TV

In place of historic jump, Ogwyn will be in avalanche special

Joby Ogwyn, whose wingsuit flight off the summit of Mount Everest was canceled after last week’s deadly avalanche there, will participate in the avalanche news special that Discovery will air in place of his historic jump.

Discovery was slated to air Ogwyn’s jump live on May 11. Instead, it will now produce a news special, airing early next month, focusing on the Mount Everest avalanche, which killed 13 Sherpas on Friday, April 18 — including three Sherpas who were part of Ogwyn’s crew.

(Three Sherpas are still missing and are presumed dead.)

“I am going to take a small and humble role [in the special] … since I was one of two or three eyewitnesses who saw [the avalanche] happen that morning, which was the worst thing in the world you could see,” Ogwyn told The Post. “This thing has gone from Joby making his ultimate flight off the summit [of Everest] to … very much about the special Sherpas who welcomed us with open arms.”

Ogwyn, on the phone from Katmandu, Nepal — where he was ensuring that the bodies of his Sherpas were returned to their families — was in his tent at base camp when the avalanche struck around 8 a.m. local time. “It wasn’t a big, loud, thunderous thing,” he said. “But it sounded big enough. I leaned out of my tent to look and I could see probably 25 to 30 people, guys on that section of the mountain, like little dots … and saw this cloud, like a dragon or a snake, working its way down and covering up the guys.

“There were five or six teams of guys on the mountain at that time and a wide variety of teams were affected by the avalanche,” he said. “My team lost three guys; we had six total and obviously that’s devastating. I had spent some nice time at base camp with these guys and they were very special and were sort of celebrities.

“These guys are the salt of the earth and far better men than me,” he said. “Lots of times people don’t think as much of the Sherpas because the job they do is hard and lonely. This special will showcase who they were and what they stand for. It will be a beautiful thing.”

So will Ogwyn now abandon his plans to jump off the summit of Mount Everest in his wingsuit?

“I haven’t even thought about it. My goal right now is to support my Sherpa friends and their families,” he said. “Mount Everest isn’t going anywhere, and I’m not going to stop pursuing my dream.

“I just have to do that when the time is right.”