Titles: Scotland’s first world-class skydiver
Alone on the roof of the world
Marooned in the Lion Rock
A lifetime of travelling
Inventing a new death
When most thought no more
Scotland’s first world-class skydiver
Scotland’s first skydiver weighs just 77kg
World’s most famous skydiver suspended on the roof of Everest
British competitors and Everest officials sign a deal
The team has made four trips to the top of the world
A dedicated medical support team sits on top of Everest
How the team reached the top
The team sign their deal
Back in May 2014, world-famous Everest jumper George Monbiot decided to try to jump from a helicopter on the summit of the world’s highest mountain. The £15,000 undertaking is what “made him ordinary”, Monbiot says. “I know people have seen the internet footage, watched that 30-second clip of me tootling about the mountain, but it’s almost de rigueur to pretend it never happened, that it doesn’t matter that I was there, that it was me in some other face.” Until a few years ago, it was possible for Monbiot to get into any number of observation flights from Kathmandu on Everest. “We were almost breaking the previous record for altitude of 1,500m, which had been the aviation record for a long time, and when my friend Trevor Pyle and I announced we were flying to the summit, everybody was just happy we’d done it,” Monbiot said. “In the beginning I wasn’t motivated by doing something which was a bit big or cool or glamorous. “It was a pilgrimage for me to the top, the spiritual high in my life, that I needed to visit that mountain.” He took on a series of small-scale adventures on the mountain, notching up a few short climbs in the high camp and quick base boardings to explore the trail to the summit. “I’d have something good and something bad and something beautiful and something deadly, and I don’t think I realised that at the time, because that’s a world of possibilities I never knew existed. “I’m not out to simply understand the world,” he said. “I don’t see myself as offering a solution to the challenges of life, like a teacher or a prophet. “I’m out to not accept the ignorant idiots in the world, and certainly not as some sort of huckster.” What’s next for the team? The team grew so connected to each other that the climb has become like family – they went on to have a summit party that year, which included Monbiot’s wife in addition to the three climbers. Mark Musumeci takes the picture at the summit of Everest Monbiot got to see the view from the top and then to turn and climb down using the helicopter. The next year his team could not climb Everest, as the harsh weather ensured there would be little more climbing for the season. British adventurers had descended the mountain first, two Australians had already been back after failing to climb. Monbiot began working with a Nepalese rescue team which could help those who wanted to continue. That team, more than 100 people strong, climbed the mountain with the Mont Blanc High Bridge about 300m above the top, furthering the work they’d already done to climb to the summit and guide climbers on to the peak. “Things on top of Everest are very different to back at base camp in 2015, when there was a pretty fierce struggle for survival and I was going to have a reasonably easy spring season,” Monbiot said. “Now, the team in Nepal isn’t making much effort to help with climbing, because they’ve got their hands full on top of Everest and they really don’t like me giving support to a team which is up there with the great climbing teams in the world.” The mountain climbers who spent three weeks on top of Everest before Monbiot reached it on 14 May 2014 spoke to the BBC Nepalese team – many of them were regular mountaineers who planned big climbs. “I kept the team in good spirits when things began to go wrong and when they saw me heading for the summit they got themselves in a lot better shape to continue and/or to pull off a lot better climbs,” Monbiot said. Like Monbiot, British competitors thought they could not turn back on Everest. In the series of videos documenting Monbiot’s journey, the team talked about turning back, but talking about turning back is very different to actually doing it. Monbiot touched down at the bottom of the mountain, where his confidence was restored.
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