The ultimate challenge
Since first being climbed in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay, Mount Everest has maintained a constant fascination for adventurers and explorers. At 29,035 feet high, the summit of Everest has become the focus of numerous daring attempts to stretch the limits of human adventure. Everest has been climbed alone, it has been skied down, but never before will powered paragliders have soared over it – that is the challenge for GKN Mission Everest.

Life in the ‘death zone’
Just what makes GKN Mission Everest such a test of courage, ingenuity and endurance? The answer lies in what mountaineers call the ‘death zone’. Not only is Mount Everest 29,035 feet high, it is also so huge – its volume and surface so massive – that it creates its own microclimate in which the weather is both dangerous and unforgiving. Hurricane force winds of up to 200mph blow for 250 days each year, snow and ice are permanent features above 17,000 feet and temperatures of -80ºC are not uncommon. And while mountain climbers can gradually acclimatise over days and weeks to these conditions and the rarified air, the GKN Mission Everest team will effectively leap from an altitude of 11,600 feet at Base-Camp to 33,000 feet in a matter of hours.