Mark Inglis, author of mountaineering adventure memoirs, became an amputee at the age of 23 after being trapped in an ice cave on Aoraki Mt Cook for 13 days and suffering major frostbite. Since then he has become a research scientist, made award-winning wines, won a silver medal in cycling at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and climbed Aoraki Mt Cook again. The story of his ordeal trapped in an ice cave on Aoraki, and his later return to the mountain, are recounted in No Mean Feat. In 2006, he made it to the summit of Mt Everest, the first double amputee to conquer the world’s highest mountain. Legs on Everest tells of his return to Aoraki 20 years after he lost his legs, and the start of the long journey that would culminate in his successful Everest expedition. Both books were later brought out in teen editions with accompanying resources: No Mean Feat as To the Max, and Legs on Everest as Hi-tech Legs on Everest, co-authored with Sarah Ell. Inglis now works as a motivational speaker, and also leads treks through the Himalayas and in the mountains of New Zealand. A first-class honours degree in human biochemistry from Lincoln University led to research in leukaemia. He has set up a charity in Kathmandu called Limbs4All, and is an Adventure Plus ambassador for NZ Scouts, and an ambassador for Blue Lagoon Cruise line, for Disabled Riding NZ, and for Outward Bound NZ . In 2009 he was a delegate and panellist at the United Nations-partnered Global Creative Leadership Summit in New York, and in 2011 was both a presenter at TEDx Chicago and a guest for the Oxygen series in the UK. He is an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the disabled, and has been awarded an honoris causa Doctorate of Natural Resources and the Fervent Love of Lives Medal.
