[imagesource: Pierre Carter]

Pierre Carter, the 56-year-old South African who has made it his life’s mission to climb to the summit of the highest mountain on each continent and paraglide off it, recently ticked off Mount Everest.

He first thought about the idea of paragliding from the summits way back in 1998 and started ticking them off two years later.

Those of us who live vicariously through adventurers like Pierre have been able to follow along on his site, 7Summits7Flights, but it was the Mount Everest paraglide that really captured the world’s attention.

Carte Blanche recently took a closer look at how he pulled it off:

South African Pierre Carter is an unassuming man. He enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, their four dogs in tow. But beneath this calm exterior is a man with an appetite for danger. So much so that he set off on the adventure of a lifetime to the Himalayas, not only to climb Mount Everest, but to fly off it.

The Springbok paraglider perched about 800 metres below the summit of the world’s highest peak and took the terrifying leap, successfully landing and making history. But Pierre isn’t done yet. Carte Blanche takes flight with the first man to legally paraglide off Mount Everest.

Eight weeks after he started his trek up the world’s most famous mountain, Pierre took to the skies.

As we ready ourselves for a freezing cold weekend here in the Cape, let’s sit back and enjoy the daredevil pushing the boundaries:

[source:carteblanche]