There must be a moral in this tale, though we dare not attempt to define it. Frenchman Michel Fournier, the 64-year-old skydiver who has been reaching for an altitude freefall record of 130,000 feet, was left grounded in his pressurized cabin in Canada this morning as his helium-filled balloon lifted off without him.Fournier has been planning his Replica A Lange&Sohne watches stratospheric jump for years, and this third attempt may, by some accounts, be his last. He is scheduled for a press conference this afternoon.
Fournier was looking to set four records: fastest freefall, longest freefall, highest jump, and highest altitude reached by a man in a balloon. An animation on Fourniers site gives you a sense of what he is up against.The New Yorker profiled Fourniers quest, and his rivalry with current record-holder Joe Kittinger, last summer. Inspired? We told swiss replica watches you how to make a much smaller jump, earlier this month.--Matthew Fishbane or that of an overweight, 75-year-old woman.Im just hoping its not the latter. That would make me feel so JV.—Christina Erb
A Spanish climber succumbed to apparent altitude sickness while attempting to summit the Himalayan peak of Annapurna. Inaki Ochoa de Olza, 40, died of pulmonary edema and brain damage on Friday, May 23. Fellow climbers gave him aid while receiving remote instruction from a hospital in Spain, but Ochoa passed away after five days in a Ebel replica watches semi-conscious state at 7,400 meters. Ochoa, who had been on 30 previous Himalayan expeditions, was attempting to climb all 14 of the worlds 8,000 meter peaks. Annapurna was number 13. --Emily Matchar
