GKN Mission Everest: below is the technical data showing that the two Mission Everest pilots surpassed all existing altitude records for powered paragliding. Both for absolute altitude and take-off altitude.
This includes the GPS data downloaded from Bear Grylls’s Garmin E-Trex GPS system and also the transposed Google Earth imagery of his flight path right up until the GPS system freezes at 25,005 ft.
The trace also shows that Bear was still ascending at an astounding 220 ft per minute as the system froze up.
The previous powered paragliding record was 20,017ft. Thus Bear surpassed this that by a minimum of 5000ft.
The helmet camera Bear was wearing fortunately continued to work all through the ascent, long after the instruments froze, and this makes for some priceless footage.
These images speak for themselves and in the photo below it is clear Everest can be seen just to the north and beneath him. This altitude has been judged by comparison with Google earth imagery as being around 29,500ft, some 500 ft above Everest's summit.
However, for this final summit altitude to qualify as an official FAI record the pilots would have needed their instruments not to have frozen when they did, but that's life. Official records though were never the aim of this expedition. The aims were always clear: to push the boundaries of personal aviation to new limits, raise a million dollars for Global Angels Charity with our sponsor GKN, and live the adventure of a lifetime! They did all this in abundance.
Ultimately the team hope that the extraordinary footage and images speak for themselves.
Please review the attachments, they are fascinating pointers to the team's great achievement.
Raw Data:
- Download the Excel Spreadsheet with the Raw data taken from the GPS Unit
- Download the Google Earth Map created via the GPS Unit (You will need Google Earth to view this)
Please Note: these documents track Bear until the GPS unit Froze at 25,005ft (8.88km)
The following image was taken by Bear's Camera during the flight.