1 / 11

Felix Baumgartner wins National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Award

Austrian Felix Baumgartner was awarded the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for his historic free fall from space on 14 October 2012.

Planetmountain

March 2013

Traduci in

1 / 11

Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumps out from the capsule during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico, USA on October 14, 2012.

Red Bull Stratos / Red Bull Content Pool

The prestigious National Geographic Adventurer of the year title was awarded a few days ago to Felix Baumgartner for his extraordinary leap from space on 14 October 2012. As many will remember, the 41-year-old Austrian had "sky-dived" from over 39 thousand meters and his during his 1200 Km/h free flight he broke the speed of sound. The leap was broadcast on TV and a record-breaking 8 million people watched the event live on Youtube.

This was the verdict of the People's choice and almost 55,000 votes were cast online. The Austrian BASE jumper beat 9 amazing candidates which include three exceptional alpinists (Mike Libecki, Renan Ozturk and David Lama), the highly talented British ultrarunner Lizzy Hawker (5 times winner of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) and the ski and snowboard specialists Josh Dueck and Jeremy Jones.

Last year the award went to Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa and Sano Babu Sunuwar for their ascent of Mount Everest, the paraglider flight off the summit and kayak paddle all the way from Nepal to the Bay of Bengal, while in 2011 the award went to Spanish alpinist Edurne Pasaban. In 2009 the prize was awarded to American climber Dean Potter.

NOMINEES 2013
Felix Baumgartner — Austrian BASE jumper
Josh Dueck — Canadian skier
Steve Fisher — South African kayaker
Shannon Galpin — American humanitarian
Lizzy Hawker — British ultrarunner
Jeremy Jones — American snowboarder
David Lama — Austrian climber
Mike Libecki — American explorer
Ramon Navarro — Chilean surfer
Renan Ozturk — American artist