BASE Jumping
Another world record for Valery Rozov: his latest jump started at an incredible altitude of 7,700m.
There are people who like the comfort of their living room – and then there are people who just can't help but break world records, over and over again. Skydiving and BASE-jump legend Valery Rozov definitely falls into the second category.
A new world record for the Russian legend
On October 5, 2016, after a 21-day expedition on the sixth-highest peak in the world – Mount Cho Oyu on the Chinese/Nepalese border – Rozov stood on the edge of his chosen exit spot at 7,700m and leapt into thin air, breaking his own record from 2013 by 500m.
Climbing Cho Oyu is no small accomplishment on its own, let alone BASE jumping from the top of the south-west wall. The expedition itself wasn’t so easy for the group of climbers.
A recent dump of fresh snow and a few days of very bad weather meant the group were unable to reach the exit spot at the first attempt. They had to wait a full week before being able to make another attempt. But once they saw the weather clearing up and allowe a little time for the snow to melt a bit at the exit spot, it was go time.
After 90 seconds of pure freefall, Rozov opened his parachute and kept flying for another two minutes before landing safely on the glacier below, at 6,000 meters above sea level.
Valery Rozov, the limitless man
For the Russian legend, boundaries are made to be pushed and limits are made to be exceeded: nothing seems to be too much of a challenge for him.
The 51-year-old athlete is no stranger to breaking record with a combination of mountaineering and BASE-jumping. In early May of 2013, he set the previous world record for the highest BASE jump by leaping from an altitude of 7,220m from Changtse in the Everest Massif.
Take a look at Rozov’s previous record
But the Everest mountain range isn’t his only quest and jumps like these only come with decades of experience and training. Rozov must have one of the most impressive CVs of high-altitude jumps of any BASE jumper out there.
Rozov’s seven favourite BASE jumps up to 2013
In 2009 he became the first person to skydive into a volcano crater, on the Mutnovsky Volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East.
Then in 2010, he leapt from Ulvetanna in Antarctica, and became the first person to BASE jump from the Matterhorn in the Pennine Alps.
In 2012 he jumped from 6,420m on Shivling in the Indian Himalayas, before going for the first BASE jump from Grandes Jorasses' South Wall at 3,950m in the Mont Blanc massif in 2013, the year he set the record for World's Highest BASE Jump.
His most recent feat before Cho Oyu was to become the first man to BASE jump from Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, at an altitude of 5,460m.
Age is never an excuse to stop pushing your own limits and those of your sport!