Complex world record

They took off from the Summit of Mt. Everest last Monday, on 21th of May of 2011, on a tandem flight and broke the World Record of Altitude in Paragliding.

Not just because they took off from Everest, but because they flew over Everest, about 30 meters above the highest montain that any pilot or any human being ever been, and the first cross country flight ever done in Everest region.

Following the track of the flight, they did about 31km, flying around Nuptse and landing in Namche Bazar Airport. The project and plan to fly from Everest happened in less than 2 months, with very little financial support, in the limit of saving of both pilots.

Lakpa noox

But still the adventure is not finished. Babu and Lakpa at the moment are still in action. They continue the adventure for the next 3 or 4 weeks, walking, cycling and by kayak-duo, on a river class 5 (having Lakpa Sherpa never swimmed in his life!), until they arrive to the ocean.

Lakpa Sherpa is a famous summiter and took at this expedition 3 pax with him for the first time to the Summit, not only Babu Sunowar, but Phu Dorge Sherpa and Nima Wang Chu Sherpa. At the way to the Summit, they lost one bottle of oxygen at 7.900m. Lakpa Sherpa gave his own bottle to Babu, having no oxygen himself even during and after the take off.

The fact to arrive to the ocean from Everest has a strong meaning to Babu: « from where the water starts, from the Supreme source, to where the water divides into egos and have separated names, to where the water unites and all rivers become one with the ocean »
The subtle message reflects it all of the spirit of these two simple men who love the mountains and nature.

We wait for them to come back to have the completed story and adventure on earth. Congratulations to the National hero Rai Babu Sanuwar, Lapka Sherpa and to all Sherpa community!

From RyanWaters.net (May 28, 2011):

For the past two months I have been living and working together with my friends Lakpa Chiri Sherpa and Babu, who had the aim to fly off the top of Everest with a paraglider and make their way down rivers through up to class 5 rapids all the way to the Bay of Bengal off the coast of India and Bangladesh...

I met Lakpa Chiri on K2 in Pakistan back in 2006 and we have crossed path many times since in the Himalaya. Throughout this Lhotse trip, the boys shared our basecamp, using the Sierra Designs Mothership as the office, laying out the new paraglider, which had never been tested, we did math together to see if the drop vs. horizontal rate of the wing would carry them over Nuptse... etc.

Lakpa Chiri has been climbing for years with many ascents of Everest, but Babu, a Nepali who comes off as extremely friendly and gentle, had never really climbed before. Instead he brought the flying and paddling power. He is a national champion kayaker, and expert paragliding instructor who made the first flight across Nepal with 18 flights crossing the country from East to West. Both amazing guys. They also had a great deal of help from Ang Bae Sherpa, a super nice guy who made his first climb of everest on the project and carried many loads of oxygen to the camps.

They managed the flight off the summit and we were able to see them clear the Nuptse Ridge as we descended from our summit back down past camp 1. While hiking out of the valley I see our heroes hanging at a teahouse, waiting for the rest of our team to all walk into Lukla together, even their families were there. It was one of the special times in my adventure career to walk together with them down the path at sunset while their friends congratulated them like movie stars! Please see the story and follow the boys on the way to the Bay... incredible achievement.