MScholes wrote:And how could you give up diving?
I've gone once and I HAVE to go again.
well, to be honest, it's getting old
i have a big competitive side on me and shortly after i started skydiving i was thinking about getting a team and start competing. but skydiving is expensive and it requires a lot of dedication and time. so i could not find a group of people who would be as driven as me and i kinda abandoned that idea.
so after a while jumping for fun got a little bit boring. so i needed to push it. i didn't want to go base jumping , since chances of dying are high, knowing myself i knew i would push it too much and results would be bad.
so i picked another discipline - speed skydiving, which is individual discipline. it's basically going as fast as you can and trying to show the shortest time / highest average speed over a vertical kilometer. while regular skydiving speeds are in 120-180 mph range, for speed skydiving speeds over 300 mph are regular. my max was in 320 range
i competed 3 or 4 years and traveled a lot for competitions. but all the competitions of this kind being in Europe was a lot of hassle. after tearing my ACL during skiing accident and jumping without the ACL for 2 years until i had surgery i got out of the competition and became a weekend fun jumper again. so i never got back into it the way i was.
but my taste for altitude is still within me and Everest was my dream for a longest time. after some high altitude jumps (21k+) i became somewhat obsessed with it. being honest with myself i understand that i'm not a climber and actual Everest climb is beyond my reach. but North Col seems like a good alternative to fulfill my ambitions and long time dream. so here i am