Russian daredevil Valery Rozov recently broke the record for the highest BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans or Earth) jump as he stepped off a steep cliff at an elevation of 23,688 feet on the north face of Mount Everest. Due to the thin air, Rozov spent more than the usual time freefalling before gaining control of his wingsuit. He flew for approximately one minute at speeds of around 125 mph before pulling his parachute and landing in the snow on the Rongbuk glacier at 19,520 feet. “Even in the air I felt ‘whew, I did it’,” said Rozov after the successful jump.
At 48, Rozov has more than 10,000 BASE and skydive jumps under his belt, yet this jump required two years of preparation, he said. “It’s a totally unknown area for me, this altitude,” Rozov said before the jump. Rosov and his team of sherpas, photographers and camera crew spent many days getting to and acclimatizing at the Everest base camp, and four days of hiking and climbing to get to the location of the jump.
And it wasn’t just Rozov himself that had to be prepared for the mission. The extreme altitude required a new wingsuit design to handle the thin air and cold temperatures. On the day of the jump, the temperature reached -18 degrees C.
The jump occurred within days of the 60th anniversary of Tensing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s first ascent of the 29,029-foot-tall mountain.
Watch Rozov’s incredible jump here.
