Ed Jackson does not stop.

Speaking to Sportin Wales in between numerous other interviews with publications from as far afield as Australia and the United States, he admits that he secretly loves to be busy.

“I like being busy,” Jackson admits.

“Ironically, for me, climbing mountains is my break.”

In the last six years, Jackson has climbed numerous peaks in Wales, the Alps, and even Nepal.

Snowdon was conquered first on Easter Sunday 2018, before he led the Restart Rugby Alpine Challenge with a group of ex-professional players up Mont Buet. Together they scaled the 10,000ft peak over 2 days.

Two years later, Jackson scaled the 6,500m Mera Peak in the Himalayas, helping to raise money for a specialist spinal unit.

“It is a weird thing to say and, yes, it’s physically tiring, but psychologically, it is meditative,” Jackson adds.

“You get to spend time in these beautiful environments, disconnected from the outside world. I often come back physically tired and a bit battered and bruised, but always emotionally rested.”

Accident and Recovery

The former London Welsh, Newport Gwent Dragons, and London Wasps number eight’s life was turned upside down in 2017 when he suffered a serious spinal injury after diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool.

Jackson fractured his C6 and C7 vertebrae, which are located at the base of the neck, and was initially quadriplegic with only limited movement in his right arm.

As the name of his charity – Millimetres 2 Mountains – suggests, Jackson’s recovery started with tiny movements in his big toe and, seven years after the accident, he is scaling mountains, with a brace on his left leg.

‘The Mountain Within Me’

And now, on top of everything, Jackson has a film to promote.

“I got a phone call just over three years ago from a lady called Helen Parker who is one of the bosses at Universal Pictures,” he recounts.

“She introduced herself and said that she’d read my book and thought that it could be a film.

“I thought it was a prank!”

Prank it certainly was not and, three years on, The Mountain Within Me has premiered across the UK, US, and Australia in the last week of August.

Jackson is keen to move the credit away from himself but the impact that the film is having is in large part thanks to his charity.

“People are going to take different things away from the film,” Jackson says.

“It can just be entertainment for people, but it can be more than that. We want to have a tangible impact on people. It’s great to be able to raise awareness of the charity and hopefully inspire anyone who watches the film that they too get through a period of hardship.

“I’d like to inspire some people to go on an adventure, not necessarily to the Himalayas, but even it’s as simple as taking each day as it comes and grabbing life by the horns.

“There’s also a hell of a lot of epic mountaineering shots in there too if people are just into that!”

Big Raj and Leaving a Legacy

Even before Universal came calling, Millimetres 2 Mountains had worked hard to leave a lasting impact on the people and communities that have helped them along the way.

As well as the spinal unit, Jackson has befriended a Nepalese guide, affectionately known as ‘Big Raj’ and helped him set up his own tracking and guiding company.

“Big Raj was explaining the system to me and how most of the tracking companies are Western run,” Jackson explains.

“The Nepalese guides do the hard work on the ground, but they don’t have the opportunity to set up their own organisations and companies. There’s a bit of a glass ceiling there.

“Me and a group of friends got together and helped Big Raj set up his own company and now he is able to employ guides from his village and keep the profits in Nepal.

“He is actually in the UK at the moment which is amazing because it’s his first time ever outside Nepal. We were at the premier together in Edinburgh and it’s been so fun seeing him experience new things like the London Underground.”

Why Mountains?

As for the film, you won’t catch Jackson trying to look good for the cameras while trying to climb a peak.

“There’s nothing glamorous about the way I climb mountains!” he exclaims.

“Nothing really changed for me, because they can use drones and cameras like that to film while we climb.

“I’m quite good at ignoring what’s going on around me and focus on trying not to fall off the mountain. The videographers are so good at what they do it’s almost as if you don’t know they’re there.”

The question yet to be answered, however, is why did Jackson pick climbing mountains in the first place?

“They kind of picked me in a weird way,” he admits.

“I set myself the challenge of scaling Snowdon a year after my accident, partly because there’s a path all the way to the top and a train on the way down.

“It was obviously really hard, given my circumstances, but during that process lots of people came to support and I felt like it was the first time since my injury that I had a real sense of being useful again and having a sense of purpose.

“Naturally, after that I wanted to climb higher. I never imagined that one day I would be climbing in Nepal or up the Matterhorn.”

Cymru Connection

Snowdon, or Yr Wyddfa, being the highest peak in Wales, provides a nice link that Jackson has made with Wales, something that began during his rugby career.

“All my coaches during my rugby career were Welsh,” Jackson says.

“Dai Young at Wasps, Lynn Howells at Doncaster, and Lyn Jones at London Welsh. So, it only seemed natural that I was going to end up playing in Wales.

“Two of my best mates from school are from Cardiff and still spend a lot of time there.”

Kyrgyzstan and Paris 2024

As well as his charity and mountaineering work, Jackson has also embarked on a career in TV and media.

The 35-year-old has worked as a rugby reporter for Channel 4’s live coverage of the Champions cup, headed to Tokyo as one of the key presenters of the Paralympic Games, and will be doing the same in Paris this month.

“I head out to Paris to present the Paralympics as soon as I’m finished promoting the film,” Jackson says.

“I was very lucky to be involved in Tokyo and Beijing as well for the Winter Paras. Obviously those two had Covid impacting them, and I’ve heard Paris has been amazing in terms of atmosphere and crowds.

“To be in the Stade de France for the Paralympics is incredibly exciting.”

Jackson does not come across as someone who ever takes much time off, and it comes as no surprise to hear that he has plenty planned for after the Paralympics.

“After Paris we are going to Albania with the charity,” says Jackson.

“We’re also going to climb Mount Kenya in January and then the big one next August in Kyrgyzstan.

“I want to climb an unclaimed peak. So, to be the first to climb a big peak in Kyrgyzstan with a group of other disabled adventurers and have our own mountain.

“Being the first, we’ll have the right to name it, and to be able to plant a flag in the ground for accessible adventure would be awesome.”

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