MOSCOW, May 30 (UPI) -- A Russian daredevil donned a wing suit and jumped off the north face of Mount Everest in China to set a record for the world's highest BASE jump.
Valery Rozov, 48, who planned the stunt to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's ascent to the top of the mountain, jumped from a height of 23,688 feet above sea level and landed at an altitude of 19,521 feet, the World Record Academy said Thursday.
The World Record Academy said the current Guinness record for highest altitude BASE jump is 21,666 feet, set by Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan when they donned wing suits and jumped from a ledge of India's Mount Meru.
"Only when I got back home did I see how hard it was for me both physically and psychologically," Rozov said after arriving back in Moscow. "When you look at the videos you realize that it took a lot longer than usual to get from falling to flying."
BASE stands for "bridges, antennas, spans and earth," the four most common types of surfaces participants use for the parachuting activity.
