Still More Fun With Paragliding
Eagles see paragliders as snack food, other paragliders spend the day just hanging out - for nine hours or so - other participants in the sport get guided tours of minefields. Yet people keep right on doing it. For the thrill of never knowing just what will kill you and when, apparently. From Australia comes the tale of the paraglider who took a tour of a thunderstorm. All 32,000 feet of it.
Paragliding 2005 World Cup winner Ewa Wisnierska, 35, was lifted to 32,612 feet by a storm that apparently killed a Chinese paraglider in eastern Australia on Wednesday. The pilots were preparing for the 10th FAI World Paragliding Championships next week, event organizer Godfrey Wenness said.
He Zhongpin, 42, died during the same weather system, apparently from a lack of oxygen and extreme cold, Wenness said. His body was found 47 miles from his launch site.
Wisnierska described Friday how she attempted to skirt the thunderstorm and when that failed, repeatedly attempted to spiral against its powerful lift.
She said she could see lightning around her and decided her chances of survival were "almost zero."
She said she radioed her team leader at 13,123 feet.
"I said, 'I can't do anything,'" she told reporters at a news conference. "'It's raining and hailing and I'm still climbing — I'm lost.'"
Officials and Wisnierska's ground team used global positioning and radio equipment to track her altitude as she soared well beyond the 29,000-foot plus height of Everest, the world's tallest peak. Wenness said she went from 2,500 feet to the maximum in about 15 minutes.
She was unconscious for more than half an hour, apparently but managed to regain her senses and land safely. On a related note, there's this guy:
Makes you want to run out and sign up, doesn't it?
Uncategorized | Gaius Saturday, 17 February , 2007
