The Man Who Skied Down Everest

For the ski buffs out there here's a run that'll put you to the test.

From Smithsonian Magazine...

On the afternoon of May 6, 1970, Yuichiro Miura stood on Mount Everest’s South Col, at an altitude of more than 26,000 feet. On his lips he wore white sun block, and on his head a fighter pilot’s helmet, complete with a transceiver. He also had oxygen tanks, and a parachute was strapped to his back, though no one knew if the parachute would work at that altitude. On his feet he wore skis.

Breathing quickly and deeply, Miura reached a state of Mu, a Zen-like feeling of nothingness.

Then he took off.

The entire descent, approximately 4,200 vertical feet, took about 2 minutes and 20 seconds. The journey was recorded in the 1975 documentary The Man Who Skied Down Everest, the first sports film to win an Academy Award for best documentary. I'll be checking it out on Netflix soon.

To read the full article, click here.

One last thing, in May 2003 at the tender age of 70 Miura climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest and became, at the time, the oldest person to summit the mountain. He plans to do it again in 2013, at the age of 80.

Impressive.