Warren Macdonald has climbed over obstacles most people cannot imagine. Having lost both of his legs in a freak accident while he was backpacking off the coast of Australia, Macdonald not only decided that his injuries wouldn’t slow him down but that they would propel him to new heights. Just 10 months after the incident, Macdonald climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain and later summited both Mount Kilimanjaro and El Capitan. His inspiring story empowers audiences to turn challenge into change and fosters the desire to seek opportunities and overcome obstacles.
Macdonald is the author of A Test of Will: One Man’s Extraordinary Story of Survival, which chronicles his two-day ordeal of being trapped under a boulder, his subsequent rescue, the amputation of his legs, and his journey toward recovery. His critically acclaimed film, The Second Step, documents his epic four-week journey to Federation Peak, Australia’s most challenging mountain summit. It screened on National Geographic Television and won eight international awards including Grand Prize at the prestigious Banff Mountain Film Festival. Macdonald’s story is currently being featured on Amazon Prime’s I Shouldn’t Be Alive series in an episode called “Trapped under a Boulder”.
Macdonald has appeared on numerous news and current affairs programs, including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. As a speaker, his clients have included PepsiCo, Blackberry/Marketstar, HSBC, RBC Insurance, Sun Life Financial, Price Waterhouse Coppers, Shell Canada, Suncor, Novo Nordisk, among many others. In 2016, he spoke at the Million Dollar Round Table in Vancouver in a special 60-minute general session.