‘‘I am an eternal optimist with a lust for life, not some psycho with an urge to die.’ Paraglider pilot Bob Drury tells the story behind his recent BBC filming trip in Nepal

In April 1999, paraglider pilot John Silvester arrived in western Nepal with cameraman Al Hughes to attempt the first-ever paragliding crossing of western Nepal…

Imagine standing in a warehouse somewhere. Your mobile phone rings. You struggle to answer it… and there they are, your friends phoning from a Himalayan summit…

My paragliding harness creaks like an old saddle under the force of the thermal I’m riding. The ferocity of the thermals as they blast us upward through the rarefied air above 20,000ft is phenomenal.