In a world first that was two years in the making, two skiers and a snowboarder rappelled from a Zeppelin to the top of a peak in the Eastern Alps before riding down the slope, and it was captured in stunning video posted Friday.
Skiers Stefan Ager and Andreas Gumpenberger, who were behind the project, and snowboarder Fabian Lentsch, all from Austria, rode the Zeppelin from its hanger in Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Kleiner Valkastiel, Austria, some 60 miles away.
The Zeppelin started at an elevation of 1,368 feet and maxed out at around 7,300 feet.
“For this project, we had to rise to the maximum of flight altitude,” airship pilot Fritz Gunther said. “Every gram of weight, every fluctuation in temperature, difference in air pressure and speed of wind decides on success or failure.”
The freeriders climbed down ladders to exit the Zeppelin and then, on 160-foot ropes, descended to the snowy mountaintop before riding down.
“Our ropes were 50 meters long and after starting to rappel, you look back up and just see this enormous airship,” Ager said in the video. “It was a perfect bluebird day, and it felt like rappelling out of a cloud.”
Ager called it a “surreal experience.”
“The snow conditions were challenging,” Lentsch said in the video. “First it was crusty, but the landing of my jumps was unexpectedly soft, so I almost fell over.”
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The entire adventure was captured in the video above by Lensecape Productions, which is run by Ager and Gumpenberger.
“This was more than just [rappelling] off a giant Zeppelin,” Gumpenberger said. “The project demanded long preparation. The cabin of the airship had to be adapted slightly and the pilots were at their limits in points of flight altitude and range of the airship.”
A test flight in the fall failed when the Zeppelin couldn’t reach the required altitude because of the temperature. In the middle of February, they pulled it off without a hitch.
“This is a world’s first, a Zeppelin has never embarked on such an adventure,” Ager said.
Photos courtesy of Mirja Geh and Lensecape Productions
