A British woman was among three skydivers who became the first yesterday to freefall at extreme altitude through the skies above Mount Everest.

“It was amazing, just spectacular,” Holly Budge, 29, a Winchester-born extreme sports enthusiast, said after making a safe landing at a site 12,350 feet (3,765 metres) above sea level — the highest “drop zone” achieved by a parachutist. “We had one minute of freefall and while we were above the clouds you could see Everest and the other high mountains popping out of the top,” she said.

Ms Budge and her two fellow daredevils, Wendy Smith, from New Zealand, and Neil Jones, from Canada, jumped out of an aircraft at about 29,500ft, just higher than the peak of the world’s highest mountain.

They fell at speeds reaching 140mph, hurtling past the highest ridges of the snow-laden Himalayas, before each released a parachute, made three times the size of a normal canopy to cope with the thin air. The jumpers wore oxygen masks to prevent their lungs from collapsing as they fell. Wearing neoprene underwear was compulsory — to prevent them from being frozen to death.

Times Archive, 1953: Everest conquered

A message was received by The Times last night that E. P. Hillary and the Sherpa Tensing Bhutia reached the summit of the mountain, 29,002ft. high, on May 29. The message added: 'All is well'

• Leading article

• First account of ascent

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The adventure, advertised by its organisers as “a feast for those who seek to stimulate all their senses to the point of near overload”, appeared to have lived up to its billing. “I had never seen so many mountains before,” Ms Smith said. “To be on top of the world was simply stunning.”

Before making her leap into the record books, Ms Budge, a veteran of about 2,500 jumps, had explained to the Hampshire Chronicle that the unprecedented project was “first and foremost a challenge to myself. It’s all about taking yourself out of your comfortable norm.”

The expedition also offered a way by which to celebrate her 30th birthday later this month, she said.

In the next few days the feat will be repeated by about 30 others, weather permitting. Each has paid at least £12,675 to High and Wild, the British adventure travel company behind the project. Ms Budge said: “It was worth the money. It is something that has never been done before.”

Her jump raised funds for charities in Britain and Nepal, including more than £10,000 for the Hampshire Autistic Society.

The oldest in the group, which includes several people who have never jumped from an aircraft before and will be attached to experienced skydivers, is Alan Walton, a 72-year-old British partner in a bioscience company.

Those behind the idea celebrated the culmination of 15 years of preparation yesterday. “The Everest skydive came about because I have been a Himalayan mountaineer and took up skydiving,” Nigel Gifford, the project organiser, said. “I love doing both and I thought it would be good to marry the two.”

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