Normally, boulderers climb a couple of feet off the ground, but Red Bull athlete Domen Škofic decided to take the sport sky high. On September 30, the climber completed a V11 boulder set on the external body of an airplane, as it flew above 8,000 feet at 60 mph.
Let that sink in: Not only was he inverted under the wings, he was on a boulder problem that was moving at 60 mph nearly 2 miles off the ground!
Equipped with only a parachute, Škofic successfully climbed the route in mid-flight, and then safely sky dived (via backflip) to the ground.
What Went Into the Stunt
Every move and element of the stunt was carefully designed and rehearsed. Red Bull flew a L-13 Blanik plane, which it described in a press release as a “stable, slow-flying, aluminium-built glider, ideal for the route.”
Škofic’s own father, an engineer, specially designed the holds, which had to be able to stand up to 1.2 tons of force.
Škofic is an accomplished Slovenian climber who was Lead World Cup Champion in 2016. In preparation, he spent months practicing in wind tunnels.
Unlike normal climbing, he had to worry about a whole lot more than just gravity, enduring significant G-forces and heavy drag. Temperatures were as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit, which quickly made his fingers go numb.
“Unlike traditional routes, each move had to be timed at ‘neutral moments’ between gravity and aerodynamic pull, requiring millimeter-precise coordination with the pilot,” the press release stated.
The pilot Ewald Roithner explained that, “Domen knew exactly how I would fly, and I knew his moves just as precisely. In the air, communication was minimal but trust was absolute.”
How the Stunt Went
When the plane hit around 8,200 feet over Austria, Škofic exited the cockpit and began climbing the figure-eight route that traversed around the wings of the plane. After roughly a minute of climbing, Škofic backflipped off the plane and parachuted down.
“It was an incredible feeling — much harder than the preparation on the ground. I started to doubt whether I could do it, but the route was just challenging enough. Something like this has certainly never been done before,” Škofic said.
“Climbing always gave me the urge to jump. Combining climbing with skydiving in this project was a dream come true.”
The climb is the first of its kind, but it’s part of Red Bull’s ongoing tradition of pushing the bounds of sport and human ability. “The Plane Climb merges climbing and aviation into one unprecedented challenge, proving what is possible when human ambition meets technical precision,” the brand said.
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