Have you ever wondered what it would be like to leap off a tall mountain ... and fly to the bottom? South African climber Marianne Schwankhart took the plunge earlier this year when she paraglided with Pierre Carter off Mt. Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia. This marked the start of their plans to paraglide off the world's other six highest peaks, a world first which will continue with an expedition to Mt Aconcagua in South America in January .

"It was scary, I thought it would be a gentle float off the top but it was very difficult to get started. There was no wind, which meant that we had to run fast downhill at a steep angle until the paraglilde takes off. We tried twice and we managed to take off the third time, but only just. The other thing was as the air was much thinner you fly a hell of a lot faster past the rock faces and that was also scary," Marianne says