Talk about a daredevil! Last month, explorer and documentarian George Kourounis completed his most ambitious and dangerous trek yet. He, along with fellow explorer and filmmaker Sam Cossman, dived deep into the Marum crater, which is located in an active volcano in the archipelago of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. They documented the entire thing using a trio of GoPro, Canon 5D Mark III, and Sony NX cameras. So, that means we’re able to witness the breathtaking footage.
Descending into the crater was a dream of Kourounis’ for many years. He calls the experience exhilarating, as well as “dramatic and violent,” and a “window into hell.” Kourounis and Cossman spent four days on the volcano and went down twice into the crater, which was about 1,200 feet (approximately the height of the Empire State Building).
“Getting to [Marum] was kind of like a reverse climbing of Everest,” Kourounis told The Huffington Post. “The volcano fought back at us, and we had to deal with terrible weather, tremendous heat from the lava, descending and ascending 400 meters of near vertical, loose rock face, acid rain so strong that it could have come from a car battery, and a variety of other craziness.”
Watch the video below to see the stunning footage; it’s something we’d never thought we’d see.
George Kourounis website and Sam Cossman Vimeo
via [Lost At E Minor and The Huffington Post]