Cooped Up? Get Uncooped.

Earlier this morning, I was flipping through an old copy of National Geographic Adventure when I came across a short blurb about a sport I'd never heard of before: speed riding. The specific piece was about Francois Bon, a prominent speed riding pioneer, who had descended Aconcagua, South America's tallest peak at 22,834 feet. Bon has also descended other iconic peaks like Mont Blanc and the Eiger and is even getting ready for Everest. Speed riding is part skiing, part paragliding and essentially equates to jumping off of peaks that are otherwise too steep or foreboding to ski. Mix some turns with a little freefall paragliding and do it all at ridiculous speed. The article summed up Bon's Aconcaguan descent as 9000 vertical feet in just under 5 minutes. He reached speeds nearing 100 MPH and descended a route unthinkable even for the most core freeskier or rider. I'm not sure why I haven't heard of speed riding before, but it sounds pretty insane. Follow the link below to see the Aconguan ride set to some sweet reggae. (Sorry, embedding wasn't working).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-mmG1L74Yw&feature=PlayList&p=AD03F05C06C17B45&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

• Speed_riding
• skiing
• snowboarding
• Aconcugua
• eiger
• Mont_Blanc
• Francois_Bon