Jim Clash

James Michael "Jim" Clash is an American participatory adventure journalist and author. He has engaged in some of the world’s most daring exploits and lived to write about them. He has written for Forbes, AskMen, Huffington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Automobile. He has written three books: Forbes To The Limits, The Right Stuff: Interviews with Icons of the 1960s, and The Right Stuff: Interviews with Icons of the 1970s and 1980s. Jim is a Fellow and former Board Member of The Explorers Club and is also ticket holder 610 on Virgin Galactic for a flight to space.

Jim was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Laurel, Maryland. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from Columbia University. Jim's first foray into adventure began as an amateur "ham" radio operator. Prior to becoming an adventure journalist, Jim covered mutual funds and finance for Forbes magazine, and was an account director in the advertising industry.

As an adventure journalist, Jim has interviewed 8 of the 12 moon walkers including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Jim has also interviewed legendary aviation pioneers including Chuck Yeager, Senator John Glenn, Sir Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Alan Eustace, Bertrand Piccard, Joe Kittinger, and Felix Baumgartner. Notable mountaineers include Sir Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner, Sir Chris Bonington, Jamling Tenzing Norgay, and Jim Whittaker.

Jim has also interviewed deep ocean explorers Don Walsh and James Cameron as well as notable race car drivers Sir Jackie Stewart and Mario Andretti and famous musicians Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Grace Slick, Ginger Baker, and Art Garfunkel. Jim’s interviews are as diverse as Sir Roger Bannister, Dr. Edward Teller, Joe Frazier, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Neil de Grasse Tyson.

Aircraft

• Flown in a MiG-25 Foxbat to 84,000 feet above Russia at Mach 2.6.
• Supersonic speeds in an English Electric Lighting and the Concorde.
• Weightlessness parabolic flights in an Ilyushin-76.
• Flown in formation with the Breitling Jet Team.
• Aerobatic flight with Red Bull Race Team in Indianapolis.
• Trained for upcoming Virgin Galactic flight in a centrifuge up to 6 Gs.

Autos

Jim has driven several cars over 200 mph including:

• A Bugatti Veyron at a top speed of 253.2 mph.
• Other 200-mph drives include Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, McLarens and Corvettes.
• An IndyCar at an average lap speed of over 200 mph at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Graduate of Frank Hawley Drag Racing School.
• Drove with Mario Andretti at 200 mph at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Reported from start line while 11,000-hp nitro-methane dragsters blasted off to 330 mph in less than four seconds.
• Drove off-road Baja 1000 vehicles in Mexico.
• Drove a tank over a car.
• Tested at Bonneville Salt Flats

Military

• Rode a B-52 bomber with The U.S. Air Force in Minot, North Dakota.
• Flew in a T-38 and suited up in a U-2 Space suit, Beale AFB, California.
• Embedded with U.S. Army 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
• Flew supersonic in an F-15 fighter jet at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina.
• Reported from nuclear missile bunker in Minot, North Dakota.
• Reported from Thule AFB in northern Greenland.
• Reported U.S. Air Force launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida

Mountains

Summited the following mountains:

• Aconcagua, Argentina
• The Matterhorn, Switzerland
• Mont Blanc, France
• Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
• Grand Teton, Wyoming
• Orizaba and Popocateptl, Mexico
• Cotapaxi and Cayambe, Ecuador
• Virgin Peaks in Antarctica and Greenland
• Mount Fuji, Japan
• Kosciuszko, Australia

North and South Poles

• Skied the last degree (111km) to South Pole.
• Reported from the North Pole and took the polar plunge.
• Visited high arctic outposts including Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Wrangel Island, Svalbard, S'redny Island.

Oceans

• Participated in America’s Cup Land Rover BAR race.
• Rode in Triton submersible to 1,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean.
• Drove a Superboat at 140 mph.
• Jet-skied with surfing champion Ken Bradshaw in 35-foot waves off Hawaii’s North Shore.

Other

• Stand-in bullfighter for PBR (Professional Bull Riders).
• Bobsledded with the U.S. Olympic Team.
• Tested bullet-proof jacket getting shot point blank with a .38 caliber.
• Highest, longest rappel in the world at 367 feet.
• Figure-skated with Olympic Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen.