35 year old professional skier Matthias “Super Frenchie” Giraud has set a new world record by making the highest ever ski BASE jump, taking off from a serac cliff 4,359 metres up on Mont Blanc.
BASE jumping involves parachuting or wingsuit flying from a fixed structure or cliff. BASE stands for four categories of fixed objects from which a jump can be made: building, antenna, span, and earth (cliff). So Ski BASE jumps normally come in the final ‘E’ category. Due to the lower altitudes of the jumps compared to the ground level below, BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than skydiving from a plane.
Matthias Giraud, who has previously BASE jumped off the Eiger in 2010 and the Matterhorn in 2011 spent last weekend climbing Mont Blanc, carrying his 20km of ski and parachute equipment up Mont Blanc.
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He set off his descent from the 4810m summit at 9.45 am on Monday and skied about 450 vertical metres through powder fields to a serac next to the Roches Rouge at 4359m (14298ft) where he skied off the cliff, deploying his parachute.
Giraud landed his jump perfectly on his skis on the Grand Plateau below.
“The serac measures only 60m and with 30% less oxygen at that altitude, the parachute opens much slower which meant I had to go for the fastest parachute opening possible,” said Giraud.
