The crew and the Clients of Everest Skydive 2012.
Around Base Camp.
Everest Skydive 2012 was organized and concluded at Syangboche Amdablam in the Everest region. There were total of 25 loads performed by AS350 B3 Helicopter. The five loads were jumped over Amadablam Base Camp 15000ft and the rest 20 were jumped over Syangboche Airport 12400ft. The details of the jumps made during the Everest Skydive 2012 are as below:
Day 1, October 31, 2012.
Wendy Smith, Ryan Jackson, Tom Noonan and Derek Thomas
Solo jumps over Amadablam Base Camp.
Wendy Smith.
The crew of Everest Skydive 2012.
Day 2, November 1, 2012.
First flight
Ryan Jackson and Miloslave Sulda
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Second Flight
Derek Thomas and Fred Seth Williams
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Third Flight
Wendy Smith and Robert Gabris
Solo jumps over Syangboche
Fourth Flight
Ryan Jackson and Travis Ross Wood
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Fifth Flight
Ryan Jackson and John Leblance
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Sixth Flight
Wendy Smith and Pavel Novak
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Seventh Flight
Ryan Jackson and Robert Sachs
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Eighth Flight
Tom Noonan, Zoe Nadiadryden and Wendy Smith
Tandem jump over Syangboche.
Ninth Flight
Ryan Jackson, Fred Seth Williams and Laura Coe
Tandem jump over Syangboche.
Flying closing to Everest
Colorful Flight.
Conversation in air.
Day 3, November 2, 2012.
First Flight
Robert Gabris, Robert Sachs and Milosalve Sulda
Solo jumps over Amdablam Base Camp.
Second Flight
Fred William and John Leblanc
Solo jumps over Amdablam Base Camp.
Third Flight
Travis Ross Wood, Pavel Novak and John Leblance
Solo jumps over Amdablam Base Camp.
Fourth Flight
Tom Noonan, Fred Seth Williams and Ryan Jackson
Solo Jumps over Amdablam Base Camp.
Fifth Flight
Derek Thomas, Travis Ross Wood and Pavel Novak
Tandem jumps over Syangboche.
Sixth Flight
Tom Noonan, Zoe Nadia Dryden and Wendy Smith
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Seventh Flight
Ryan Jackson, John Leblance and Fred Seth Williams
Tandem jumps over Syangboche.
Eighth Jump
Tom Noonan, Laura Coe and Derek Thomas
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Ninth Jump
Robert Gabris, Robert Sachs and Miloslave Sulda
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Maurizio- Piloting in Everest region.
Getting down to Drop Zone.
Awesome view.
Day 4, November 3, 2012.
First Flight
Ryan Jackson and Farhaj Sarwar
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Second Flight
Tom Noonan, Ted and Derek Thomas
Tandem jump over Syangboche.
Third Flight
Farjah Sarwar, Ryan Jackson and Wendy Smith
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Fourth Flight
Fred Seth Williams and Travis Ross
Solo jump over Syangboche.
Fifth Flight
Farjah Sarwar and John Leblance
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Sixth Flight
Wendy Smith, Tom Noonan, Derek Thomas and Ryan Jcakson
Solo jumps over Syangboche.
Sky is the limit.
Exceptional Weather in the Himalayas.
B3 helicopter in action.
The Everest Skydive 2012 started with the solo jumps by the crew members Wendy, Tom, Derek and Ryan over Amdablam Base Camp and it concluded with the solo jumps by same crew members over Syangboche Airport.
An Italian Pilot Maurizio Follini flew all the way to Nepal to take the piloting responsibilities for this Mega Event. He was well supported by the operation Manager and the Fishtail Air Captain Aashish Sherchan.
The land of ice.
Fishtail Air, wonderful support.
Amongst Everest.
Wendy Smith a well-known figure in the adventurous world especially, in the skydiving arena has recently completed her Everest Skydive 2012. Wendy with more than 19,800 skydives throughout the world has been doing the skydiving for 25 years. Wendy is a successful Chief coordinator of Everest Skydive since 2008. Apart, from the skydiving she is an experienced Aerial Photographer. Here is an interview with a Kiwi sky angel, Wendy regarding her experience during the Everest Skydive 2012.
EH: It’s our pleasure to have you here after the Everest Skydive 2012. Wendy, how was your Everest Skydive this year?
Wendy: This year the Everest Skydive was amazingly different because we used the B3 helicopter for all our jumps for the first time. The helicopter put a whole different feeling in the Everest Skydive especially for two reasons. First, the weather was perfect all day, everyday allowing faster load rotations. Secondly, the advantage of jumping from the helicopter was not on to just one location, we were able to open up a new location at Amadablam Base Camp as well.
EH: You are a highly experience adventurous figure, basically what makes you come to Everest every year to make the Skydive?
Wendy: Because, I am falling in love with Nepal.
EH: Good to hear Wendy, how many solos and tandems were performed this year during the Everest Skydive?
Wendy: This year in the Everest Skydive, we had 2 tandems and 9 solos. We did the total of 64 jumps and 25 loads from the B3 Fishtail helicopter. It was an amazing year as we finished our jump programs in four days with an exceptional weather. This year we pushed back the Everest Skydive to the end of the October which was a very good idea. So, we were able to use very good stable weather which favored all day for jumping, which we never had before.
EH: You have performed the Skydiving in the other parts of the world, what is the fundamental difference between Everest Skydive and Skydiving in the other parts of the world?
Wendy: Everest Skydive, the Himalaya is absolutely unique. It is the top of the world and unique to respect or appreciate trekking and acclimatizing to get to the destination where we take off from. Next we do a HALO jump which means High Altitude Low Opening with oxygen. It enables one of the most superbly visual and technically complicated skydives in the world to happen.
EH: How do you feel flying high up in the sky not once, not twice but more than 19800 times?
Wendy: It is always exciting. It doesn’t matter whether you jump with new clients, experienced skydivers or with the crew, it is always exciting. It is such a visual feast to the eyes because the mountains are very closely surrounding you, it is an amazing location to jump.
EH: Apart, from skydiving you also work as an Aerial cinematographer, how do you cope with such challenge?
Wendy: Okay, I also work as Aerial cinematographer with the Aerial camera on my camera helmet. Myself and my crew are responsible to bring those photographs and videos back down to ground as souvenirs to our clients. It is not easy to make photographs and videos high in the sky with the oxygen equipments on, heavy parachutes and thermal suits however; we have very experienced crew members from around the world in the Everest Skydiving team.
EH: Lots of people around the world keep an eye on the Everest Skydive every year, but some of them are able to make the final jumps on the Event. Wendy, what do you exactly figure out within the participant or client’s attitude just before the Everest Skydive?
Wendy: Well, the fact is trekking and acclimatizing in the Himalayas humbles many people. We have all the knowledge and the technology and we brief the clients in the proper way and give them trust and security. Since the event is extreme we know the clients need confidence and the crew always gives them. We support the clients very well so that this extreme jump becomes easier. We are happy that after the jump our every client goes with the smile on their faces.
EH: Who do you think is the credible side for the hard work and the successful conduction of the Everest Skydive since 2008?
Wendy: With Explore Himalaya to manage one of the elite adventures of the world has been very much successful. Every year we are learning and Explore Himalaya has been a very integral part of the Everest Skydive. Everybody, here in the Explore Himalaya are very much cooperative and we are more than happy to be the part of Explore every year.
EH:Do you have any special plans for the Everest Skydive next year?
Wendy: We are already excited for 2013. We are always learning in the Himalayas. The coordination between our crew and the Explore Himalaya and Fishtail Helicopters has been exceptional. Apart from that Explore Himalaya and Fishtail Helicopters have supported us with the Skydive in every possible way. We are planning to implement what we learned all these years next year in the Everest Skydive to make this extreme event even grander and more successful. Hopefully, next year in 2013 we will be able provide our clients greater time.
EH: Thanks, Wendy.
Wendy: It’s my pleasure.
This trip was satisfying. The meeting and handling was excellent. I am very happy with guide Bharat. The itinerary was very good, not too exerting and I enjoyed it. Great arrangement! Looking forward to make many more trips to Nepal through Explore Himalaya
We work with the motto "Tourism for Development". Explore Himalaya Community Service Project was conceived to empower underprivileged segments of Nepal.