Algerian Jumping.

Algeria has just opened its doors to visa on arrival. This gave us the perfect opportunity to explore the desert in the South. Although the check-in counter at Geneva airport had never heard of our type of visa we had no trouble making it to our final destination of Djanet. The internal flight across the desert was 4 hours long, which really gave us the scale of this huge country. Algeria is 90% desert and is the largest country in Africa. 

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First wingsuit flight from Aconcagua

Below the tip of my toes is a 300-metre drop onto the glacier below. My foot is curled over the edge of the rock. Gaining maximum purchase as I push off at a perfect angle, pre-determined by a thousand other jumps. Ingrained into my muscle memory. Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but it does make permanent so I’ve made sure to practice perfectly.

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From Infantry to Alpinism

Soldering and alpinism overlapped by a few years for me. Even during training, a gruelling 32 week course (the longest basic military training in the world), I would spend long weekends in Italy climbing big walls. Short on money, I would use my excess field rations saved up from training exercises, my issued sleeping bag and thermals, mixed amongst my loud yellow t-shirts and assorted scrounged gear. 

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Arctic persistence

We sat on top of our sleds waiting for our train, which was now 5 hours late. Staring across the tracks at the landscape. A man-made mountain of spoil. Kiruna is a mining town and everything here revolves around the iron ore mines. This was the reason for our late train. A mining carriage took priority of the single track and we had been waiting for it to pass, slowly watching the sun set over the black artificial mountain. It was -10 and we were well within the arctic circle – an imaginary line that shows the extent of 24 hour sun and 24 hour darkness.

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Taking flight in Persia

Dawn is just breaking in over the horizon. Zohre is perched on a limestone ledge, hanging out over the abyss, tethered to the wall with an anchor. As I take a photo she is painting her nails. It’s not a vain plight for the instagram followers but a sign of liberty. Out in the mountains she can show her personality. The mountains for most offer freedom, but for Zohre it’s freedom in the most literal sense. The mountains are a place where she can dance, put on her lipstick and wear the clothes that express herself as an individual, such things would be frowned upon in the cities.

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Live to fail another day. Matterhorn North face.

Attempt 1

On route to the Dolomites we took a short detour to the Italian side of the Matterhorn. The weather and conditions gave us slight hope of a quick ascent and even quicker descent with our wingsuits. Covid restrictions meant that the hut was now booked at full capacity even this late in the season. We started from the valley floor and went for the summit in one continuous push. 

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Kyrgyzstan: New routing & new friends

DAY 1

We drove for 5 hours over rough tracks, through rivers and over makeshift bridges. Heading deeper into the valleys of the Tien Shan mountains. Each valley led to another, branching off again and again until finally a wide river stood between us and our base camp. We had driven hundreds of kilometres but as the crow flies we were only 50km from our hostel. 

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Mount Kenya First Wingsuit Flight in Kenya.

Three years ago, a single picture took me halfway around the world. It was a picture of the cliffs surrounding Lake Michaelson on Mount Kenya. A lone figure stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down to the dark inky lake. Aptly named ‘The Temple’, these towering yellow cliffs became my fixation, and I wanted to make the pilgrimage there. I managed to BASE jump from the same spot in the photo. After the jump I looked further up the mountain to the great peaks of Batian and Nelion. This would be my new goal. Two years later i returned. The goal was to be the first person to wingsuit in Kenya; but the experience soon became about much more than just the jump. I got to know my team, explore the grand massif, and learn about the community and my own limits. 

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