The World Record of Altitude in Paragliding has been broken by two Nepalese men, Lakpa Chiri Sherpa and Babu Sunowar, who launched their tandem flight from the summit of Mount Everest last week. The two men gained altitude to reached a height of 30 meters above the tallest mountain in the world. They subsequently proceeded to complete the first ever cross-country flight in the Everest region.
Their GPS track shows the route, approximately 31km, flying around Nuptse and landing in Namche Bazar Airport. Impressively, the new World Record is only the start of a much larger expedition for the two explorers. For the next month they will be walking, cycling and kayaking their way to the to the ocean, facing some class 5 rapids en route. The expedition is a fine example of cross-discipline teamwork in the field. While Lakpa Sherpa is a seasoned mountaineer and has summited Everest on numerous occasions, Babu had little previous experience of climbing. His speciality is as a professional kayaker and paragliding instruction; skills he has in turn he has been able to pass onto his expedition partner.