Almost a year to the day since our recent Bader Grant Recipient of the Month, Jesse Dufton, flew to Greenland to undertake his gruelling expedition in the Stauning Alps, he has sent us the wonderful news that he’s been selected to join Team GB as part of the Paraclimbing Squad. You can see him modelling his Team GB Kit above. We are absolutely delighted for Jesse and this accolade couldn’t be better deserved.
Obviously suffering from mountain withdrawal, Jesse and Molly, his trusty route leader and sight guide, were back in the arctic again last month, this time in northern Norway where they skied the same distance in a week as they did in a month in Greenland and enjoyed the luxury of log burning stoves in the evenings! A very different experience to the 2017 expedition, which you can read about by following the link below. He returned to his Team GB selection so it’s been a fantastic month for Jesse.
Jesse, who has approximately only 3% normal vision, will be joining the visually impaired category for Paraclimbing and has already started preparations, with Molly having assigned herself to be his personal trainer. They are working very hard to get Jesse into peak condition for the upcoming competition series with the first international competition in Austria in July.We wish Jesse the best of luck in this new challenge. He is a huge inspiration and we are extremely proud to have been able to support him for a part of his adventures so far.
We have no doubt he can reach the top in every sense!
Links (these will open in new tabs):
You can visit Jesse’s website for more information and to be brought up to date with any new developments: https://jessedufton.wordpress.com
He would also be delighted if you could like/follow him on his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/JesseDuftonGBParaclimber/
If you missed reading about his part in the Greenland Expedition last year, it makes fascinating and inspiring reading and the accompanying photographs, mainly taken by Molly, are absolutely stunning. You can find his various reports and BGRotM articles by clicking on the related links in the Bader Grants News section of the Website.