have got...and when something is gone, one of the main ways to cope is almost to forget about it because it’s too painful to deal with.
"I’m interested in mental processes and mindsets and how we can retrain our brains to help us live the best and happiest lives we can, but having technology to take me back to these places made me realise how much I appreciate those environments.
She adds: “If we don’t start to respect and look after nature more than we generally are doing as a race then we’re in trouble. There’s that symbiotic relationship between us needing to respect and look after our natural environments as well as the reverse.”
To read Karen’s blogs on her Antarctic experience, visit www.karendarke.com