BackJoby Ogwyn |High jump
Base-jumper Joby Ogwyn talks about his planned 29,000ft free fall from the top of Everest
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As a child, Joby Ogwyn had always wondered what it would be like to fly. On 11 May, the base-jumper will live out his fantasy. He will jump from the top of Mt Everest, down almost 29,000ft, in a winged suit equipped with cameras.
The jump will be captured live and broadcast by Discovery Channel in a show, Everest Jump Live. The show will also feature Ogwyn’s climb to the summit of Everest.
“I’m not afraid to die. This jump will be the final piece of my dream of flying. Besides, it would be great to put mountain-climbing and wingsuit-flying together in a show," says the 39-year-old mountaineer from the US. Wingsuit-flying is the sport of flying through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift.
A mountaineer for 20 years, Ogwyn has been wingsuit-flying for eight years. He was the youngest American to scale Everest, at the age of 24, and in 2008 he set the world record for the fastest climb of Everest, in just nine-and-a-half hours. At the age of 26, he became the youngest person in the world to scale the Seven Summits—Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Carstensz, Denali, Vinson and Everest. “Ever since, I have been searching for the ultimate way to explore the mountain and the next level of adventure," he says.
In an email interview, Ogwyn talks about his passion for mountaineering and wingsuit-flying, how it started, and why he thinks people should not take up such sports. Edited excerpts:
Mountain-climber, base-jumper and wingsuit flyer—which of these is your biggest passion?
I fell in love with the idea of climbing the Seven Summits. At the time there were only about six-seven people in the world to have done it, and so I set it as a goal to do all seven, which I did. I became, at 26 years old, the youngest person in the world ever to do the Seven Summits, and then I went back again to the Himalayas over and over again.
Then, from the point of view of the wingsuit and the base-jumping stuff, I was making a series of documentaries about learning how to do extreme sports. One of the things I did was base-jumping. That’s where I really saw my first wingsuits, and it was something I’d been dreaming of all my life.
How and when did the idea of jumping live from Everest come to you?
This will be the final piece of my dream. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve imagined what it would be like to fly. I can’t think of a more spectacular backdrop than the Everest.
Could you tell us a bit about your training procedures and techniques, and the preparation for the event?
I am undergoing dozens of test jumps in California, Florida, Utah and the Swiss Alps. After these, I will travel to the Himalayas for the final training. So, it is after over six weeks of acclimatization that I will be all set to summit Everest.
What, according to you, are the prerequisites for anyone attempting a wingsuit flight?
Well, people ask me all the time how to do what I do and how to get into base-jumping and wingsuit-flying, and I try to deter them from it because it’s not something that is made for a lot of people. A lot of people like the idea of it, but the harsh reality of it is very different. It’s the same thing with climbing at high altitudes or Himalayan-style climbing, because a lot of people like to envision themselves on the summit, but the reality of what it takes, and of the danger of spending time in those types of environments to get to that place, is much harsher and unforgiving.
So I feel and I understand with the GoPro (camera) revolution the way that it is. Everybody wants to make their videos and put them on YouTube and everybody gets a million hits, and that’s great, I think anybody who’s having fun is having a great life, and that’s what it’s all about. But the penalties for messing up in base-jumping or wingsuit-flying are very bad, and so it’s really just not for most people.
But for people who can look past that fear and are willing to train for many, many years and are dedicated to it, it can be practised with quite a lot of safety and success.
What is the most challenging aspect?
You can’t just put the suit on and fly away. It takes many, many years of training, and very advanced and expensive, training, and figuring out things because it’s all brand-new.
Everest Jump Live, hosted by NBC News’ Willie Geist with the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore, will air at 6am on Sunday, 11 May on Discovery Channel.
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