Valery Rozov (1964-2017)

One of the world’s most famous base jumpers is dead. Russian media report that Valery Rozov was killed in a wingsuit flight from the 6,814-meter-high Ama Dablam near Mount Everest. The exact circumstances are not yet known. Valery was 52 years old. Rozov had made headlines worldwide with his jumps from Himalayan mountains in recent years.

Record jumps

In 2013, he jumped from an altitude of 7,220 meters on Changtse and landed on the Central Rongbuk Glacier at the foot of the North Face of Mount Everest. In fall 2016, Rozov improved his own record for the highest wingsuit flight ever: Valery ascended to a height of 7,700 meters on the eight-thousander Cho Oyu and jumped from there down to the valley (watch the video below). And he did many more spectacular base jumps, e.g. from the six-thousander Shivling in the Indian Himalaya in 2012 or from highest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro (5895 m), in 2015.

High fatality rate

R.I.P.

The sad list of fatalities after base jumps with the wingsuit now includes several hundred names. The most prominent victim from the extreme climbing scene was the American Dean Potter in 2015. Mountaineering legend Chris Bonington finds that there is hardly any difference in the kind of motivation of base jumpers and extreme climbers. “If you have the adrenaline junkies which we are and if you want to take that to the extreme and go out to the outer limits inevitably there is going to be a high casualty rate”, the meanwhile 83-year-old Briton told me in 2015. “And there is a high casualty rate amongst extreme climbers at altitude as there are amongst for instance base jumpers, wingsuit fliers and so on. I think it’s not people who have got a death wish. It’s something that people are turned on by the huge excitement, euphoria of taking your body and yourself to the absolute limit to achieve an objective.” Valery Rozov described it this way: “Each moment when your dream becomes reality is so special!”

Update 12 November: The Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times” reports that Rozov died after crashing into a cliff while he jumped from the mountain in a wingsuit.