Not all roads are created equal. Simply ask Ben Spencer and Peter Smorthit.
This July, the 2 grew to become the primary to cross the Alps by wheelchair.
Over 18 days, by way of searing warmth and brutal gradients, the pair pushed themselves 422 kilometres – the equal of 10 marathons – from Montreux, on the shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, to Lake Como in Italy.
It didn’t come straightforward.
Days into the journey, the 2 confronted a steep climb up a gorge. With no accessible path ahead, Smorthit – a 33-year-old paraplegic – acquired out of his chair and dragged himself and his wheelchair greater than a kilometre uphill as Spencer adopted, shifting only some metres at a time. It took two hours.
“That was simply an incredible feat of endurance,” says Spencer over a cellphone name from a roadside station in France, the place the 2 had stopped on the best way again to the UK.
Spencer is adamant that bodily ache was a small worth to pay for the larger objective.
The 2 set off on this Alpine journey to lift consciousness and funds for ataxia, a uncommon neurological dysfunction that afflicts 12,500 individuals within the UK alone – together with Spencer.
Ataxia is a trigger value climbing for
There are a number of types of ataxia. All of them have an effect on speech, stability, coordination, listening to and bladder management in numerous methods.
Ataxia is normally progressive, and there’s no common treatment.
Since 2022, Spencer has lived with cerebellar ataxia, a type of the illness attributable to harm to the cerebellum. Because it has progressed, ataxia has relegated him virtually completely to a wheelchair. He has points along with his bladder and will get fatigued simply, one thing that hinders his capability to talk. However you wouldn’t know this from his bio.
He and Smorthit keep extra energetic than many of the world inhabitants. They play wheelchair rugby and have collectively accomplished tons of of half marathons and marathons – plus some extremely marathons. They’ve traversed the Applecross Move, or Bealach na Bà, one of many UK’s most difficult roads, identified for its 20 per cent gradients and hairpin turns.
Smorthit as soon as solo-travelled the 1,407 kilometres from Land’s Finish to John o’ Groats in Scotland, all whereas pulling a trailer behind an ordinary wheelchair.
In 2024 and 2025, the 2 additionally participated within the London Marathon. Each occasions, Spencer raised funds for Ataxia UK, a British charity that funds analysis into discovering therapies and cures, whereas providing recommendation, info and help to individuals affected by the situation.
Their journey throughout Europe’s highest mountains this summer season – Alps 4 Ataxia – additionally raised cash for the charity.
Remarkably, all these achievements have occurred since Spencer was recognized, the second he went from being “your overworked profession man” to a vocal – and visual – advocate for individuals residing with ataxia. And other people with disabilities usually.
In 2023, Spencer travelled all272 London tube stations to lift consciousness about his situation, in addition to accessibility within the metropolis’s most used public transport system.
“Solely 93 of them are accessible,” he says.
“Lots of people will begin getting upset for us [because] we will’t entry one thing, so we’ll simply throw ourselves out of our chairs, bump ourselves up on stairs and pull the wheelchairs behind us,” he provides.
“That’s the second that able-bodied individuals get shocked about how inaccessible the world could be.”
What it actually takes to cross the Alps in a wheelchair
This journey examined them like none earlier than.
The Alps offered not simply steep climbs, but additionally blistering temperatures of practically 40°C and moments of actual hazard, all towards a backdrop of breathtaking landscapes.
“Peter is just about an endurance athlete, however with me and my ataxia, we actually needed to work out a sample of how I may do it and recuperate,” Spencer says of managing the space, the gruelling climbs over 2,000-metre passes and the warmth .
Earlier than they left the UK, that they had mapped a route utilizing EuroVelo biking paths and quiet roads by way of Switzerland and the Rhône Valley. A help crew of three, together with two others with ataxia, helped with logistics. Initially deliberate as a 10- to 12-day journey, the journey stretched to 18 as the warmth took its toll.
“Each Peter and I’ve hassle regulating our physique temperature,” Spencer explains.
“Peter has a spinal twine damage and might go into [a potentially life-threatening condition] referred to as AD [autonomic dysreflexia], the place unexpectedly, he can cross out from the warmth. One time, there was an in depth name. I ended up having to chuck a load of water over him.”
Regardless of the warmth, the bodily and psychological lows had been outweighed by the highs. Generally literal ones.
“Reaching the highest of the primary cross [in Switzerland] cemented the truth that we may do it,” Spencer says.
He additionally cherished conversations with passersby, utilizing every as an opportunity to lift consciousness about ataxia and problem assumptions about incapacity.
“I actually needed individuals to know that disabled individuals can obtain excessive issues” – even these as excessive as crossing excessive mountain passes.
A wake-up name for accessibility advocates
The expertise uncovered gaps in accessibility, too.
“This journey has helped spotlight that there’s extra work to do to make the world accessible,” he says. Campsites listed as accessible lacked correct amenities, and a few biking routes included lengthy gravel sections and practically impassable obstacles.
“For wheelchair customers to participate in out of doors sports activities, particularly in the case of going by way of rugged terrain or the countryside, there’s a lot extra that may be carried out.”
And for individuals residing with disabilities like ataxia, travelling the Alps has offered a higher lesson.
“It doesn’t matter what incapacity or situation you’ve,” Spencer says, “simply by no means hand over.”