Posted: Oct 06, 2008 12:18 pm EDT
(MountEverest.net) It takes an extra wide chute, but Saturday the Everest Skydive project kicked off with the first jump and today they bagged 29,500ft.

The actual jumps of the Everest skydive took place October 4 in Shyangboche when 10 solo and 3 tandem jumpers made their jumps. Wendy Smith from New Zealand became the first solo jumper to land at the drop zone at 6:17am (local time). She jumped from a height of 22,000ft.

Explore Himalaya’s trek guide Nima Tamang became the first Nepali to make a tandem jump (with Steve Hennessey) from a height of 22,000ft. All jumps were made from Pilatus Porter aircraft.

The next day seven divers made solo jumps in two groups and today 10 solo and 2 tandem jumps took place from a height of 29,500ft and Wendy Smith repeating with two solo jumps. With a total of five jumps to her credit, Wendy remains the skydiver with the highest number of jumps in this event, reports the event blog.

Thin air

Thin air is difficult both on humans and aircraft. Here are two early examples of the effects of high altitude:

In 1862, two Englishmen reached 8000 meters (26,000 ft) in a balloon. That's when all hell broke loose. One went partially blind, the other couldn't breathe. A cord was tangled and they couldn't abort the ascent. At 8,800 meters (29,000 ft), one lost consciousness while the other, now partially paralyzed, was able to grasp the hydrogen release line with his teeth and the men landed safely after reaching about 9,000+.

Others were not so lucky. In 1875, two scientists decided to try an oxygen setup they had tested in a French decompression chamber. But the test would end tragically due to a human error one-two punch. The men brought too little of the oxygen, and were only acclimatized from the chamber.

At 8,784 meters, when the crew - the two scientists and a pilot - finally decided to nibble at the scarce O2, they found they couldn't get to it as they had lost the use of their limbs. Soon after, they became unconscious. The men had in addition thrown out too much ballast and now an uncontrolled climb followed. The pilot regained consciousness for a while; found that the balloon had started descending on its own and managed to bring it down. The balloonist was acclimatized from previous flights and survived, but the two inexperienced scientists died.

In the midst of the Olympics and climbing bans - you might remember the ad at ExWeb: "Skydive Everest."

Mid May 2008, High and Wild managers Ben Ian Wood, Andy Montriou, Nigel Gifford and David Ian Wood successfully skydived from 16,000ft at Shyanboche as a test jump for the first ever program of skydiving in the Everest Himalaya to take place this Autumn.

The first test jump was done by Ben Ian Wood and Andy Montriou in an army helicopter from 16,000 ft to Shyangboche airport. The next day, Nigel Gifford and David Ian Wood followed in a Fishtail Air chopper.

Nigel Gifford, 62, Managing Director of High & Wild, said he opened the parachute after free falling for about 8-10 seconds. A tandem dive was aborted due to weather.

In 2005 Ecureuil/AStar AS 350 B3 piloted by the Eurocopter X-test pilot Didier Delsalle, landed for two minutes at the top of Mount Everest (The "Everest Mystery chopper" received an ExWeb Best Of Award for the feat) and now Ecureuils are frequently used for rescue missions in Pakistan, latest in the Muztagh Tower operations.

Explore Himalaya, the local partner of High & Wild has received permit to hold the first ever Skydiving program in front of Mt Everest this October/November. The company reports that Fishtail Air is ready to launch a Bell 206B III helicopter for commercial operation in Nepal.

American built Bell 206B helicopter is time tested and comes with the best safety record of any helicopter in the industry, states the Explore Himalaya press release. British Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill actually chose a Bell helicopter for their record helicopter flight across both poles.

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