Before the Empire State Building was constructed, the Chrysler Building, located at 405 Lexington Avenue at E. 42nd Street in New York City, was the world’s tallest building. At 1,046 feet, it not only was the tallest building, but lorded over the Eiffel Tower as the world’s tallest man-made structure and first structure to ever reach 1,000 ft. To this day, it’s still the largest brick building in the world(though there’s a steel skeleton).

If you’ve ever spent time in Manhattan, it’s impossible to miss the Chrysler Building’s presence in Midtown. The crowned top, spire and legendary corner eagles rise above most all of the city skyline.

Moses Gates, the author of Hidden Cities, decided to go out on one of the eagles during a recent Opie Radio segment on urban exploring. The wind is crackling in the video, and the film crew isn’t so sure about getting very close, but Moses climbs aboard the proud-looking eagle without flinching in true Adrenalist fashion.

Moses Gates has made a living out of these types of adventures. His urban exploring book covers his journeys to off-limits areas in cities across the globe, whether its dangerous train tunnels in Manhattan, sewers underneath Rome or parties in the Parisian catacombs. The Chrysler Building’s observation deck overlooking the eagles isn’t open to the general public either (it closed in 1945), so you’re not likely to see much contemporary eagle surfing in the near future.

Cover Photo Credit: svachalek / Flcikr.com

Picture standing with your back to a thunderous 100-meter waterfall. You have a harness, a helmet and maybe a raincoat and a waterproof camera.

Now comes time for some adrenaline. You lean back, trust the rope and descend into the depths of the rapids.

Waterfall rappelling, a form of canyoneering, is an exhilarating family vacation or honeymoon activity for some and a bucket-list item for others. You don’t need a particular skill-set or a whole lot of muscle to rappel, just some hand and foot coordination in order to harness gravity during your descent. Afraid of heights? Consider this: at the end, you will be able to look up and claim the visual reward of what you just scaled down.

Throw in some tropical scenery and exotic wildlife and you’ve got an outdoor experience like no other.

What would you do if you had no way out? What if, buried deep below the Earth or sea on a cave exploration, the next corner you turned led to nowhere? You might remain calm at first, telling yourself to breath and concentrate, vowing to find your way back to the surface, but what if the next corner you turned didn’t lead anywhere either? Nor the next? For Adrenalists of the cave diving persuasion, this scenario is a daunting reality, the life-threatening downside of a fervent passion. No matter how skilled you are at cave diving, you must remain wary of the risk of getting stranded or trapped.

Here are five of the world’s most dangerous caves.

Eagle’s Nest – Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area, Florida

If you were to take a trip to Florida’s Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area, you probably wouldn’t think that the Eagle’s Nest looks like much more than a scummy pond. You would be mistaken, however, as this site is actually a notoriously compartmentalized cave system that has claimed the lives of numerous divers. Those brave enough to take the dive hundreds of feet down are rewarded with mammoth chambers of crystal clear splendor and access to a large cavern called “The Main Ballroom.” Once that far, a complex system of tunnels leads divers to further discoveries. Making it back the way you came is the tough part and the reason this trip is recommended for expert divers only.

Gufr-Berger – Vercors, French Alps

Though the French Alps’ 4,340 foot-deep Gufr-Berger cave is no longer regarded as the world’s deepest, it’s fall from ranking’s grace is no reason to underestimate it. Not only does Berger descend so far beneath the earth that it takes explorers between 15 and 30 hours to reach the cave’s surface from its lowest point (and that’s without breaks), but its Pavodkoopasna chamber is also notorious for flash floods that have killed as many as five in recent years. The only thing worse than being trapped in a cave is being trapped in a cave under water.

Krubera Cave – Western Caucuses, Abkhazia

Located in the eastern European region of Abkhazia in the Western Caucuses, the Krubera Cave is currently regarded as the world’s deepest at 7,021 feet, or about 1.3 miles. Even as Ukranian speleogolists (cave researchers) traversed down to Krubera Cave’s lowest point, they continued to discover various species of animal life, including spiders and scorpions – both of which scientists had ample time to study during the 14 days it took them to find daylight. If the prospect of getting lost or trapped in the world’s deepest cave doesn’t get your blood pumping, the thought of spending two weeks trapped in the dark with scorpions and spiders surely must.

Orda Cave System - Perm Region, Russia

When diving deep below the surface of Russian waters in the region’s Orda Cave system, one need not be worried about finding scorpions. In fact, one need not be worried about finding much of anything, because few species can survive in water temperatures just a notch above freezing. Those who’ve explored the region praise its wonder and majesty. Beauty aside, any expedition to Orda is inherently one of the world’s riskiest and intended only for veteran divers. As underwater photographer, journalist and Orda journeyman, Victor Lyagushkin, told the DailyMail, ”we do control our risks – before each dive we discuss each moment, to find a solution to any situation we are faced with. If it is too risky, we do not dive. We must be aware of each step, or you will die.”

The Blood Grotto - Port of Palinuro, Italy

With a name like The Blood Grotto, one might think Italy’s submerged cave system in the tourist port of Palinuro is another spot intended for cave diving experts. It’s actually a popular amateur locale where beginners are encouraged to try their hand at the sport. That doesn’t sound too extreme, so why include it on our list? Because in July 2012, four divers got lost in the Grotto’s underwater caverns and drowned. One survivor told CNN, “we suddenly found ourselves in a blind tunnel. We couldn’t see anything. At that point it was panic. The agitation of the least experienced took hold. Mud and sand came up from the bottom of the cave and visibility was gone.” Pro-grade or not, any cave dive can go from recreational to deadly in a matter of seconds. It all comes down to which way you turn.

Cover Photo Credit: DiveKarma / Flickr.com

Riding a motorcycle can be a hazardous experience no matter where you’re doing it. Though even when you read that motorcycle deaths happen nearly 30 times more than any other mode of transportation, it doesn’t change the fact they’re incredibly fun to drive.

Motorcycles are more lethal than other vehicles simply by design, and the risk of a fatal injury is higher for even minor motorcycle crashes. But riders know this going in, and risking it all to compete is worth it for an Adrenalist. A bit of risk is what the lifestyle is all about. You can only lecture about the threat of danger for so long before someone attempts to experience it firsthand.

But what about when you’re biking off-road? What about when you’re biking through the mountainous cliffs, where the terrain itself is menacing? Obviously the risk is amplified a bit, and it’s with that we bring you this video of a cliff-biking daredevil.

The rider starts off going down a narrow escarpment and then accelerates around the bowl-shaped cliff, going nearly sideways before returning to the normal, flat surface on the other side. If this rider had slowed down at all, gravity would have pitched him over and he would have fallen.

This Adrenalist, however, laughs in the face of danger, and gravity, apparently.

Cover Photo Credit: UltraRob – flickr.com

Note to readers before we chronicle five flame-conquering Adrenalists: we’re not encouraging you to play with fire. These stunts are all performed by trained professionals. We don’t advocate recklessness – we admire daring. There’s not much that’s more daring than choosing to come in close contact with a raging blaze, and that’s exactly what these athletes did.

Please watch and enjoy, but do not try to imitate unless you’re a trained professional.

Here are five extreme fire tricks.

Back on Fire

We examined this stunt several times before deciding that the trick is, in fact, real. More spectacular is the fact that stunt riding pro, Patrick Stephens, apparently gets engulfed in flames on a regular basis while performing jaw-dropping motorcycle tricks – it’s part of a stunt show he conducts at exhibitions all over the country. For most mortals, pulling off the things seen in this video’s 0:20-0:30 time window would be beyond comprehension. For Stephens, it’s just a warm up, a lead-in to a scorching fire that will warm him up a whole lot more.

Wall Of Fire

This video is a diamond in the rough – one that, for whatever reason, didn’t pop up on the viral radar. A dirt biker jumping through a fire wall at an extreme stunt show, however, wasn’t going to pass us by. The whole spectacle is glamourless and gritty and that’s why we like it. The rider is also on fire for several seconds after completing the trick which, we’re assuming, you never really get used to no matter how many times you’ve jumped through a fire wall. Heads up: the prep is a little tedious so you’ll want to skip to the 0:30 mark if you’re hungry for a quick thrill.

Fiery Quad Jump

Ah yes, the quad jump. It’s not that the jump isn’t impressive, because it is. Our skepticism has more to do with the fact that the person fueling the fire seems to be no older than 12. Usually pro stunt coordinators are a little more seasoned. Just saying. This kid, however, gets major points for fearlessness. The only thing scarier than jumping over a fiery pit may be standing within spitting distance of its savage flames. The stunt goes off without a hitch, though. Now, this blazing jump is immortalized in our burning hearts forever.

Fire Tunnel Ride

On Mar. 13, 2011, Indian motorcylist Shabir Ahluwalia set the Guiness World Record for longest motorcycle ride through a tunnel of fire when he traveled 224 feet, 8 inches. The previous record, set in the UK, was 200 feet. What we’re wondering is whether or not Shabir realized when he signed up for the challenge that fire would actually be shooting out at him from the tunnel walls. It’s one thing to bear the extreme heat of a tunnel smothered in flames. It’s quite another to endure mini-explosions as many times as Shabir did over the course of his brief passage. Look what’s happening inside this tunnel at 0:41 to see what we’re talking about.

Fire Eating

Are you hungry? How hungry? Hungry enough to extinguish 39 torches in 30 seconds using only your mouth? Unless you’re Guiness World Record setter Hubertus Wawra, aka “Master of Hellfire,” the answer is probably “no.” For Wawra, in Mumbai, India in March 2011, however, it was a resounding “yes.” The man’s mouth was literally on fire. His charred mouth makes that abundantly clear. Suddenly Patrick Stephens’ back-burning moto stunt seems a little more tolerable. At least he had a leather jacket barrier to keep the flames from blackening his insides.

Almost everyone dreams of flying. Unless you’re afraid of heights, taking to the skies is a liberating experience. The mere act of being airborne outside the confines of a plane  is magical, no matter how you achieve that rush. It’s why so many people skydive and go up in hot air balloons and BASE jump, and, of course, it’s why so many hang glide.

We’d bet that at the root of every sky-lover’s fantasy is the desire to live as a bird, to soar without notice and to remain in the clouds for long periods of time, coasting from wind current to wind current with the relaxed precision of a being made to do just that. But, obviously, humans can’t fly. So chasing the feeling of flight requires us to put our bodies in unnatural circumstances and, thus, exposes us to significant danger. Though not as life-threatening as BASE jumping, hang gliding has its own crop of potential disasters, most commonly stemming from crash landings or mid-air collisions.

In the interest of preserving your time on Earth, review these particularly dangerous hang gliding situations and steer clear, especially if you’re a newbie.

Treetops

Because the hang glider featured above is an indisputable pro, you won’t see anything close to a collision. The ease with which he manipulates his craft proves as much. For all of us less seasoned gliders, cruising what looks to be inches above the tree line is a near guarantee that you’ll experience a painful (maybe even fatal) injury. We know the trees are beautiful, but imagine careening into a forest canopy at 30 mph. Does that seem fun? We didn’t think so. You may feel like a bird, but you’re not one. And that’ll become very evident as soon as you become intimately acquainted with a tree trunk.

Jets

This one’s a heartbeat skipper. Short, sweet and totally maddening. If you blink you’ll miss what’s so terrifying about this clip, but our intent in posting it is to remind all gliders (and sky divers for that matter) that, when you’re sailing through the air at 2,500 feet, you’re not only invading birds’ natural habitat, but you’re also swirling about speeding aircrafts that will take you out a whole heck of a lot faster than any falcon or bald eagle. If you’re planning to fly that high up, make sure you’re on special alert.

Water

As is the case in the treetop glider example, the Adrenalist above is clearly a pro who’s done this many times before. You can tell by the way he circles away from the water and toward dry land to stick a perfect landing, all while reportedly going about 100 mph. Any lesser glider, however, could have very easily crashed into the sea and, even at 30 or 40 mph, such a mechanically intensive collision (remember, you’ve got a hang glider on your back) could be disastrously dangerous.

Cities

As much as we’d like to think we’re superheroes, we’re not. What we are is susceptible to dangerous collisions with buildings, cars and civilians. There are lots of all those things in cities. It makes sense, then, that it’s probably best to steer clear of metropolitan areas while hang gliding, unless you’re a pro or with a pro guide.

Stormy Clouds

Where don’t you want to be when a lightning storm hits? Flying extra close to the lightning while fastened to a large metal object. This is common sense, yes, but sometimes weather comes on suddenly. So, as with jets, you must constantly be on the lookout and ready to position yourself for an emergency landing (yet another reason why flying around trees, water or buildings isn’t the best bet).

Safe gliding!

There are all manner of ways to get your thrills these days, but it has taken advancement in robotics and a little imaginative thinking — not to mention bravery — on the part of some anonymous employees to bring us the video above: riding a robotic arm. It should be noted this is happening in a workplace, something these daring co-workers dreamed up in the course of using the robotic arm for actual, you know, work. Once they realized what the robotic arm was capable of doing to their heart rate, thereby adding some excitement to the tedium of their 9-5, they simply welded a car seat to a 6-axis Articulated Robot from Kuka, a German robotics manufacturer, then let loose. And, man, does it look awesome.

The video went viral five years ago, but a lot has happened since. Whether the original video’s popularity spurred others into action is anybody’s guess, but it certainly didn’t hurt matters. For safety purposes, since this was a factory floor with friends and fellow co-workers looking on in amazement, the car seat the man was riding in wasn’t just any old car seat. It featured a 5-point racing harness, like the kind used in Nascar. It’s a good thing too, because the brave rider dips and twists dangerously close to the concrete floor, not the movements one normally associates with amusement park rides.

Around the same time the video was uploaded (in 2007), Kuka Robotics and Primal Rides teamed up to produce Robocoasters, with the robot arm as a design guide. Crowds were definitely digging the robot-as-ride in this video from Lebanon in 2011. These days, you can ride a robot arm at Lincoln Makerspace, the UK’s Grand-Pier Super-Mare, various technology conferences like MACH’s NEC and even at Legoland.

Even though it was an incredibly dangerous stunt, the robot arm ride above probably helped facilitate the contemporary ones we see today.

You could call it an Adrenalist invention.

While it may be neglected in a typical workout routine, balance is a skill key to every sport.  Are you an agile skateboarder or free runner who can do parkour while tapping your smartphone, or are you a bit on the wobbly side?

No athlete demonstrates balance more expertly than a tight rope walker: a gravity-immune high-wire artist who can keep his footing while threatened with a significant, potentially very dangerous, drop.

Meet five of the world’s greatest ever tight rope walkers.

Charles Blondin

1824 – 1897

Jean François Gravelet-Blondin looms as large as any other figure in the history of tightrope. The French uber-acrobat transcends the sport. Above all, he is famous for countless daredevil exploits across Niagara Gorge on the American-Canadian border, beginning in June 1959. Just to prove his love of theater and bending his limits, Blondin varied the act dramatically. One time he crossed the gorge blindfolded, one time he was in a sack. He also performed the feat shoving a wheelbarrow on stilts, carrying his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back and sitting down midway while he fried and ate an omelet.

Blondin was such a hit that his name became synonymous with the term “tightrope artist” — people talked about “daredevil Blondins”. Plus, two roads in his late-life hometown, Ealing, London are named in his honor: Blondin Avenue and Niagara Avenue.

The Great Farini

1838 – 1929

Niagara Falls holds a definite fascination for tightrope walkers, and the Great Farini was no exception. Like Charles Blondin, the Great Farini was a tightrope legend, crossing Niagara Falls repeatedly and performing some pretty insane tricks while he was at it, including somersaulting, crossing with a man on his back and hanging by his feet.

His real name was William Leonard Hunt, but he lived up to his grand stage name. Circus historians credit the Great Farini as the mastermind behind the classic showbiz stunt “human cannonball.” The Great Farini staged many of his shows at London’s Royal Aquarium, even teaming up with legendary promoter P.T. Barnum before heading to Africa. There, Farini supposedly became the first white man to survive crossing a new threshold – the Kalahari Desert – on foot. Until his death, the Great Farini kept busy and interested by inventing things from folding theatre seats to the modern parachute. Like many tightrope walkers, he was a truly intriguing character.

Con Colleano

1899 – 1973

If you want to scale the heights in the field of tightrope walking, it helps if you have a cool name. Australian tightrope walker Con Colleano had three: his given name, Wizard of the Wire and the Toreador of the Wire. He was the first person to pull off a high-wire forward somersault and he became one of the most famous and well-paid circus maestros of his age.

It helped that his background was wild. His father – supposedly a freed convict – made a shady living from sideshow “take-on-all-comers” boxing and gambling: great inspiration for a precarious tightrope career. In 1997, Colleano was honored when the Australian post featured a modern poster of him on their postage stamp.

Falko Traber 

Born 1959

The German tightrope walker Falko Traber is a direct descendant of one of his nation’s most distinguished circus families: the Zugspitze tightrope artists. The Traber family’s name stems from antics conducted against the backdrop of Germany’s highest mountain, 3,000-meter Zugspitze. Born during a tightrope tour of France, Falko Traber visited over 40 countries with his family. Falko is the last of his brothers still to walk the wire — his brother Charlie died in 2007 at 54.

Falko remains one of the sport’s biggest stars. Proving that he is more than a showman, Traber has set many records, including crossing 700 meters of rope on the rear wheel of his specially designed motorbike at a height of 80 meters, spending 13 days and nights in a cage occupied by several fully-grown white tigers and walking the longest freely hanging ropeway in the world: the 3S-Umlaufbahn at Kitzbuehel in Tyrol, Austria, at a height of over 400 meters. Traber thinks nothing of standing on his head on a bicycle’s steering fork.

Nik Wallenda

Born 1979

If you want to become a tightrope walker, it helps if you have the precarious sport in your blood. American Nik Wallenda comes from a high-wire artist clan called the Flying Wallendas and was inspired primarily by his grandfather, Karl Wallenda. The world’s leading tightrope walker, Wallenda is also one of the most prominent daredevils in any extreme sport. The self-styled King of the Wire, who proceeds without a safety net, holds an incredible six Guinness World Records for various acrobatic exploits.

Wallenda is most famous for walking a tightrope strung across Niagara Falls on June 15, 2012, braving winds and spray.  Last year, he set a world record by walking the Wheel of Death atop the 23-story Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City and tightrope walked with his mother between the two towers of Condado Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico. The latter stunt was a re-creation of the one that killed Karl Wallenda, and in light of that angle, might just be one of the boldest ever accomplished in tightrope history.

It’s August and we’re in the dog days of summer. Temperatures are hitting their peak points, the sun is scorching the Earth and air conditioners are maxed out. You want to stay cool, but you want to get out of the house. Why not solve this dilemma by heading deep underground?

Caving, or spelunking as it is often referred to in the United States, might not be a competitive sport, but it ranks among the most extreme recreational activities you can participate in. Just think about it: you’re exploring dangerous, unlit terrain that relatively few human feet have ever touched.

In addition to the very real physical danger you face with cave-ins, unexpected drops and the like, you also face the rigorous mental exercise of ignoring the fact that you’re in a natural stone corridor deep within the Earth. You’re cut off from cellular and satellite communications and your access to emergency services is limited in the extreme.

The tradeoff to facing these rather extreme dangers is the thrill of discovering. Elaborate cave systems and deep ocean trenches are pretty much the last of the unexplored frontier on this planet, and since most folks don’t have access to deep-submergence vehicles, spelunking is the obvious choice for the willing explorer.

Knowing Your Stuff

The human race has been exploring caves for the length of its existence, but spelunking as a recreational pursuit has only become popular (relatively speaking) in the past 100 or so years. The most important thing to keep in mind if you’re considering taking up spelunking is that every underground environment is different and each will require specific tactics and gear.

You’ll always want to have some general survival skills, as well as some degree of training in rock climbing, but you also need to do your research to understand the underground environment you’ll be entering. Will it be cold or warm? Wet or dry? What sort of indigenous wildlife can you expect to encounter? How thoroughly has the area you’re going to visit been explored?

There are organizations all around the world devoted to spelunking, covering everything from mapping to preservation to general research. In the U.S., the two largest are the National Speleological Society (NSS) and the Cave Research Foundation (CRF). These are organizations you can join and work with. Due to the associated dangers, caving isn’t really meant to be a solo activity, and both of these groups offer field work opportunities even if you’re a novice.

Of the two organizations, the NSS is the best place to start if you are a total newbie. There are more than 200 local NSS caving clubs, called Grottos, scattered around the country, as well as more specialized sections which focus on niche activities like photography, cartography or vertical caving.

Getting Your Gear Together

Once again, it’s important to remember that there’s no real standard for spelunking. Each underground environment is unique, so researching what you’ll be facing and what you should bring along is necessary when preparing for an expedition. There are, however, a few must-haves for any underground journey.

A hard hat or helmet is an absolute necessity, preferably one that is attached to a halogen or LED lighting array of some kind. If you are anticipating a longer expedition, you’ll definitely want at least one backup light, too. Lengthier stays underground may also require some basic camping equipment, specifically sleeping and cooking gear.

You’ll also need to bring along a first aid kit. Even if every other person in your group is carrying one, you should too. You never know what might happen underground and the last thing you want is to suddenly find yourself injured and separated from the group without a first aid kit of your own.

Less obvious items to remember are containers to store your garbage in, since preservation is a major component of organized caving expeditions.

Beyond that, the gear you carry along depends largely on the environment. If you don’t anticipate there being much vertical caving, don’t weigh your pack down with climbing gear. You’ll want to wear boots no matter what, but wet conditions will require rubber boots while dry conditions will warrant more typical hiking boots.

The same thought process applies to what you wear. The temperature in North America’s cave systems rarely rises about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but exposure to water underground mixed with the lack of sunlight or any steady, natural heat source means that hypothermia is always a risk. Most cavers wear a one-piece undersuit for thermal protection, sometimes with an additional layer of thermal undergarments for the lower end of the temperature scale. Neoprene wetsuits, even those used by deep-sea divers, are also a good idea if you’re going to be exploring a wet environment.

In addition to thermal protection, it’s also important to wear an outer layer to protect your body from the physical dangers a cave presents. Oversuits come in a variety of forms, but the basic idea remains the same: heavy material with reinforced padding in parts of your body that are more likely to come into contact with the environment, such as your knees and your elbows.

Vertical caving requires a whole other set of gear, since you’re going to be doing a lot of climbing, Ropes, collapsible ladders, and, most importantly, a harness, are all necessary. Vertical caving can be quite dangerous, so look to the organizations mentioned above for more information and guidance.

Cover Photo Credit: highlander411 / Flickr.com

Last month we introduced you to the best daredevils of all time: men whose blood-pumping feats have inspired much of what we consider high-powered adventure today. Who, however, are the  21st century individuals following in their footsteps?

Meet some of the best modern daredevils. Contemporary Houdini’s who defy obstacles like gravity, oxygen starvation and snake venom, just to name just a few.

Bear Grylls

Perhaps nobody epitomizes the term “daredevil” more than British survivalist Bear Grylls. When it comes to adventure, this famed Adrenalist has done practically everything. His exploits include leading the first team to circumnavigate Britain on a personal watercraft or jetski, paramotoring (motor-powered paragliding) over Angel Falls and the Himalayas, crossing the North Atlantic Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage on a rigid-inflatable boat and paragliding over Mount Everest. Another notable accomplishment was climbing Everest and entering The Guinness Book of World Records as one of the giant’s youngest ever summiteers. He was 23.

Furthermore, the 90-day ascent subjected Grylls to explosive weather, limited sleep and oxygen starvation deep inside the “death zone” (above 26,000 feet). Coming down from his first reconnaissance climb, he almost died in a crevasse at 19,000 feet. The ice split, the ground caved beneath him and he was knocked out. He dangled on the end of his rope for a bit before coming to and carrying on.

Nik Wallenda

Holding six Guiness World Records for remarkable acrobatic achievements, this Florida-born high-wire artist’s best work can be seen in our Nik Wallenda’s Best Stunts feature. Wallenda describes himself as “King of the Wire.” On June 15, 2012, Wallenda became the first person to walk a tightrope strung across Niagara Falls. For the walk, which was aired around the globe, he had to wear a safety harness for the first time in his daredevil career. Wallenda’s next endeavor, scheduled for August 9, is to walk 450 meters some 30 metres above an Atlantic City, New Jersey beach in under 30 minutes. This time, without the harness.

The daredevil comes from a high-flying family of circus performers who have wowed spectators around the world with their acrobatics. At least three have perished in the process, making Wallenda’s bravery even more epic.

Donald Schultz

Almost everyone is at least a little bit scared of snakes. South African extreme adventurer Donald Schultz, on the other hand, routinely tracks down and handles some of the world’s most venomous snakes. In an indicator of his zest for excellence and risk, Schultz was certified the youngest Class II commercial diver in Africa. Now, on the Discovery Channel series Wild Recon, Schultz wanders the planet gathering venom and rare animal DNA crucial to research. One day, his work may save myriad lives. His exploits range from harvesting Mozambique black mamba venom to felling a 600-pound lion for a blood sample in South Africa.

If you need proof Schultz likes to live a little, check out the video above showcasing his 10-day stint living in glass box with 100 snakes.

Jeb Corliss

Professional BASE jumper and skydiver and New Mexico native Jeb Corliss has won fame through gravity-busting jumps from global landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the Seattle Space Needle and Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers.  The unrepentant showman is always trying to up the ante. On September 25, 2011 he jumped from a helicopter at 6,000 feet and soared through a 100-ft wide archway in Tianmen Mountain, located in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China. He landed with a parachute on a bridge. Though he badly injured himself while proximity flying off Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa in January 2012, he has bounced back and plans to return to life as “usual.”

Kenton Cool

British mountaineer Kenton Cool has climbed Everest not once, not twice, but 10 times. Just to rub it in, in May 2007 Cool summitted the Rooftop of the World twice in one week. He is so ice-cool about climbing the world’s most daunting mountain that on May 6, last year, he Tweeted from it.

Cool first got curious about mountaineering at Scouts where he read about the first attack on Mount Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. At university, he developed a fixation with rock climbing. In 1996, he toppled off a rock face, smashing both heel bones. He recovered, however, and in 2006, became the first Brit to do a ski descent of an 8,000 meter peak, the world’s sixth highest mountain, Nepal’s Cho Oyu. In March 2007, he led polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes on a triumphant attempt on the Eiger’s north face. Cool now works as a guide and expedition leader in the Alps and Greater Ranges of the Himalaya.