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Balloon expeditions to Everest1990Three Japanese, Michio Kanda, Sabu Ichiyoshi and Etushi Saito took off in a hot air balloon on 9 May from Yeleb in Tibet, some 40 miles NE of Everest. They became becalmed and then crashed into the mountain at 18,500 ft nearly out of gas. Ichiyoshi broke his leg on impact and they were all lucky to escape the subsequent fire and gas explosion. They lost all their survival equipment in the fire but Kanda descended to base camp while the other two sheltered under their parachutes. They were finally rescued after 36 hours on the mountain. 1991The British / Australian ‘Star Micronics” team launched two large hot air balloons at 16,000 ft with Chris Dewhirst / Leo Dickinson and Andy Elson / Eric Jones on board on 21 October from Gokyo some 15 miles to the West of Everest. Detailed meterological work resulted in an almost perfect flight route over the summit.
The drama wasn’t completely over. The first balloon may have easily cleared the mountain but they had used up much more gas than planned and now only had enough remaining for one attempt at arresting their descent to land on the Tibetan plateau some 50 miles to the East of the mountain. They struck a Moraine ridge hard at 20 mph and swung across a valley. During the second bounce both pilots were ejected violently from the basket, Leo Dickinson had a narrow escape when a rope tangled around his foot and was dragged for some way through a rock field before he managed to slip out of his boot. The balloon carried on for some considerable distance before one of them managed to catch it up and deflate it. By contrast, Andy Elson landed his balloon a few miles away in nil wind with plenty of gas remaining. 2001In mid-September
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