A SCOTS soldier wounded in Afghanistan is aiming to be the first double-amputee to reach the South Pole.
Duncan Slater, who lost both his legs in a 2009 blast, has spent the last week training in sub-zero temperatures in Iceland.
The 34-year-old from Muir of Ord in the Scottish Highlands is one of six injured servicemen and women hoping to be selected for a four-person UK team to take on counterparts from America and the Commonwealth.
The teams will take part in the Walking With The Wounded charity race to the South Pole in November.
Sergeant Slater was told by doctors he would never walk again after his vehicle was blown up by a Taliban roadside bomb when he was serving with the RAF Regiment.
But he has now learned to ski and is aiming to become the first double amputee to ski to the South Pole.
After spending five days and nights on Langjokull glacier in Iceland, he said: "I volunteered to do this to show what amputees can do.
"Hopefully I won't be the last, and if I get there and find out an easier way of doing it, then other people can do it as well."
Mr Slater has been in Iceland with other wounded men and women from the UK, US, Australia and Canada to familiarise himself with the conditions.
Mr Slater said: "It's not easy learning to ski and then go out for four days covering quite a lot of mileage. But it's been a great learning curve.
"You've got to find your way of doing it and find a rhythm, but once you do that it's amazing how much distance you can cover in a day.
"You've also really got to look after your stumps.
"The last things you want to do is get any rubs, and blisters, or indeed in these temperatures, any frostbite or injuries like that on them."
Sgt Slater, who now lives in Meadowview in Norfolk, will find out in the coming weeks if he will be selected for Team Glenfiddich, the UK team.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article