It’s going to be hard to top this – literally.

Just days shy of the 60th anniversary of Edmund Hillary’s historic ascent up the world’s tallest mountain, Russian daredevil, 48-year old Valery Rozov figured he’d give it a go, with a jump off the north face of Mt Everest, at 7,220 metres above sea level, having spent over two years in preparation for this, his biggest of the 10,000 jumps he’s done so far. ‘Biggest’ would be an understatement. The temperature at that height? A cool -18 degrees Celcius. Rozov needed more time than usual to transition from free falling to his nifty wing suit because of the thin air at that altitude. He reached 200 km/h and flew for almost a minute before landing safely on a glacier, about 5,590 metres above sea level.

Rozov has already done some crazy jumps, like a 2009 jump into an active volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula. Something tells me we’re gonna see more of Valery Rozov in the future. Look out Felix!

Dean Potter, slack-lining his way into the record books.

Any video with Dean Potter, high altitudes and no safety harness is gonna be good and this one doesn’t disappoint.  Dean Potter is the American daredevil I blogged about a year ago, and he has a curious habit of climbing mountains without safety equipment, and either jumping off it, or slacklining it (tight-rope walking without equipment) and then BASE jumping his way down.

This video includes footage from his world-record BASE Jump in 2009, with a wing-suit.

I am really at a loss here whether Potter, or Felix Baumgartner is the baddest of the bad.  I take comfort though in knowing that there are guys like this with more testosterone than any reasonable guy should have.  Guess I’m not the only one who took Point Break way too seriously.  Bodhi would be proud.

Get ready for some air time!  This video has some seriously amazing, if not demented jumping, from planes, ramps and things that make you go Boom! when you land.  You might recognize some of these jumps from some of my earlier blog posts.  There’s a bit of corporate plugging going on in a few stunts (drink Red Bull!), but you have to give it to them, they know how to put on a good stunt.  Jumps five and two are my favourite.  But number one is definitely justified as being the bravest, most hardcore jump of all time.  And for that, I tip my hat to Joe Kittinger.

After watching this video I realized three things.  First I am glad to have Norwegian ancestry because if YouTube is correct, Norwegians have mastered the art of skiing and BASE Jumping and have cojones big enough to fit in a dump truck.  Two, this video, of Norwegian daredevil Halvor Angvik speed flying (if that’s what you want to call it) in Wengen, Switzerland this year is amazing, and three, I am definitely asking Santa Claus for a wing-suit for Christmas!

On August 16, 1960, American Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger boarded a helium balloon at Wright Field, Ohio. For the next hour and 31 minutes, Kittinger ascended into the stratosphere. Then, at 102,800 feet, or 31,333 metres for us metric system devotees, he stepped OUT of the balloon gondola. What transpired for the next 13 minutes and 45 seconds was beyond awe-inspiring. Kittinger fell without a parachute for 4 minutes and 31 seconds and reached a maximum speed of 614 miles an hour plummeting to Earth. Suffice to say, this is the highest skydive in history, and the record has stood for 50 years. Now Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, of BASE Jumping Christ the Redeemer fame, wants to break the record, some time within the year, in a highly publicized jump that would see him take a leap of faith from 23 miles above planet Earth. I hope he makes it, but I have to nod in respect to Kittinger first. A man who jumps from 20 miles in the air and lives to tell about it has cojones big enough to fit in a dump truck, and while records are made to be broken, Joe Kittinger will always be remembered as the first man to jump from space.

Leave it to them crazy cats at Red Bull to come up with the sickest, most hardcore stunts ever conceived by someone on, well, Red Bull.  This one’s beyond hardcore.  In this video, Ueli Gegenschatz jumps from a moving truck on the Ataturk aqueduct and dives straight into oblivion.  While there’s obviously a corporate plug going on here, you gotta admit that the cojones are thicker than soup in the production of this video.  This guy is bad, bad, bad!

This guy has some ridiculous free-climbing skills.  No boots, no hooks, no ropes, nuthin.  I bet he’s a devil with the ladies.

There are no words that can really capture the poetry of this video, in which J.T. Holmes and some Norwegian BASE Jumpers glide over the cliffs of Norway. Amazing. Just amazing. I want a wing-suit.

You’re not gonna see them whipping into a phone booth to don a red cape anytime soon, but there are those among us who do some pretty superhuman things.  Guys like Alain Robert, the Human Spider, who’s climbed some of the world’s tallest buildings, including Petronas Towers and the former World Trade Center with only his hands and climbing shoes, Wim Hof, aka the Iceman, capable of functioning in extreme cold for long periods (like running an Arctic marathon shirtless at 20 below zero!) and Daniel Tammet , aka the Brain Man, who once recited the first 22,000 digits of pi, and learned Icelandic – one of the world’s most difficult languages – in a week.  Although the Hulk will always be my favourite.

Quick, anyone who’s seen The Eiger Sanction, that 1975 Clint Eastwood cliffhanger, raise your hand!  Thought so.  Now, anyone who’s seen someone climb a 13,000 foot mountain without safety equipment, step forward.  Right, now, who’s seen a man jump off that same mountain?  Exactly.  Dean Potter, the 38 year-old American daredevil is in pretty select company.  I mean, mountains were made for jumping off, with nothing more than a skimpy parachute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7NcLCC-YNI