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| 9/30/2008 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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Courtesy Photo/ High and Wild
DAVE WOOD, director of parachuting operations for the Everest skydive, makes a landing on the Syangboche drop zone, at 12,350 feet, during a May test jump. |
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Experts craft Everest jump
Preparation to skydive at world’s highest peak takes two years
Ben Webster
Journal Sports Editor
The sun was shining and temperatures hovered just above 80 degrees on another comfortable late-summer day at Summit Ridge near Dolores. Harold Watkins' near future is going to be anything but comfortable with snow, ice and numbing temperatures. But those concerns were far from his thoughts.
On his mind was getting to view the Earth from an unseen vantage point.
He sat in his comfortable sun room Sept. 15, at the end of his dining table in his house, and talked casually about his next vacation.
After all, he already had many spectacular adventures to speak of. From sailing all over the world to traveling thousands of feet deep in the ocean in submersibles, he's done what many people only dream of. He smiled when he talked about the time he broke his neck hang gliding - for the sake of his wife, Nanc, he gave the sport up - and the time he flew to the edge of space in a Russian MiG 25. Those adventures are the types of vacations Watkins leans towards.
Of all the adventures he's been on, someone else has been there and done that first.
His next one is different.
No one has done it and Watkins knows it may still not happen.
"Are we crossing our fingers? You bet we are," he said.
Two years in the making
What may seem like a world away, a dedicated crew of jump masters, doctors, pilots, cameramen, advanced parachute packers and even life support system specialists were already in Napal preparing for that "vacation."
Since Nigel Gifford, OBE (officer of the British Empire), owner of High and Wild Adventures in England, had the idea, the crew of nearly 20 people has been preparing tirelessly for almost two years to make Watkins' new adventure possible. High and Wild organized the trip and asked the U.S. company Incredible Adventures for help to fill it with interested people who could afford to go.
It's taken two years to obtain the necessary permits, to gain support and create a positive enough relationship with the Sherpa and Tamang of Solu Khumbu in Nepal, to hire the right people to take care of every minute detail and to find enough crazed individuals to say, "Yes, I'll be one of the first to skydive over Mount Everest."
With all the planning and dedication to make it possible, it still might not happen. Everything has to fall perfectly in place for Watkins to be able to take in the scenery he can't wait for. And with so many things that could possibly go wrong, the crew is doing everything in its power to make sure nothing does.
Some issues can be somewhat offset. The possibility of hypoxia will hopefully be taken care of by the use of high-altitude skydiving oxygen systems, the temperatures will be handled with specialized jump suits, and while the weather at Everest can be predictable during the fall, the wind could spoil the entire event.
Pushing the limits
Dwight Steyn, who has become acquainted with Gifford through Steyn's charity organization Handi-Capable and the charity Global Angels, talked about the possibilities of the parachute jump not even taking place.
"In order to jump, five knots of wind is pushing the limits," Steyn said. "With the canopies flying at that altitude the wind plays with what is going on. I don't think anyone is thinking this is 100 percent going to happen."
At his home before embarking, Watkins wasn't overly excited about the possibility of becoming one of the first to ever to skydive in front of the gigantic mountain. He wasn't nervous or concerned about the wind, the altitude or the cold either.
"I'm just one of the fortunate guys who gets to go along," he said.
Watkins, along with 33 others, if all goes right, will be flown over Mount Everest in a Turbine Pilatus Porter airplane at over 29,500 feet and then he'll do something so ridiculous it's never been done before.
He's going to jump out of the airplane while it's near the highest mountain peak in the world and be one of the first to ever skydive in front of what they call, in Nepal, Sagarmatha, meaning goddess of the universe.
Extreme conditions
Skydiving has come a long way since World War II veterans first started jumping for the sport of it. Skydivers have jumped from helicopters and hot air balloons, from elevations of 10,000 feet to more than 80,000 feet, but they have never attempted to jump under the extreme conditions at Mount Everest.
Not long after the plane reaches its targeted altitude of 29,500 feet, the nerves and heartbeats will only intensify and then, if conditions are suitable, they'll jump.
"When they step outside that aircraft into free fall, the first thing they'll see is five of the world's biggest mountains," Director of Parachuting Operations Dave Wood, who owns a skydiving company in England, said in an e-mail. "There will be no other skydive like it in the world and they'll be able to see that awesome scenery very, very clearly because we're going to make sure the jumping is only undertaken when the weather conditions are perfect."
From almost six miles above sea level, even with the custom-made, special extreme cold jump suit and other protective cold equipment, the bone-chilling blast of minus 50-degrees Fahrenheit will hit them as they take the dive.
They'll drop and drop for a minute, free falling, at speeds of up to 140 mph, taking in the awesome view of the vast expanse of seemingly endless mountain peaks, that only a few will be able to have etched in their minds before their altimeter reads somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. The skydivers will then be yanked up when they pull for their canopy, three to four times the size of regular skydiving parachutes, and slowly drift down, taking in even more of the spectacular view of the Himalayan mountains and then hope to land on the highest drop zone in the world at 12,350 feet.
The climax of Watkins' vacation will be the skydive of Gifford's dreams.
The trek
It's a jump that's been built up and run through in Gifford's mind "a million times," Watkins said. The anticipation and the build up has taken two years. The adventurers won't just go to Nepal and jump right away.
Before the planned jump day of Thursday arrives, there's a week and a half of additional preparation for both the crew and the sky divers. Watkins and most of the rest of the adventurists arrived in Nepal Sept. 22.
After spending two days in Kathmandu, the group took an early morning flight to the Lukla airstrip Wednesday, Sept. 24, and began a six-day, acclimatization trek.
"We'll have new things introduced to us along the way that normal skydivers don't have to deal with. It's definitely not a weekend trip," Steyn said.
The group must get used to being at such high altitudes before taking to the skies and needed to hike, with the help of yaks and yak men, to 15,000 feet in temperatures close to zero degrees Fahrenheit.
After the trek, the group needed to descend back to the drop zone for familiarization jumps from 16,000 to 18,000 feet out of an Equirrel B3 helicopter.
And finally on day 12 - Thursday - the group may get its chance for the record-breaking main event, the opportunity for novice skydivers like Watkins to do what even professional skydivers have never done.
"Someone said to me the other day, you've brought democracy to the adventure world," Gifford said in an e-mail. "We're the professional adventurers but we've got people who normally wouldn't have the opportunity to do this, doing it before the professionals and I think that's fantastic.
"In Nepal they're saying this is as important an adventure as the first time they scaled the summit in 1953. This has never been done before. I get a tingle down my spine every time I think about it."
Reach Ben Webster at benw@cortezjournal.com.
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