An American climber on Sunday paraglided off from camp III of Mount Everest just to be caught by members of the Everest expedition facilitation and monitoring team at the base camp.
Darren John Verploegen from Montana, USA, took the flight without a paragliding permit, according to officials at the Department of Tourism (DoT). Darren has a climbing permit for Everest. For paragliding anywhere in Nepal, one requires a permit from the Department of Civil Aviation as well.
The 37-year-old climber was part of a 14-member international Everest expedition, led by Seven Summit Treks. Darren, in one of his rotations, carried paragliding gear himself and jumped off Camp III, despite warning from his expedition company.
“The monitoring committee has taken hold of his paragliding gears,” said an official at the base camp. The committee comprises representatives from DoT, Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA), Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) and Nepal Army.
Immediately after Darren took off from camp III, the monitoring team at the base camp had alerted the DoT officials in Kathmandu over phone.
The expedition agency has refused its involvement in the illegal paragliding, arguing that none of the staff members from their company supported the climber in paragliding.
The DoT, which issues climbing permits, said it is preparing a report on the incident to recommend the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation for action, which could be revocation of his climbing permit.
“A decision will be taken in a couple of days,” said Bigyan Koirala, officer at the DoT.
Nepal discourages jumping off the mountain for ‘security’ reasons. Nepal issued its first ever paragliding permit from Everest only last year. South African paraglider Pierre Carter became the first person to paraglide off Everest legally in 2022.
However, Pierre is not the first to paraglide from the world’s highest peak. French alpinist and pilot Jean-Marc Boivin was the first person to paraglide down from Everest in 1988. And two Nepali climbers– Sano Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa—set a record of paragliding off Everest summit and then kayaking all the way to Ganges onto the Indian Ocean.
They duo also did this feat without official permit. They were on the run from the state until they were declared the National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year 2011.
