50-year-old Russian BASE and wingsuit flyer Valery Rozov has just returned from Tanzania, Africa, having made the first ever BASE wingsuit jump off of Kilimanjaro.
The Russian adventurer summited the highest point in Africa (5,895m) and then jumped from the top of the Western Breach Wall, (5,460m) the nearest most suitable exit point. “I prepared for this jump for one year,” he said shortly after making the jump, “so it’s a special feeling when you’re successful, as you can imagine. I’m very excited to have made it.”
Rozov admitted that a successful jump was far from guaranteed. “There’s no other mountain around so it attracts clouds on the summit. The only window we had was early in the morning.” There was another technical issue: “The main problem in searching for the ideal jumping spot was that the wall was not vertical,” adds Rozov. “We spent a whole day looking for it. After missing the opportunity to jump, we spent the night in the crater of Kilimanjaro at 5,750 meters. The next day, it was too windy and cloudy, so we managed to jump only on the third day.”
During the flight, Rozov travelled a horizontal distance of more than 3km landing back down at the popular Barranco Camp 3,950m after spending more than a minute in free fall. “When I landed there were 100s of people to meet me. The locals had heard what I was up to and were pretty impressed!”
The Kilimanjaro jump is just the latest in a line of impressive jumps the Russian has made around the world. His most famous recent feat was to BASE jump from Everest, and in 2013 he leapt from Mt Changtse, 7,220m, a subsidiary peak off Mt Everest, successfully making the first wingsuit flight off the mountain.
To watch the video of Rozov’s Kilimajaro flight, CLICK HERE
RELATED LINKS
www.redbull.com