Reaching the ‘ceiling of the impossible’
Conventional wisdom says that technology has tamed the elements and removed risk from almost every human activity. GKN Mission Everest turns conventional wisdom on its head. Pitting a team of aviators against the forces of nature, the mission seeks to achieve a first: to a height above the summit of the world’s highest mountain using just powered paragliders – and reaching what explorers call the ‘ceiling of the impossible’.

Riding the wind into the record books
The two GKN Mission Everest pilots will take off in their powered paragliders (paramotors) from their Base-Camp, in the foothills of the high Himalaya, some 20 miles south of Everest in eastern Nepal. Once airborne, they will fly north valleys, over glaciers, towards Mount Everest. Once south of the infamous Nuptse Wall, a sheer ice and rock face that soars eight thousand feet high, the pilots will begin to circle and ascend towards their target altitude of 33,000 feet. On reaching this ceiling altitude, they will turn north, where they will look down on the summit of Everest.

It is then time to turn for home and return to Base Camp, back the way they came. The record-breaking flight will have lasted four hours – the achievement will last forever.

A team of record breakers and adventurers
GKN Mission Everest is spearheaded by Bear Grylls, one of the world’s most renowned young explorers.

Bear is an ex-SAS soldier who in 1998, at the age of 23, became the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest. He has since led expeditions across the frozen North Atlantic, the Venezuelan jungle and other remote and impenetrable parts of the world. 

He has presented a TV series for Channel Four on life inside the French Foreign Legion and a series in the USA called ‘Man vs Wild’, which is due out in the UK in the spring, called ‘Stranded’. He has written two best-selling books and is an honorary Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy. He is married with two young boys.

Flying alongside Bear will be Gilo Cardozo, a highly experienced paramotor pilot. Bear and Gilo will be the ‘guys in the sky’, but they will be supported every inch of their record-breaking ascent by a Base-Camp team that includes engineers, meteorologists and medical staff. The team will be liaising ‘live’ with climbers on Everest.