Trekking on one leg : Annapurnas and chilean Patagonia
My name is Charles Santré, I am french and living in Grenoble, northern Alpes. I got a motorbike accident when I was almost 30, and that accident resulted in my left leg amputation (LBK). At that time, I was practising a lot of mountaineering sports as rock climbing, trek and ski. I was preparing a project about a trek in Annapurnas. You may imagine that I gave up this project and really thought that it would be only an unrealized dream for ever.
Anyway, a few weeks after the accident, I was only thinking about walking again and go back to the mountains and the summits as soon as possible. The first time I was skiing and climbing again, I thought I was dreaming. That was fantastic ! Thanks to very skillfull prosthesists, Pierre Chabloz and later Julien Mouret, I was able to practise the same sports than before amputation.
But climbing for two or three days in the french Alpes, with the possibility to be brought back by civil security in case of problem, and trekking in a very distant country is completely different. We never forget, as amputees, that we may be completely dependant of that magic material. No way to do anything when it is broken or hurting the residual limb.
That was the reason why, for many years, I gave up my projects about distant travelling. But my motivation was too much strong and I decided to go on. My first foreign trak was to climb the Kilimandjaro summit (5895 m). I was thinking "maybe I am the first amputee here", that was really pretentious but I was so happy, almost crying.
Not really technically difficult in fact, but good experience was missing and my stump was really suffering and hurted. The most important was that a "psychological blocking" had definitely disappeared. Two years later, in november 2002, I decided to realize my previous old dream : trekking to Annapurnas for more than 15 days. That was a real challenge, because any technical problem could have life frightening consequences. With my first experience in Africa, I cautionously prepared every technical details and try to imagine all incidents or accident with the material.
Obviously, I needed a very performant and light prosthetics. Carbon was the right answer and Modular III (Ossür) the right foot (about 400 g). That's the reason why I use it everytime when I am walking in the moutains and on glaciers. Heavy weight is the enemy in mountains !
Thanks to my skillfull prosthesists and to Ossür, I realized my old dream and saw those wonderful summits of Annapurnas. Later in 2005, I realized another old dream and trekked in the chilean Patagonia (Torres del Paine). I do enjoy my life on one leg and now, I forgot all my anxious interrogations about managing a prosthetics in high mountains, extreme conditions and cold.
My advise to you is that you may push your limits as far as you want. A few years ago, it was difficult to know if you were able to realize your dream on one leg with your posthetics. Now, that's easier to benefit from others previous experiences. If I can help anyone with my experience, please feel free to get in touch and contact me through mail (ch.santre@wanadoo.fr). I am pretty ready for future trekkings, just follow me.
The stories of different treks with pictures (unfortunately in french) :