Olympic rower posts astonishing picture of hands from polar mission

Alex Gregory is a Cheltenham-born double Olympic gold medallist. These are his hands. Photo / Facebook.

Have you ever had your hands in water so long you think they'll shrivel up?

It's a common complaint from people doing the washing up, or getting out of a long bath.

But no matter how bad you've had your hands turn to prunes, chances are it wasn't anywhere near as shocking as Alex Gregory's.

The two-time Olympic Gold medallist shared a jaw-dropping photo of his hands after taking part in an expedition to the Arctic with a group of fellow rowers.

The freezing conditions and continuous strain from rowing turned his hands into something out of Game of Thrones as he undertook the perilous journey.

"My hands after spending so long in wet gloves. The blisters were never bad on this Polar row, but the wet & damp seeped into the skin," he wrote on Twitter.

"This has certainly been one hell of an adventure!"

A photo of my hands after spending so long in wet gloves. The blisters were never bad on this row, but the wet and damp...

Posted by Alex Gregory MBE on Wednesday, 30 August 2017

"I've never been so wet and cold for so long. It's seeping into my bones, there is absolutely no escape from it.
"Everywhere we look beyond this tiny boat we've been living on is ice cold, dark grey ocean.

"There's no perception of distance, the horizon is just slightly lighter grey like the change from night to day, just a slight change in tone."

Gregory was forced to abandon the expedition after his team was stranded on a Norwegian island midway through their proposed 6-week expedition.

"My three young children need their dad, they need him to be responsible and to make the right decisions in life," he told Gloucestershire Live.

"They need him to be brave, adventurous, ambitious and to set them the right example, but they also need him to not take unnecessary risks."