Zeb Roche

BIOGRAPHY

My dad Jean Noel Roche was a guide who loved the mountains and paragliding. With him I climbed Mont-Blanc at 11, I started paragliding at 12, I ski toured across the Alps (2000km) at 14, I summited Mount Everest at 17 and we took-off on a tandem with my dad at 8000m on the South Pass.

I did a lot of competitions until 1999, then there was the “Seven summits” project. I became a guide and took part to a few expeditions, the latest being the Ama Dablam in Nepal in 2016 from where we took off with a Skin tandem. I still love to share my experience of mountain flying in the beautiful Alps with my clients. Every time my feet are leaving the ground, I experience an incredible feeling.

Amongst my most memorable flights is taking-off from an altitude of 8850m on Mount Everest, I feel so lucky the conditions were met to make it possible, I was living a dream. On May 21, 2001, we waited for 2 hours on top of Everest, by ourselves. When the wind picked up from the Nepalese side, it was time to get ready for take-off! Each movement was demanding, there was no place for a mistake. With the lack of oxygen, it becomes very hard to think and everything takes time. In this situation it is a good thing to be able to use the automatic behaviour that you have gained over years of practice. The glider was ready, on the second attempt glider inflated, the gust was powerful enough to get us off the earth and glide in the sky above the highest summit on the planet. It was a highly emotional moment, the view was incredible. This was a short flight leeward on the Tibetan side. Safe landing on the Ronk Buk Glacier.

The craziest adventure ever!