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Sunday, April 13, 2014

From The Department Of Nope

Lacking very much time tonight, as I have a short turnaround between shifts at work, I suppose I'll have to satisfy myself by noting the world's latest bout of extreme-sports lunacy: Two-time Everest summitteer Joby Ogwyn, wearing a wingsuit, will be flinging himself off the summit of Mount Everest on May 11, weather permitting. The Discovery Channel will be airing... this... at 9 PM Eastern.

Amazingly, Red Bull appears to have nothing to do with this.

Ogwyn will be aiming for the base camp. Of course, what he's aiming for and what Everest's weather will actually be steering him towards might be two entirely different things. Base camp is situated on a relatively large plateau, so it's not as if he's trying to hit the head of a pin. The problem is really more a matter of will he make it that far without the wind slamming him down into a semi-random part of the mountain where there's every chance he'd end up tumbling down to who knows where. Also, if he has to bail out for some reason, the crow's-flight path from summit to base camp will have him riding a ridge that serves as the border between Nepal and China. If he for whatever reason lands on the Chinese side, that's a whole different set of problems.

Also, there is the tiny little matter of getting up there in the first place. He will not be flown to the summit; he'll have to climb it again to qualify for the jump. And he has one failed attempt alongside his two summits, so him getting up there at all is no guarantee. And when he jumps, he'll be doing so having just climbed Mount Everest immediately beforehand.

Not for a billion-dollar bracket.

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