Kathmandu, March 12:

A British adventure firm is offering 25,000-dollar skydiving trips over Mount Everest, in a new twist to extreme sports around the world’s highest peak.

“It is the first time anybody has tried this in the Everest area,”

Nigel Gifford, whose company is offering the one-minute freefall over Mt Everest, said.

The skydivers will jump out of their plane at around 8,848-metres, he said. He said his company, High and Wild, has already taken 22 reservations from experienced sky divers as well as novices who will tandem-dive on trips planned for September.

The company’s website promotes the trip as “touching madness”.

“We are skydiving in front of Everest, and we will be able to see eight of the highest mountains in the world,” Gifford said.

The firm also hopes to set a new world record for the highest landing point after a skydive when his clients land on a small airstrip at 3,742 metres.