The Hindu : Front Page : Team sets skydiving record near Everest

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Thursday, Sep 24, 2009
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Team sets skydiving record near Everest

IAF officer Ramesh Chandra Tripathi was part of the three-member team

KATHMANDU: Three skydivers, including an Indian Air Force officer, claimed to have made the highest parachute landing at the foot of the world’s tallest peak, 8,848 metre-high Mount Everest.

Air Commodore Ramesh Chandra Tripathi and two Britons — Leo Dickinson and Ralph Mitchell — jumped from over 6,000 metres in the shadow of the mountain from a helicopter to land at a frozen lake at the Everest base camp, Gorak Shep, according to S. Sapkota, chief of Nepal’s mountaineering department.

Gorak Shep is situated at a height of 5,167 metres.

Earlier record broken

The skydivers broke the record made last year in the same area, when skydivers jumped to a drop zone situated at 3,764 metres.

This is the first year that the Nepal tourism has opened the Everest zone to skydiving.

Paragliding record

In May this year, the Indian Army’s Colonel Niraj Rana set another record by landing above Camp II of Mount Makalu, situated at 7,000 metres, on a paraglider. This was the highest place a paraglider has ever landed.

“With a free fall timing of around five to six seconds, all three touched the snow of Gorak Shep in four minutes. They have returned to Kathmandu and are physically fit,” the organisers said in a statement.

Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Mitchell have done over 4,000 jumps so far, while Mr. Tripathi has done over 3,000 jumps. — PTI

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