Wingsuit flyer attempts record base jump by Everest

A dare devil from Somerset is hoping to smash a world record by leaping off Mount Everest's neighbour in a wingsuit.

Tim Howell from Martock will attempt to break the record for the world's highest base jump from Lhotse using a wingsuit to help him fly to the bottom.

The record holder is the late Valery Rozov, who jumped 7,700m (25,300ft) from Cho Oyu in 2016 and died in a base jumping accident in the Himalayas in 2017.

Mr Howell plans to jump 8,300m (27,231ft) from Lhotse, the world's fourth tallest mountain.

Base jumping is an extreme sport that involves jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute or wingsuit.

BASE is an acronym that stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans (such as bridges) and Earth (such as cliffs) - the four recognised categories of objects people can jump from.

People often learn how to skydive first and once they feel they have mastered that skill they find a mentor to teach them how to base jump.

Base jumpers need to be able to control their descent as they have precious little time in which to deploy their parachute.

Base jumping is not illegal in the UK but gaining access to suitable base sites can prove problematic in terms of trespassing, unless prior permission is sought.

It is considered an expensive sport because of the significant costs involved in training and the cost of travelling to suitable base sites.

Lhotse stands at 8,516 m (27,940 feet) tall.

Mr Howell's aim is to jump from the highest altitude in the world.

The professional wingsuit flyer estimates it will take him about four minutes to "fly" down from the mountain.

"The main thing was to try and find something above 8,000m (26,247ft), that's the 'death zone'," Mr Howell said.

"The logistics behind it are massive, it's pretty much a new route to get to this exit point because nobody's ever needed to get to this one little bit of rock on the mountain before."

Mr Howell, who is ex-military, will be climbing with Sherpas and mountaineer Jon Gupta.

Although it will take Mr Howell "about a week" to scale Lhotse's north face to site of his jump, he will fly down the mountain's south face in "around four minutes".

After battling altitude sickness during the acclimatisation process, Mr Howell said there is one thing getting him through the huge challenge ahead of him.

"Whenever times get hard on the mountain, all I think about is just having landed and how absolutely over the moon I'm going to feel, just sitting there and taking it all in."

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