...a minuscule amount of sleep in an open gondola hurtling at high speeds through below-freezing air

[steingar]

And he has four more days to go.

Russian Fedor Konyukhov look stop break Steve Fossetts round the world balloon flight record.
Story on NPR

 

[G-Man]

From the map, it looks like he's awfully close.
https://my.yb.tl/RRTW2016/map-only/

Just a whole bunch of miles to far South. How will he get back North and land?

 

[Mtns2Skies]

From the map, it looks like he's awfully close.
https://my.yb.tl/RRTW2016/map-only/

Just a whole bunch of miles to far South. How will he get back North and land?

I also wonder that. Can't really tell if he'll be able to swing north unless that (2) cycle is much larger than depicted? (source wikipedia)

 

[AggieMike88]

Why the southern hemisphere?

 

[Everskyward]

Here is the current wind at 8000 meters (article said he operated between 5000-10000 meters), so maybe.

From windyty.com.