Jumping off Mt Everest in a wing suit, live May 11 on Discovery

[Sam1]

http://www.wptv.com/entertainment/everest-jump-live-discovery-channel-to-air-wingsuit-flight-off-mount-everest-on-may-11

 

29,000 feet elevation or so, climbing up and flying down in a wing suit.... definitely one to watch!

[Lumber_Jack]

Weather is so volatile up there I can see this called off many times before it could actually happen. If it works it could be spectacular entertainment. But it could go terribly wrong as well.

[austin7.62]

I believe that this would qualify as "winning".

[No_0ne]

"Hey y'all.  Watch this!"

[KKing]

Not gonna lie, I'll tune in

[glowdotGlock]

Aw hell yeah!

[Mike.357]

I don't know how they can pull this off live.  I don't think they can predict a timeline for when the guy summits.  

[Trekbike]

[quote name="Mike.357" post="1139351" timestamp="1397653644"]I don't know how they can pull this off live. [/quote] Agreed. Sounds like it could turn into a repeat of Geraldo and Al Capone's vault.

[Garufa]

Lemme tell you how this is going to work since I've been suckered into more than one of those modern live dare-devil shows...for two hours you'll sit there while they show the same thing over and over going on and on about what a dangerous and death-defying attempt this is.  A good hour of that two will be commercials.

 

When it comes time for the feat they will either cancel or it or something will go wrong with one of the cameras so you don't get to see anything worthwhile or it will just in fact be so completely boring you'll want to throw something at the TV.

[wipfel]

Wait for it to show up on Youtube, and you can see all the relevant parts in about 5 minutes.

[bersaguy]

I watched that guy walk the canyon of that tight rope here sometime back. Little more than a rope but more like 1.5 inch cable but was still pretty gutsy for him to do it. Plus not much else worth watching to the Flat screen. Use to say Tube but tv's don't have tubes anymore......... :up:  :up: 

[ncomarc]

I read up on this in Outdoors magazine, he'll be using technology to climb up, jump with aerodynamic wings which he will detach sometime down the mountain then use the wingsuit to finish off. He won't be climbing in the traditional way, oxygen mask up and down plus just better gear. There should be 11 2man camera teams plus and Discovery has about 300 people in this project making it the biggest so far that they've done.

[Mike.357]

almost everyone uses oxygen to climb the mountain.

 

They can have all the technology they want,  not sure how it will help with the weather or the delays on the way up, especially at Hillary's step.

[A.J. Holst]

I saw the WIng Suit on Modern Marvels; some "pilots" are getting up to a 3:1 glide ratio.

 

Pretty cool stuff, not hard to imagine our specialized military paratroopers using it.

[ncomarc]

There seems to be 2 thoughts on climbing Everest,
1. Traditional people feel the 3 months climb, getting acclimated and experiencing with minimal "technology" is the way to do it. Using oxygen on the down climb, dealing with the traffic going up and whatnot.
2. There are now people who do boutique climbs and charge as such who do it about half the time using every technology available and doing the prepping at the customers home by sleeping in special chambers. It said that the option 2 cost 89 grand.

[vontar]

and in breaking news

12 killed, 4 missing in avalanche on Everest

 

http://www.wbir.com/story/news/world/2014/04/18/12-killed-3-missing-in-avalanche-on-everest/7859839/

 

That mountain still isn't anything to mess with.

 

I didn't see anything about if this would affect the jump.

Edited April 19, 2014 by vontar

[Sam1]

Yeah vontar, I wasn't sure if this was actually that group or not, they're probably already on the mountain themselves.

[TMF]

[quote name="Gotthegoods" post="1139531" timestamp="1397678727"] Pretty cool stuff, not hard to imagine our specialized military paratroopers using it.[/quote] ...until you do a mass tac with steerable parachutes. Then you begin to understand why folks should only be allowed a T-10 if they're anywhere near you. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Lumber_Jack]

Due to recent deaths on Everest the Discovery Channel has decided not to go forward with this event

[Hershmeister]

[quote name="Lumber_Jack" post="1140919" timestamp="1398029678"]Due to recent deaths on Everest the Discovery Channel has decided not to go forward with this event[/quote] Smart

[vontar]

They just told on CNN that some of the crew was among those killed.  Ever year there are deaths on that Mt.  People temp it and ...

[Sam1]

Looks like they cancelled the jump because of this.

[Lumber_Jack]

Most of the dead were Sherpa's. They are natives who were setting ropes and aides to allow the tourist climbers to make it to the summit. The Sherpa's decided not to climb at all this year in honor of their fallen colleagues. This is a defacto halt to any climbing on the mountain. Whiteout the Sherpas it's a damn near impossible to climb except for the most elite http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/apr/22/nepal-everest-talks-sherpa-strike-avalanche Edited April 22, 2014 by Lumber_Jack

[ncomarc]

Unless you're a Sherpa that's been retained by the more higher end guide companies, you really don't make that much money. This tragedy sucks but maybe it will cause the money to be trickled a little more and make it to the worker bees.