I

n 2014, when Jen Sharp received the offer to go to Nepal and 
sky-dive over Mt. Everest, she hesitated at first. For a skilled 
sky-dive instructor with 20 years of experience, this jump would 

be a tremendous opportunity to dive with the best at the world’s 
second-tallest mountain. But, for a mother, this meant leaving 
her young kids at home. So, only after a family conference and 
permission from her kids did Sharp sign on for what would 
become an adventure in the sky and an equally transformative 
experience on the ground.

Running Skydive Kansas, a jump school in Osage City, Sharp 

has supervised over 46,000 jumps with zero fatalities and only a 
few busted ankles. Meticulous and detail-focused, she is obsessed 
with safety (a good characteristic for someone who might be 
packing your parachute). Part of being safe is knowing the area 
where you will jump. In Kansas, Sharp leads groups to dive at 
10,000–11,000 feet, but that’s still feet-on-the-ground in Nepal. 
The first drop-zone, where the planes take off, is in Syangboche, 
at about 12,800 feet. From there, groups go up to Pokhara, and 
then Gorak Shep, then the Mt. Everest Base Camp to dive from 
23,000 feet.

Sharp was diving with Everest Skydive, an outfitter for elite 

jumpers who could help her plan and attempt a world tandem 
jump record. But when she arrived, the weather and the loss of 
the regular jump plane (it had crashed) scuttled these plans. 
Instead, Sharp and her group of veteran sky-divers jumped out 
of a helicopter, with some extra precautions. After all, helicopters 
are limited in their ascent because their lift is affected by thin air, 
and Everest is as high as jets regularly fly. 

Nonetheless, the teams jumped from an area with thin air, 

wore oxygen and carried cameras with zoom-lenses and wide-
angle lenses. It was, Sharp recalls, a spectacular experience, even if 
it wasn’t at the world-record level she had planned for. 

And here is where Sharp’s journey becomes particularly 

interesting, even from the perspective of someone accustomed to 
daredevil feats. Because while she enjoyed the elite experience of 
a sport she knows extremely well, Sharp encountered something 
more novel—the ordinary life on the ground in a country that 
she had never seen. 

The world of skydiving tourism in Nepal is a contrast of the 

most advanced equipment in the air, and a life on the ground 
that is very much as it has been for centuries. Families cook and 

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LM

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