A former rugby star, who was told he would never walk again after breaking his neck, has become the first person to scale a previously unsummitted peak in Krgyzstan's Tian Shan mountain range.
Ed Jackson, 36, sustained the life-changing injury in 2017 when he dove into the shallow end of a swimming pool and has lived with various physical and neurological disabilities ever since.
On Friday, August 21, he returned home from a month-long expedition to the remote Tien Shan mountains, where he became the first person to reach the unexplored summit of a peak he's dubbed 'Hope Mountain'.
The challenge, which has raised £6,000 ($8,000) for his Millimeters to Mountains (M2M) foundation and various children's organizations, is the culmination of years of hard work. Jackson and his wife Lois launched M2M a year after his injury to help facilitate outdoor adventures for people facing adversity.
"There was a lot of meaning behind reaching the summit, other than just ticking a box to stand on top of it," Jackson told BBC Radio Bristol.
"Whatever your limitations are, you can get out and do extraordinary things."
Jackson and his team overcame plenty of tricky terrain and challenging conditions during the ascent, negotiating icy glacial slopes, uneven valleys, and steep, elevated ridges. The former England and Wales player says the help he received from locals was one of the highlights of the adventure.
"One of the most amazing things was connecting with the local shepherds and the nomads in the mountain," says Jackson.
"They became invaluable for us to be able to get our kit into different locations, they were lending us their horses or coming with us."
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