Private Jaco van Gass plans to use axe attached to prosthetic arm to help him scale Everest in May

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A soldier whose left arm was blown off in Afghanistan has helped design a prosthetic ice axe which he will use to climb Mount Everest.

Private Jaco van Gass, 25, from Middleburg, South Africa, was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while serving with the Parachute Regiment in 2009.

He is one of a group of five injured servicemen who will set off on a 10-day walk to Everest Base Camp on Saturday and then push on to the 8,848-metre summit in May.

Van Gass, who trekked to the North Pole with the Walking with the Wounded charity last year, said he had the idea to fix an ice axe to a false limb and asked some engineers at the specialist military rehabilitation centre in Surrey to build one.

He said: "I came up with the idea to attach an ice axe to one of my prosthetics, so I kind of challenged the guys at Headley Court to see how we could get this done."

Van Gass bought a regular ice axe and staff at the centre sawed off the double-sided head, then welded and bolted it to a specially adapted prosthetic made of carbon fibre and plastic.

A key design feature Van Gass was keen to include was an electrical system to heat his stump.

He asked the engineers to use wires to connect two heat patches moulded into the prosthetic to a battery pack sewn into the thermal under-layer just over his heart.

The warmth of his body helps the three AA batteries last longer as the cold drains their power very quickly.

"This will keep the arm inside nice and toasty," he said.

"It's really essential for me because the lack of circulation in my arm actually prevents the flow of blood and oxygen at high altitude, so the arm gets really cold and is actually prone to frost-nip."

The South African said the extreme altitude of Everest's higher slopes might cause unexpected problems and the adapted axe could help.

"On our last expedition, when we climbed Manaslu, I didn't use anything," he said.

"There was no problem with the arm, but as we are going to do that extra 700-metre ascent [to the Everest peak], it's a terrain we've not been to before, so it's a little bit unexpected."

Van Gass will use the tool to navigate some famously treacherous points along the southern route to the summit of the world's highest mountain.

He said: "The ice axe is there for back-up. Once we do stuff like the Lhotse ice face and the Hillary step, it might come into aid.

"It's there for the places where I could slip and I'm not attached to a fixed rope.

"Due to the fact I've only got the use of my right hand, I usually try to keep it free. I don't want something in it.

"If I slip, the back end will just go into the ice, but my right hand comes across and I just dig into the snow."

Moose Baxter, Van Gass's prosthetist at Headley Court, helped the soldier's vision become a reality. The specialist took a mould of his arm, so the ice axe fits perfectly over the stump.

Van Gass fixes the prosthetic to the remainder of his arm by rolling over a rubber sleeve, slotting the false limb over it, and a one-way valve creates a vacuum to hold it fast.

As well as losing his left arm above the elbow, he suffered a collapsed lung, punctured internal organs, loss of muscle from the upper left thigh, multiple shrapnel wounds and fractures to his knee, fibula and tibia.

His team-mates for the assault on Mount Everest's peak are former Captain Martin Hewitt, 31, from Widnes, Cheshire, Captain David Wiseman, 29, from Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, Captain Francis Atkinson, 31, from Swindon, Wiltshire, and former Private Karl Hinett, 25, from Tipton, West Midlands.