A Himalayan record attempt was derailed not by weather or logistics, but by a snake hiding in a bush in France. British wingsuit pilot Tim Howell has paused his bid to make the highest wingsuit flight in history off Nepal's Lhotse after being bitten by an asp viper days before his planned departure. The veteran BASE jumper says he "felt a tiny sting" that he assumed came from a thorn—only to go into anaphylactic shock and collapse in the minutes after the bite to his finger. He explains on Instagram that the snakes are "not usually that dangerous" but he is allergic to their venom.
The friends he was with arranged for him to be airlifted to a hospital, where he spent five days in intensive care and had necrotic tissue removed from his finger. He's now in physical therapy and tells Outside he'll only jump "when everything is right." It was to be Howell's third visit to Lhotse in an attempt to jump from a ridge at 27,230 feet just below the 27,940-foot summit.
His first visit in 2024 saw him establish the location he would jump from; in 2025 he spent days just below that point waiting for his window but ended up being stymied by a storm. Howell plans to try again in 2027. A successful flight would beat the current wingsuit altitude mark, set in 2016 by the late Valery Rozov on Cho Oyu, by nearly 2,000 feet. ExplorersWeb reports Howell considers his planned exit point the highest point on Earth from which a wingsuit flight can occur.
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