On awing suit and a prayer! Dare devil’ s 8,000ft leap to soar across Snowdon
AS he stood in a helicopter high above Snowdon yesterday morning, Sam Laming prepared to fly into the history books.
The 29-year-old daredevil was on the brink of a feat no one had dared before – gliding down the side of the 3,560ft mountain.
Relying only on a wingsuit, a parachute, and his own courage, he took a breath and stepped out into the clear Welsh air.
The thrillseeker said the feeling of plunging from 8,000ft in the 6am summer sun was ‘like nothing else’. He added: ‘It is like you’re unconscious and everything you think about or worry about falls away.
‘You’re just flying and it’s a lovely thing. The view was absolutely stunning. Seeing all the lakes, it was brilliant and the weather was absolutely perfect.’
But behind the beauty of the death-defying drop – carried out with his friend Mike Hitchcock, who filmed the flight – was years of meticulous planning.
Mr Laming, a part-time violin-maker from Maidstone, Kent, said: ‘Doing a special flight like this, we do a lot of training for it. We’ve done a simulated flight very similar to this one on Monte Brento, a mountain in Italy.’ Before the jump, every eventuality – especially the weather – was taken into account. The pair had tried to do the flight earlier this year but they had to cancel as the weather was so bad. Levels of cloud cover and wind can pose real dangers to jumpers. Getting his equipment right was also essential for Mr Laming, who has travelled the world for base-jumps and skydives – including trips to Italy, Australia, Austria and Russia.
The crucial piece of kit was the wingsuit, which allowed him to glide to up to 120mph and consists of extra stretches of fabric between the arms and legs which increase air resistance. It acts like a hang-glider, but a parachute is still needed for a safe landing. And, after all that preparation, the drop lasted only a minute. Luckily for him, it was a special – and record-making – 60 seconds.