Posted: Jul 11, 2007 08:05 am EDT
"It is all captured on film!," Bear Grylls stated over email as a reply to ExplorersWeb's request for proof on his claimed para-motor flight over Everest. "Discovery & Channel four are releasing the 2 hours-long film documenting the whole adventure at the end of the year… We will see it all then so there is no doubt!"

The British TV celebrity claims to have soared over the mountain riding his para-motor (a motorized paraglider), on May 14, 2007. The news was widely publicized in the worldwide media, in spite of no proof being provided. Moreover, climbers on the mountain never mentioned seeing a power-paraglider soaring over them, as occured when hang-glider pilot Angelo d'Arrigo soared over the mountain back in 2004.

Just one climber witnessed...the landing

In fact, the only Everest climber who witnessed the flight was American guide Dan Mazur, at the time taking a walk outside Pheriche. Grylls and his motor-parachute, or that "lawn garden tractor that had lost its silencer" as Dan put it, literally landed on top of Mazur.

"As soon as he did (land), he shouted in English, 'I did it, I did it!'," Mazur recalls. " I replied to him, 'what did you do?' He said, 'I flew as high as Everest.' I thought to myself at the time, I am not sure how high you flew, but, you didn't fly over Everest, because you never left the area above the Pheriche plateau, as far as I could tell."

"And as for hitting someone on landing…? Not sure where that came from! But again it is all captured on celluloid for anyone needing proof," Grylls vented after reading Mazur's report.

29,500 feet-high claims

Apparently among the ones not needing any proof of Grylls's claims are world media 'quot; which rapidly picked up on the story. In an article in the Daily Telegraph Grylls described how his fellow pilot Gilo Cardozo was forced to descend at 28,000 feet due to engine failure "just 1,000ft short of the summit".

"I had little choice but to steadily carry on alone," Grylls wrote. "My para-jet never missed a beat, feeling so smooth as it powered me higher and higher. Finally at 9:33 am I could see that no other mountain in the world was above me. I was at 29,500 feet."

It must be true - it was on the telly!

Documentary film-makers and their related media are not known for accuracy of claims, as the Altitude Everest expedition recently showed. And only last year, Discovery's one-sided documentary made heroes of people who stepped over a dying climber.

Films can be edited to prove just about anything and that's why performance is never left to media jo judge, but to historians and record keepers of statistics.

Where British Microlight pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy and Italian hang-glider pilot Angelo D'Arrigo showed not only courage, heart and intelligence; but also great transparency on their Over Everest flight - the same can not be said about Bear Grylls.

According to British journalist Tarquin Cooper, the aerial sports community does not seem ready to accept Grylls's word. Fellow adventurers are questioning how Grylls was able to determine his altitude when his flight instruments, including his altimeter, froze during the ascent. They also feel that since Grylls is claiming to have bettered the current altitude record by 10,000 feet, a considerable achievement, he should be challenged to provide some evidence of his accomplishment. Tarquin has done some research on the subject, and compiled the results in the following article:

Pilots say prove it
By Tarquin Cooper

Brian Milton, the first person to fly a micro-light around the world, said: "Steps must be taken for an independent authority to verify this flight."

Richard Meredith-Hardy, the only man to have flown a micro-light over Everest, said: "These guys haven't got a shred of evidence for what they have done. Whatever they've done is a great thing. But it's a question of WHAT is it?"

Putting the blame on China

Apparently it wasn't a flight over the summit of Mt Everest. Before his departure, Grylls announced a change of flight plan. "We aim to try to keep several miles between us and the most dangerous of the mountain's faces," he wrote. He blamed the fear of imprisonment and 'bankrupting fines' if he encroached into Chinese airspace, for which he did not have permission. It's a curious excuse, say his detractors.

Milton points out that when the pilot Colin Bodill strayed into Chinese airspace in 2000 he was let out after three days with "little fuss".

"It's not an excuse [for] not going over Everest," he said.

When challenged Grylls admits he didn't bother asking the Chinese for permission and is candid on the real reason. "The dangers were too great. [Flying over the summit] was the original plan but I changed the plan and I've always written very honestly about that."

Record claim unlikely to be ratified

The pair took off from 14,500 feet, 20 miles south of the mountain. Grylls says he got within two miles of the famous peak during his ascent. From there, the mission website reports him "riding the wind into the record books". However, Meredith-Hardy, who adjudicates records for the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the body that governs aviation records, said it was highly unlikely their altitude record claim would be ratified.

"There are various formalities and rules. You need a proper flight recorder trace, an FAI license, you've got to take off from flat ground 'quot; you can't just take off from the side of a hill. You need to have a flight observer. If you don't, it's not a record."

He added, "It's the responsibility of anybody who does anything ground-breaking to prove what they have done."

He said that even if the instrument displays froze mid-flight, as Grylls wrote afterwards, it doesn't mean they stopped recording. "It may well be they've got a trace."

Pics of clouds not enough

Grylls says he'd be happy to hand-over any of the flight instruments if a reading can be taken. "It's a good idea," he said.

Meredith-Hardy added that when he made his flight over Everest in 2004, he uploaded the photographic evidence immediately on his site for all to see. "I've only seen photos [on their website] of tops of clouds which could have been done anywhere in the world," Richard said.

Grylls said the critics will have to wait until the film comes out on Channel 4 in November.

"Our instruments froze. I can't provide proof apart from the film," he said. "I don't know exactly how many hundreds of feet I was above it."

He continued, "I was slowly climbing up through all these mountains and you reach a point where you're climbing up and the summits are above you. Eventually you reach level and then I was looking over the summit of Mt Everest down into Tibet."

On a wing and a Prayer 'quot; one more time

The film, titled "On a Wing and a Prayer", is currently being edited by the production company and they have all the footage. Grylls added that he was never about the record anyway. "I've done this to raise a million dollars for a friend's charity and I'm really proud of that," he stated.

This isn't the first time Grylls has sailed close to the wind with his claims. In 2003 he was challenged by a team of power boaters after claiming the first crossing of the North Atlantic in a RIB [rigid inflatable boat]". The team claimed they'd done it before him and Grylls changed the wording to the first "unassisted" crossing. Grylls also claims that he was the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest in 1998, despite being informed that James Allen, who summited at age 22 in 1995 and originally reported as Australian, is British.

"The worst thing about it is that anybody who genuinely wants to fly over the mountain will now feel it might have been done," Milton added. "Adventurers will never be able to raise the money because any sponsor will say Bear Grylls has done it. And he hasn't."

The 2004 spectacular over Everest flight of British Microlight pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy and Italian hang-glider pilot Angelo D'Arrigo stunned the entire mountain as they came soaring toward the summit. Angelo fulfilled a dream that was four years in the making. He prepared extensively for the project by working in hypobaric chambers and testing gear in a wind tunnel. The attempt was very bold. Skeptics believed that the air would be too thin and too cold - an Antarctic helicopter pilot veteran called the attempt flat out "impossible". The feat gained both pioneers international recognition and their expedition was awarded among the Best of 2004 by ExplorersWeb. Angelo d'Arrigo died on March 26, 2006 when a small Sky Arrow plane piloted by a retired military general fell 200 meters to the ground. He left behind the wild birds he'd taught to fly, and a world of mourning fellow explorers whose respect he had earned for his great spirit of adventure.

American Everest and K2 summiteer Dan Mazur rescued Lincoln Hall on Everest last year and is currently leading a team on Lhotse and Everest.

Discovery Channel's TV host British Bear Grylls climbed Everest in 1998 as a member of a commercial expedition.

 EMAIL   PRINT   SHARE   TEXT