# BASE Jump off Everest, anyone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2001, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901 "2001-02-17T18:30:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/21 "2011-09-26T20:30:03Z")
[Jean-Marc Boivin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marc_Boivin) (the Frenchman Ken001 referred to above) paraglided off the summit and landed down on camp 2 on 26 September **1988**. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/22 "2011-09-26T20:55:36Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I’ve always wondered if using a low pressure space suit would be an easier way to climb Everest. I get the impression its mostly just a long ass walk (at least now where they have ropes and ladders at all the hard spots). What makes that walk so damn hard and slow is people can’t breath. Take a step, rest, take another step, rest. Breathing pure oxygen at a couple PSI above ambient would probably be a godsend. The higher the pressure, the easier the breathing. But the higher the pressure the harder the suit would be to work in so the answer probably depends on details I don’t know enough about. The suit really wouldn’t be all dead weight because you need insulation anyway and many climbers carry oxygen as well. Partial pressure of O2 at sea level is 3 psi; you have to get PPO2 down to about 1.5 psi before blood oxygen saturation dips significantly below 100%. Ambient pressure at 29,000 feet altitude is 4.6 psi. a mix of 30% O2 should be enough to provide good blood oxygen saturation; breathing pure oxygen at this pressure (or providing pure O2 in a pressurized suit) would be a waste. It’s worth noting that after all these years, no one has bothered to ascend Everest with a pressure suit. > [@Broomstick](#): > > The record altitude for a successful parachute jump is something like 100,000+ feet. The man’s brain did not explode. He did it back in the 50’s. Even breathing pure oxygen, survival is not possible at those altitudes without using a pressure suit like the one Kittinger wore for those jumps. Even supposing he had no pressure suit, he would not have developed decompression sickness. The pressure drop from ground to 100,000 feet was rather small (about 14 psi) compared to the kind of pressure drop that a SCUBA diver experiences (up to 50 psi), so he didn’t have much dissolved nitrogen in his blood, and there would have been plenty of time for it to be removed via his lungs during the hours-long ascent. And again, that was all a non-issue anyway because he did use a pressure suit. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/23 "2011-09-26T21:25:40Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Partial pressure of O2 at sea level is 3 psi; you have to get PPO2 down to about 1.5 psi before blood oxygen saturation dips significantly below 100%. > > Ambient pressure at 29,000 feet altitude is 4.6 psi. a mix of 30% O2 should be enough to provide good blood oxygen saturation; breathing pure oxygen at this pressure (or providing pure O2 in a pressurized suit) would be a waste. > > It’s worth noting that after all these years, no one has bothered to ascend Everest with a pressure suit. > > Even breathing pure oxygen, survival is not possible at those altitudes without using a pressure suit like the one Kittinger wore for those jumps. > > Even supposing he had no pressure suit, he would not have developed decompression sickness. The pressure drop from ground to 100,000 feet was rather small (about 14 psi) compared to the kind of pressure drop that a SCUBA diver experiences (up to 50 psi), so he didn’t have much dissolved nitrogen in his blood, and there would have been plenty of time for it to be removed via his lungs during the hours-long ascent. And again, that was all a non-issue anyway because he did use a pressure suit. Kittenger was pre-breathing pure oxygen for some period of time to flush out N2; the same goes for U2 and SR-71 pilots. Even HALO jumpers will do a flush. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/24 "2011-09-26T22:31:03Z")
Everest has about 1/3 the atmospheric pressure as at sea level. To put this in perspective, the pressure difference of jumping from the top of Everest to sea level would be equivalent to jumping into water and swimming to a depth of 22 feet. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/25 "2011-09-26T23:37:45Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > … jumping from the top of Everest to sea level … That jump would cover a substantial horizontal distance. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/26 "2011-09-27T11:49:39Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > Kittenger was pre-breathing pure oxygen for some period of time to flush out N2; the same goes for U2 and SR-71 pilots. Even HALO jumpers will do a flush. If you’re potentially going to be exposed to a rapid decompression event that does not include timely _re_compression, then reducing your N2 levels beforehand makes sense. A U2 or SR-71 that experiences loss of cabin pressure at cruise altitude (\>70K feet) is going to take a while to descend to an altitude where nitrogen dissolution isn’t a serious risk. OTOH, Kittinger’s ascents took something like 90 minutes to reach peak altitude, and he would have been breathing pure O2 (and dumping N2 from his body) the entire way up. I’m a little puzzled as to why he would need to _pre_-breathe O2 before even beginning the ascents. As for climbing Everest…that takes _days,_ during which time there’s plenty of opportunity for a climber’s body to dump N2 on the way up. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/27 "2011-09-27T18:24:18Z")
Kittinger and the SR71/U-2 pilots were/are wearing full pressure suits. My understanding is that before they close their visors, the suits are flushed with 100% O2 to ensure that there is no residual N2 that could be reincorporated into the body. As for Mt. Everest: the main reason you carry oxygen is to stay warm. As you go higher, the cells become increasingly inefficient. This, in turn, decreases the amount of energy generated for basil metabolism. The body, then, has to expend more effort to maintain this level. The cost is less heat is generated, which in turn means other processes become more inefficient; such as breathing, climbing, digestion, thinking, etc. Compounding this problem is the energy expended for breathing as you go higher. [Read about the 1st accent of Everest without oxygen.](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/history/firstwoo2.html). The upshot is you’re going to be colder climbing Everest without supplemental oxygen. The lack of oxygen also increases High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, hypothermia, frostbite, etc. And most crucially, the ability to make critical judgements when things go wrong. It’s also fortunate that Everest is located as far south at it is; thanks to the earth’s rotation, the air is just a thick enough to support a summit attempt on calm days. If Everest were in Alaska, or Antarctica, the air would be too thin for an O2-free accent. Even so, the summit of Everest is on the absolute hairy edge of survival; if a storm comes through (let’s forget about the cold, blizzard conditions for a moment) and the barometric pressure drops enough, your cognitive abilities could be disabled to the point you would be essentially a zombie unable to move… ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/28 "2011-09-28T05:06:02Z")
Didn’t Bear Grylls try this? I’m sure I saw a program about it on Discovery Channel. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/29 "2011-09-28T13:32:42Z")
Naw, you’re thinking about the episode where he lava surfs. ---
**Author:** ![jackbeanstalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@jackbeanstalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackbeanstalk)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/30 "2012-06-06T21:13:44Z")
Russian climber, Valery Rozov, did a wing jump from Shivling at 6543 meters (21466ft) today. He jumped 2200 meters onto the glacier below, basically back to base camp. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901/31 "2012-06-07T11:29:10Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Didn’t Bear Grylls try this? I’m sure I saw a program about it on Discovery Channel. He did it with a powered paraglider > **[BBC NEWS | UK | Flying over the top of the world](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6666889.stm)** > > A British Everest summiteer has become the first man to fly higher than the top of the world in a powered paraglider. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/base-jump-off-everest-anyone/54901.md?page=1)