After all the hard work it was time to celebrate. Overcoming the hardships, stress to family life and, above all, the very real dangers to be found at 25,000 ft, meant that the champagne - Mumm Cordon Rouge naturally - flowed freely. With outstanding teamwork the impossible dream had finally become a reality.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things it didn’t make one jot of difference, but who cares? We had all learnt something and had a huge amount of fun contributing to the eventual success of Bear Grylls, Alan Veal and David Hempleman-Adams. Well done!

Despite the inclement weather on the ‘official’ record attempt day, GH Mumm and the other sponsors and supporters, along with Bear, Hempie and Big Al, all found plenty of reasons to crack open the champagne bottles to celebrate a world record; the sort of record that only the eccentric English could accomplish with so much style and panache!

The vast majority of images were taken by me, but full coverage of the project as operations intensified could not have been accomplished so professionally without the invaluable help of Alan Veal and Phill Elston and the other three members of the photographic team; to John Robert Young, Jeremy Clifton-Gould and the late Russel West I offer my heartfelt thanks for a superb job under sometimes difficult conditions. Our Apple Mac communications and on-site network were expertly overseen by Richard Belson from Western Computer (Apple Centre) in Bristol - thank you to all for seeing the project through to the end.

Celebrations