Man paralyzed in snowmobile accident reaches South Pole

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A Nevada man paralyzed in a 2010 snowmobiling accident has reached the South Pole, traveling about 75 miles in sub-zero temperatures over two weeks to complete the trip on the 100th anniversary of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott's trek there with the Terra Nova Expedition.

Grant Korgan, who is paralyzed from the waist down, used a device called a sit-ski to reach the pole 100 years to the day after the British explorer completed the journey on Jan. 17, 1912.

"Although my body has been broken, my spirit never will be. I am unbreakable!" Korgan, 33, of Incline Village, said in a statement posted on the crew's Web site.

Korgan's expedition party included paralympian John Davis, two guides and cinematographers who are shooting for a documentary called "The Push: A South Pole Adventure." The film is expected to be released later this year.

The team trained for a year with various missions in Alaska, Norway, Lake Tahoe and South America. Korgan estimated he'd have to push the sit-ski approximately 250,000 times over the course of the trip.

"Grant just pulled off one of the most amazing athletic achievements in modern history and a first for adaptive athletes," said Steven Siig, director of the documentary film.

"This is a historic day in the name of recovery, technology, adventure and the human potential," he said.

The challenge was intended to help raise money for the California-based nonprofit High Fives Foundation, which helps injured winter athletes recover and get back to their sport. It also supports the Reeve Irvine Research Center, a science research facility at University of California, Irvine devoted to the study of repair, regeneration and recovery of function after spinal cord injury.

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