I’d seen waterfalls before, but never like this. I was sliding down a wire some 50 feet (15 m) in the air, sailing through the treetops at 30 miles an hour (48 km/h). Somewhere off to the left of me ...

The first — and maybe the last — descent of Salto del Maule. A national kayaking champion dreamed of being the first person to run a 134-foot waterfall in the mountains of Chile. Credit...Courtesy of ...

A 26-year-old kayaker made the second tallest waterfall descent in known history earlier this month. Dane Jackson dropped 134 feet into the relative unknown before coming out the other end unscathed.