When the government of Nepal opened the Everest region for skydiving last year, it

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set in motion a flurry of ambitious jumps. Skydiving over the world’s highest drop zone, bordered by glaciers, crevasses and ridges, while facing cold temperatures, high altitude and unpredictable winds, is challenging enough without the effort to better human performance. Yet, two Indians have done it, in rapid succession, during this year’s Everest skydiving season from end-September to mid-October when the jet stream — the 200 mph wind that envelopes the mountain’s upper part — temporarily dies down.

In 2008, the skydivers who went to the Everest area made their landings at 3,765 metres.

This year, on September 22, Wing Commander Ramesh Chandra Tripathi landed at Gorakshep (5,164 metres), a small, sandy plateau near Everest Base Camp. Tripathi was part of a trio that included Leo Dickinson and Ralph Mitchell from Britain. Dickinson is a legend in mountaineering circles, being a high-altitude cinematographer who filmed the first ascent of Everest without artificial oxygen by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler in 1978 and they took the first balloon ride over Everest’s summit in 1991. Mitchell is a skydiving instructor.

The three had made the highest parachute landing till then but their record was to be short-lived.

On October 28, Wing Commander Jai Kishan landed on a higher portion of the Gorakshep plateau, at 5,242 metres. He was part of a group that included Wendy Smith from New Zealand and Tom Noonan from the US. Smith is a world skydiving champion, while Noonan is a tandem master. This is now the record for the highest parachute landing.

Earlier on October 17, Kishan had jumped with Smith and Mery Noonan from 27,500 feet. The temperature was 28 degree Celsius and the freefall lasted just 60 seconds, after which the parachute was deployed.

The record for the exit from the aircraft will probably be broken in the future for Smith & Co had originally intended to jump from 29,500 feet and are likely to make more attempts.

Both the Indians are parajump instructors in the air force and are also mountaineers. They were members of the Indian Air Force’s first expedition to the world’s tallest peak in 2005 and Tripathi reached the summit, although Kishan was unlucky. Tripathi says it was during his brief stay on the summit that the idea of parajumping from Everest struck his mind. “I was alone on the summit with Ang Sona Sherpa for 10 minutes and found myself wishing I had a parachute so that I could fly down to Advanced Base Camp.”

That started him thinking about doing an Everest skydive some day. When he heard about the 2008 decision by the Nepal government, he got in touch with a British team but could not afford the cost — £20,000 per jump. The contacts made in 2008 helped the next year, when he was made another offer. Yet, very often, the fulfilment of a dream is touch and go. Plagued by flight cancellation, Tripathi ended up buying a ticket to Nepal at three times the original price he paid.

As for Kishan, loans and his provident fund saw him through to the fulfilment of his dream, while the Aero Club of India and the Indian Air Force helped with some gear

The writer is a mountaineer and author of India’s first handbook on adventure sports