On December 13, 2019, the Polish diver Marcel Korkuś dived at an altitude of 6,395 m above sea level, setting an absolute world record in altitude diving. He is the first person to dive at such a high altitude. The dive was experimental, as the dive planning tables end at 3000 meters.
Korkuś has already made this kind of attempt previously. On 7th March 2016, he discovered the highest lake on Earth (Cazadero at 5985 m above sea level) and thereby set the Guinness record in diving, confirmed by an official certificate. Shortly afterwards, as a result of the Guinness organization’s change of regulations to being less restrictive, the record was awarded to a Hungarian diver who, on the day of his dive, did not meet all the requirements. In the following years, Marcel Korkuś made two unsuccessful attempts to reach the reservoir on the neighboring volcano Ojos del Salado, the second-highest mountain in South America and, at the same time, the highest volcano in the world. The first unsuccessful attempt took place in December 2016. The Polish diver was stopped at an altitude of 6200 m above sea level by a sudden change in the weather. However, in February 2018, the expedition was interrupted at an altitude of 6300 m above sea level, when the expedition members, suffering from frostbitten toes, were stopped by a large amount of snow.
As the saying goes, “third time lucky”; the last expedition was a complete success and the record was confirmed last week by the Guinness organization. The dive took place in the so-called basin (a natural water reservoir, which in terms of dimensions cannot be considered a lake). The ice was 1.3 meters thick and the water temperature was 3oC. It is probable that a human cannot dive at any higher altitude. In the expedition, Marcel Korkuś was accompanied by three Argentinians – Ulises Kusnezov, Martin Alderete and Eduardo Salas. Now, Marcel Korkuś, in cooperation with Eversub, intends to explore the deepest sunken cave in the world.
