On July 11, 1985, Pierre Gevaux made the first paragliding descent from the summit of an 8,000m peak, soaring down from 8,034m Gasherbrum II. This groundbreaking feat opened a new chapter in mountaineering history.
Gevaux was part of a French expedition to Pakistan led by Claude Jaccoux. It included clients, three guides, and two high-altitude porters. They shared Base Camp with another French team led by well-known mountaineer and extreme adventurer Jean-Marc Boivin.
Gasherbrum II from Base Camp. Photo: Wikimedia
The expedition began in early July, with climbers establishing camps along the standard route. On July 11, Gevaux and the other team members topped out. The summit day featured clear weather, offering a rare window for his paragliding descent.
Paragliding technology was in its infancy, and Gevaux’s paraglider was likely a basic or parachute-like canopy. It required significant skill to control, especially in the thin air and unpredictable winds at such an extreme altitude.
According to Xavier Murillo, Gevaux’s first two attempts to fly from the summit failed. Each time he had to climb back up, catch his breath, gather his thoughts, and tell himself that he would be able to do it. The third time was the charm.
The descent covered a vertical drop of several thousand meters to Camp 1 at 6,000m. He reached it in 5 minutes and 45 seconds. It had taken him five months of preparation, two months on the expedition, and four days of climbing.
Gevaux’s feat impressed other mountaineers who were on Gasherbrum II that day, including Jean-Marc Boivin.
Pierre Gevaux in 2024. Gevaux manages a paragliding school in France. Photo from a video by Jessica du Mont-Blanc
Boivin paraglides down Everest
Boivin was an adventurer known for his first ascents, ski descents, and pioneering hang gliding and paragliding. He was reportedly inspired by Gevaux’s paragliding descent from Gasherbrum II. On that expedition, Boivin broke a hang glider altitude record when he successfully launched from the summit. Previously, in 1979, Boivin had set a hang glider altitude record when he flew from nearly 8,000m after climbing K2.
Three years after Gevaux’s flight, on Sept. 26, 1988, Boivin achieved the first paragliding descent from just below the summit of Everest. The thin air at 8,848m made launching difficult, and gusty winds required precise timing to ensure a safe takeoff. Boivin’s success cemented his reputation as a pioneer of extreme sports, though he tragically died two years later while BASE jumping off Angel Falls in Venezuela.
You can read more about Everest’s paragliding and hang gliding history here.
Jean-Marc Boivin hang gliding among giant peaks. Photo: Mountain Planet
Paragliding descents from other 8,000’ers
Gevaux’s 1985 flight and Boivin’s 1988 flight pointed the way for others.
In 1994, Australian Ken Hutt paraglided down from 7,200m on Cho Oyu.
In July 2019, Austrian climber Max Berger paraglided from the shoulder of 8,051m Broad Peak, landing in Base Camp 17 minutes later. Though not from the summit, this descent was a significant high-altitude feat.
On July 19, 2022, French climber Benjamin Vedrines paraglided from Broad Peak’s summit ridge after a speed ascent without supplemental oxygen, landing at Base Camp in about an hour.
Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tshering Sherpa during their tandem paraglide from the summit of Everest on May 21, 2011. Photo: Babu Sunuwar
On July 28, 2024, French climbers Benjamin Vedrines, Jean-Yves Fredriksen, Zeb Roche, and Liv Sansoz paraglided from the summit of K2 despite a Pakistani paragliding ban. All four had summited without bottled oxygen.
Vedrines — after claiming a climbing speed record of 10 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds — launched first, landing at Base Camp in 30 minutes. Fredriksen landed at 6,600m after struggling for 90 minutes to take off, and Roche and Sansoz achieved the first tandem paragliding descent from an 8,000m summit.
Most recently, on June 24 of this year, David Goettler paraglided from 7,700m after summiting Nanga Parbat via the Schell Route on the Rupal Face without bottled oxygen.
David Goettler flew from 7,700m after summiting Nanga Parbat. Photo: David Goettler
In the video below, you can watch Gevaux’s pioneering paragliding descent from Gasherbrum II in 1985:
