How Climbing Snowdon Solo in a Powerchair Saved My Life.
There’s a moment, standing at the base of Wales’ highest mountain, when every voice in your head tells you to turn back.
Not because of the gradient. Not because of the rocks, the weather, or the fact that no one in a powerchair had ever done it alone. But because of the voice that had been following you for years — the one that tells you that you’re not enough, that your best days are behind you, that the world would be easier without you in it.
I know that voice well. I’ve stared it down more times than I care to count.
My name is Nick Wilson. I’m a disabled war veteran, a powerchair user, a suicide survivor, and a man who has spent the better part of a decade learning that the hardest mountain you’ll ever climb has nothing to do with altitude.
In 2024, I became the first person to make a solo ascent of Yr Wyddfa — Snowdon — in an all-terrain powerchair prototype. It took everything I had. Chronic pain, CPTSD, a body that fights me every single day, and a 1,085-metre climb that had no business being attempted alone.
But here’s what I learned on that mountain: the moment you commit to the summit — not because it’s easy, not because you’re sure you’ll make it, but because not trying is no longer an option — everything changes.
This talk is about that ascent. But it’s also about the climb that came before it, and the one that’s never really over. It’s about what happens when you choose to stay, and what becomes possible when you do.
Catch Nick on his socials!
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