Jesse is a climber, best known for his trad climbing. Despite being born severely sight impaired, his parents saw no reason to let this get in his way and climbing became a large part of his childhood. As soon as he could walk his dad took him climbing and taught him how to lead trad in Cornwall, this in between many family trips to Fontainbleau, instilled a life-long passion for the sport. As he lost the little sight he was born with, he never considered giving up his passion and instead set about adapting how to climb without the use of his eyes.

Since then, Jesse has continued to push his limits and gained recognition when he became the first blind person to lead climb the Old Man of Hoy, which was recognised as an official Guinness World record and is the focus of the multi-award winning documentary Climbing Blind. However, this is but one of the many hard trad routes he has to his name leading these "non-sight". As well as his trad pedigree, he also has first ascents in Arctic Greenland completed in alpine style in winter conditions. He is also a competition climber, representing the GB Paraclimbing team and winning medals in multiple international competitions.

With Jesse Dufton

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