Pierre Carter: Paragliding off Aconcagua

Not content with climbing South America’s highest peak, Aconcagua, 6 962m, Pierre Carter decided to cap 2007 by paragliding off it’s summit. After waiting for seven hours for the right conditions he finally launched on New Year’s Eve – and not surprisingly jumping from nearly 7 000m left him breathless in every sense of the word, ‘I found the cold air (-30 degrees C) to be smooth and going up slowly. The summit looked surreal – it was beautiful’ After floating around for 25 minutes he felt the chill starting to set in and made a successful landing on the glacier at 5 800m close to his expeditions high camp. The next day, New Year’s Day, he went one better and with flying mate Guy Pitman launched at 5800m and flew up over and around Aconcagua for around 45 minutes reaching an altitude of around 7600m. Future plans paragliding off the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mt Vinson, Mt McKinley and Carstensz Pyramid!