captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: this is what espionage looks like. the man driving the car is gregg bergersen. he's a civilian analyst at the pentagon with one of the nation's highest security clearances. his companion is tai shen kuo, a spy for the people's republic of china. bergersen knew a secret that the chinese desperately wanted to know. and neither man knows that what they're about to do is being recorded by two cameras the f.b.i. has concealed in their

car. >> whoa! oh, are you sure that that's okay? >> yeah, it's fine. >> stahl: what could this power? >> this could power a u.s. home, average united states house. >> stahl: the entire house? >> entire home. >> stahl: it's the heart of an invention called the bloom box. all right, are you going to let me look inside? >> absolutely. >> stahl: its inventor and investors say it will change the way we power our homes, bypassing the traditional electric grid. is the bloom box intended to get rid of the grid? >> the bloom box is intended to replace the grid... >> stahl: replace the grid. >> ... for its customers. >> three, two, one. one to base. >> there he goes. >> kroft: the small group of extreme sportsmen wearing specially made wing suits have come about as close to flying as you can get outside the confines of an airplane, at least for a minute or two. i can hear them already.

>> yeah. that was probably about 140, 150 mile-per-hour fly-by. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and andy rooney tonight on "60 minutes." no oil has flowed into the gulf for weeks, but it's just the beginning of our work. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. my job is to listen to the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel and restaurant workers and find ways to help. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. bp is gonna be here until the oil is gone and the people and businesses are back to normal... until we make this right.

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♪ barnaby's gone. nothing coulda stopped that fire. he saved all those horses. he's a hero, son. [ dog barks ] [ boy ] barnaby! well, i'll be. where you been, boy? [ male announcer ] it's movie time. with a wii twist. where have you been? [ male announcer ] netflix now delivers unlimited tv episodes and movies instantly through wii. plus dvds by mail. all for only 9 bucks a month. dang! >> pelley: the recently revealed russian spy ring sounded like something out of a cold war thriller.

but the reality of today's espionage is that china has just as good a spy network in the united states. and tonight, you are going to see a chinese spy caught red- handed taking american military secrets from an employee of the defense department. if china is the asian dragon, then it has awakened to compete with the united states all around the world for resources, markets and strategic advantage. as we showed you when we first broadcast this story earlier this year, the chinese are also shopping for information ranging from u.s. nuclear weapons designs to the inside deliberations of the obama white house. because of the nature of espionage, you never get a look at this clandestine underworld, but recently, the f.b.i. recorded a chinese agent stealing america's secrets. >> gregg bergersen: there's a nice thai restaurant out there. >> tai shen kuo: oh, okay. okay. >> pelley: this is what espionage looks like. the man driving the car is gregg bergersen.

he's a civilian analyst at the pentagon with one of the nation's highest security clearances. his companion is tai shen kuo, a spy for the people's republic of china. this is kuo in an f.b.i. surveillance photo. he was born in taiwan, but he's a naturalized american citizen who owns a number of businesses in louisiana. and this is bergersen, who worked at the pentagon's defense security cooperation agency, which manages weapons sales to u.s. allies. bergersen knew a secret the chinese desperately wanted to know: what kind of weapons was america planning to sell to taiwan, the rebellious chinese island that mainland china wants to reclaim. it's july 2007. they're driving outside washington. and neither man knows that what they are about to do is being recorded by two cameras the f.b.i. has concealed in their car.

>> kuo: i'll give you... let you have the money. >> gregg bergersen: whoa, oh, are you sure that's okay? >> kuo: yeah, yeah, fine >> bergersen: you're sure? >> kuo: yeah. >> pelley: we watched the tape with john slattery, the f.b.i. agent at headquarters who oversaw the case. he recently retired as a deputy assistant director. what's happening there? >> john slattery: information has been passed prior, and this is reward for that, or there is expectation that passage of information is forthcoming, so that's what's happening here. >> pelley: how much money is he holding in his hand? >> slattery: i think we're probably looking at about $2,000, thereabouts. >> pelley: tai shen kuo's money and contacts came to the f.b.i.'s attention while the bureau was investigating a different chinese espionage case. they followed him, tapped his phone, watched his email, and all of that led to bergersen. in the car, the pentagon employee and chinese spy were plotting the hand-over of secret documents that listed future weapons sales to taiwan and

details of a taiwanese military communications system. >> bergersen: i'm very, very, very, very reticent to let you have it, because it's all classified. >> kuo: oh, okay. >> bergersen: and... but i will let you see it... and you can take all the notes you want, which i think you can do today. but i... i... if it ever fell into the wrong hands, and i know it's not going to, but if it ever... >> kuo: okay, that's fair. >> bergersen: ...was, then i would be fired for sure. i...i'd go to jail... >> kuo: yeah. >> bergersen: ...because i violated all the rules. >> pelley: he just described them as classified documents. >> slattery: exactly. >> pelley: he knows precisely what he's doing. >> slattery: exactly. >> pelley: he's almost going down your list of requirements for an indictment by a grand jury. >> slattery: and we thank him for that. >> pelley: when it comes to espionage against the united states, is china now the number one threat that we face? >> michelle van cleave: i would be hard pressed to say whether

it's the chinese or it's the russians, but they're one, two, or two, one. >> pelley: michelle van cleave was america's top counter- intelligence officer. working for the director of national intelligence, she was in charge of coordinating the hunt for foreign spies from 2003 to 2006. >> van cleave: the chinese are the biggest problem we have with respect to the level of effort that they're devoting against us versus the level of attention we are giving to them. >> pelley: what do the chinese want from us? >> van cleave: virtually every technology that is on the u.s. controlled technology list has been targeted-- sensors and optics, and biological and chemical processes. these are the things... information technologies across all the things that we have identified as having inherent military application. >> pelley: the chinese have stolen technology used in the space shuttle and in submarine propulsion systems.

in the late 1990s, a congressional commission found that china now holds the most closely guarded secrets america had. >> van cleave: we learned and the cox commission reported that the chinese had acquired the design information for all u.s. thermonuclear weapons currently in our inventory. >> pelley: let me make sure i understand-- the chinese are in possession today of the designs of all of our nuclear weapons? >> van cleave: yes. >> pelley: how did they get that? >> van cleave: the questions of how they acquired it remain, to some extent, unknown. >> pelley: how the u.s. lost its atomic secrets may be unknown, but there are fewer mysteries in the case of tai shen kuo and gregg bergersen. the f.b.i. says that kuo wanted to expand his louisiana businesses into china. and when he sought permission from beijing, the chinese asked

for a few favors for their intelligence service. the $2,000 was only part of kuo's development of bergersen. kuo wined and dined his spy, and bergersen seemed to have an appetite for espionage. at one dinner, kuo's tab came to $710. kuo took bergersen to las vegas for some shows. and the day of the ride, kuo brought a box of expensive cigars. all the while, kuo lied to bergersen, telling him that the information was being passed to taiwan, the u.s. ally. does that make any difference in the law, whether you're spying for a hostile government or a friendly one? >> slattery: of course not. classified information's not allowed to be passed without, you know, certain approvals to any foreign government. >> bergersen: but i think when you see the information, you can get out of it what you need. >> kuo: yeah, okay. >> bergersen: you know, you can write all the... you can take all the notes you want. it's just i cannot ever let anyone know...

>> kuo: good, i got it. >> bergersen: ... because that'll... that'll... i'll,... that's my job. uh, i'd get fired for sure on that. well, not even get fired; i'd go to ( bleep ) jail. >> pelley: the recruitment of bergersen has a familiar ring to fengzhi li. li recruited spies for china as an officer in the ministry of state security. the m.s.s. is their c.i.a. give me a sense of all the different ways you would persuade someone to spy for china. >> fengzhi li: that will be a long story. >> pelley: i've got time. >> li: okay. >> pelley: in our interview, li switched between english and mandarin. he worked for chinese intelligence 14 years, recruiting spies in russia. he's now seeking political asylum in the u.s. >> ( translated ): let me say this: intelligence work is different from other kind of work. when i target a hundred people, even if 99 people have refused me, if there is one i persuade... that's enough.

>> pelley: that's enough? >> li: mm-hmm. yeah. >> pelley: li told us that he recruited spies through blackmail and sometimes greed, especially if someone wanted to do business in china. once, he says, his agents recruited the official photographer for a european head of state that he still won't name. would you say the m.s.s. spends most of its effort on the united states? >> li( translated ): definitely. without a doubt. >> pelley: what would some examples be of some of the kind of information that m.s.s. was interested in getting a hold of? >> li: for example, what president obama thinks right now. >> pelley: they want to know what president obama thinks? >> li: yes. >> bergersen: do you make me part of... of the honor... >> pelley: thanks to gregg bergersen, the chinese were about to find out just what sort of weapons america intended to sell to taiwan. the day of that car ride, bergersen drove kuo and the secret documents to a restaurant outside washington, d.c.

inside the restaurant, kuo copied the secrets by hand. out in the parking lot, bergersen waited with a glass of wine, one of those cigars, and the f.b.i. in tow. as they left, bergersen just couldn't stop talking. >> bergersen: but i... i will be very careful to keep my tracks clean. >> kuo: of course. of course. >> bergersen: and no... no fingerprints. it's just like these documents... >> kuo: gotcha. >> bergersen: ... no fingerprints. i can't afford to lose my job. >> pelley: later, kuo left the u.s. for beijing. but while he waited for his flight, federal agents got into his bags, photocopied his handwritten notes, and put them back. kuo's notes matched the secret document on the right. but john slattery, who oversaw the case for the f.b.i., told us the bureau didn't make arrests until six months later. but, i mean, this is drop-dead evidence, and espionage is occurring. why didn't you arrest them

sooner than that? >> slattery: well, these... these investigations are tremendously complex and tremendously difficult to begin with. >> pelley: the department of defense wants you to stop it right away. >> slattery: please-- sooner than later. but the f.b.i. says, "well, listen, we want to make sure we can sustain a conviction here. and... and are there other players in this?" >> pelley: it turns out there were other players. kuo had another source inside the pentagon, and kuo was connected to spies on the west coast who were giving up u.s. space and naval technology. presumably, the u.s. is doing the same kind of spying in china, but michelle van cleave says america has so much more to lose. >> van cleave: i think we're a real candy store for the chinese and for others in... in terms of technology and commercial products, or other proprietary information. and so we will always be the principal target for them. >> pelley: what is the most serious damage that chinese espionage has done to the united

states? >> slattery: it's the totality of the collection effort. take a case like this or... or cases like... like this-- traditional espionage, penetration of the... of the interior. couple that with industrial and economic collection, couple that with cyber. it... it greatly concerns me. it greatly concerns me. >> bergersen: well, i hope this all works out. i mean, you are helping me a lot here. >> kuo: thank you. thank you. >> bergersen: but... but i don't want anyone to know about our... >> kuo: no, no, of course not. >> bergersen: ... relationship or anything, because it could get me in a lot of trouble. >> pelley: bergersen kept saying, "i could go to jail," and both men did. in 2008, prosecutors showed them this tape and they pled guilty. bergersen got almost five years for communicating national defense information; kuo, a naturalized american citizen, is in a u.s. prison doing 15 years for espionage. prison may have been the best option bergersen had, because

after he left the car, kuo pulled out his own tape recorder. we'll never know why he taped the damning conversation, but it is classic spy craft to use blackmail to get at ever deeper and deeper secrets. for every case that is broken-- like the bergersen case, for example-- how many others are there that we have no idea about? >> van cleave: oh, isn't that the important question? you never know what you don't know. but we... certainly, we have seen such an extensive range of activities by the... by the chinese that it... it should make you very uncomfortable. >> pelley: since our story first aired, tai shen kuo's sentence was cut by two-thirds, partly because of his cooperation and partly because the judge felt that the damage to national security was limited. he's now scheduled to be released a few months before gregg bergersen.

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>> stahl: in the world of energy, the holy grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean with no emissions. well over 100 start-ups in silicon valley are working on it. one of them is bloom energy. their invention? a little power plant in a box they want to put, literally, in your backyard. you'll generate your own

electricity with the box, and it'll be wireless. the idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid the way the laptop moved in on the desktop, and cell phones supplanted landlines. it has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive, until this past february, when k.r. sridhar invited us to be the first news organization to take a look at the innards of the bloom box that he'd been toiling on for nearly a decade. what could this power? >> k.r. sridhar: this could power a u.s. home, average united states house... >> stahl: entire house? >> sridhar: entire house, 24/7, 365. >> stahl: something that small? >> sridhar: the way we make it is in two blocks. this is a european home. the two put together is a u.s. home. >> stahl: because we use twice as much energy, is that what you're saying? >> sridhar: yeah, and this'll power four asian homes. >> stahl: so four homes in india, your native country. >> sridhar: absolutely. >> sridhar: four to six homes in our country. >> stahl: it sounds awfully dazzling.

>> sridhar: it is real. it works. >> stahl: he says he knows it works because he originally invented a similar device for nasa. he really is a rocket scientist. >> sridhar: this invention, working on mars, would have allowed the nasa administrator to pick up a phone and say, "mr. president, we know how to produce oxygen on mars." >> stahl: so this was going to produce oxygen so people could actually live on mars? >> sridhar: absolutely. >> stahl: when nasa scrapped that mars mission, k.r. had an idea. he reversed his mars machine, so instead of making oxygen, he pumped oxygen in. he invented a new kind of fuel cell, which is like a very skinny battery that always runs. k.r. feeds oxygen to it on one side and fuel on the other. the two combine within the cell to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity-- no need for burning or combustion. no need for power lines from an outside source.

in october 2001, he managed to get a meeting with john doerr from the big silicon valley venture capital firm kleiner perkins. how much do you think, "i need to come up with the next big thing"? >> john doerr: oh, that's my job, to find entrepreneurs who are going to change the world and then help them. >> stahl: john doerr has certainly changed our world. he's the one who discovered and funded netscape, amazon, and google. when he listened to k.r., the idea seemed just as transformative-- efficient, inexpensive, clean energy out of a box. but google-- $25 million. this man said how much money? >> doerr: at the time, he said over $100 million. >> stahl: didn't smoke start coming out of your ears and... no? >> doerr: no. >> stahl: that was okay? >> doerr: that was okay. >> stahl: so nothing he said scared you? >> doerr: oh, i wasn't at all sure it could be done.

>> stahl: but there was a selling point: clean energy was an emerging market worth gazillions. >> doerr: i like to say that the new energy technologies could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century. >> stahl: was this your very first clean... >> doerr: clean energy investment? >> stahl: yeah. >> doerr: this was the very first. >> stahl: many followed, and the clean tech revolution in silicon valley was off and running, with start-ups that produce thin flexible solar panels, harness wind with giant balloons, or develop new fuels from algae. but bloom is among the most expensive. i heard actually, so far, not just from kleiner perkins, but total-- $400 million. >> sridhar: you're in the ballpark. >> stahl: with that kind of money comes a lot of buzz. >> michael kanellos: in silicon valley, every time a company raises over $100 million and they haven't come out with a product yet, everybody starts getting the heebie-jeebies. >> stahl: michael kanellos is the editor-in-chief of the web site greentech media. >> stahl: you're very skeptical.

i can see this, obviously. >> kanellos: i'm skeptical. i'm hopeful, but i'm skeptical, because people have tried fuel cells for... since the 1830s. and they're great ideas, right? you know, you just need... producing energy at an instant. but they're not easy. they're like the divas of industrial equipment. you have to put platinum inside there. you've got to put zirconium. the little plates inside have to work not just for an hour or a day, but they have to work for 30 years, nonstop. and then the box has to be cheap to make. >> stahl: one thing stoking his skepticism: k.r.'s been hyper- secretive. no sign on his building, a cryptic web site, and no public progress reports. given the stealthiness, we were surprised when k.r. showed us, for the very first time, how he makes the secret sauce of his fuel cell on the cheap. actually, i feel like i'm on a cooking show. you're martha stewart. >> sridhar: absolutely. so let's take that cooking analogy. start with the flour. >> stahl: the flour. >> sridhar: okay. >> stahl: what is that? >> sridhar: that is beach sand.

>> stahl: it's beach sand? >> sridhar: sand. ocean beaches in multiple continents has this material in abundance. >> stahl: he said he bakes the sand and cuts it into little squares. okay, so this is beach sand turned magically into... >> sridhar: into that. >> stahl: into a ceramic. >> sridhar: yeah, into a ceramic. >> stahl: and then, he coats it with green and black inks that he developed. okay, is it a secret formula? >> sridhar: there is a secret formula. >> stahl: okay. >> sridhar: and you take that and you apply that. you paint that on either side of this white ceramic to get a green layer and a black layer. >> stahl: and that's it. >> sridhar: that's it. >> stahl: that's the secret. >> sridhar: so what i'm holding in my hand is a fuel cell. >> stahl: this is the fuel cell? this skinny, skinny... >> sridhar: this is a fuel cell. >> stahl: and this'll... >> sridhar: the beauty of this is... >> stahl: ... generate power? >> sridhar: this'll generate power. >> stahl: one disk powers one light bulb. the taller the stack of disks, the more power it generates.

in between each disk, there's a metal plate. but instead of platinum, k.r. uses a cheap metal alloy. the stacks are the heart of the bloom box. put 64 of them together, and you get something big enough to power, say, a starbucks. so this is it? k.r. offered to give me a sneak peak inside the bloom box. >> sridhar: nobody has seen this before. >> stahl: are you going to let me look inside? >> sridhar: absolutely. why not? >> stahl: go ahead. >> sridhar: here we go. >> stahl: oh... >> sridhar: all those modules that we saw go into this big box... fuel goes in, air goes in, out comes electricity. >> stahl: is the bloom box intended to get rid of the grid? >> doerr: the bloom box is intended to replace the grid... >> stahl: replace the grid? >> doerr: ... for its customers. it's cheaper than the grid, it's cleaner than the grid. >> stahl: now, won't the utility companies see this as a threat and try to crush bloom?

>> doerr: no, i think the utility companies will see this as a solution. all they need to do is buy bloom boxes, put them in the substation for the neighborhood, and sell that electricity and operate. >> stahl: they'll buy these boxes? >> doerr: they buy nuclear power plants. they buy gas turbines from general electric. >> stahl: to make power, you still need fuel. many past fuel cells failed because they needed expensive pure hydrogen. not this box. >> sridhar: our system can use fossil fuels like natural gas. our system can use renewable fuels like landfill gas, bio- gas. >> stahl: solar? >> sridhar: we can use solar. >> stahl: you know, it's very difficult for us to come in here and make an evaluation. how are we supposed to know whether what you're saying is true? >> sridhar: why don't we talk to our first customers? >> stahl: yes, he already has customers. over 20 large, well-known companies have quietly bought and are testing bloom boxes in california. like fedex.

we were at their hub in oakland the day bloom installed their boxes, each one costing $700,000 to $800,000. one reason the companies have signed up is that, in california, 20% of the cost is subsidized by the state, and there's a 30% federal tax break because it's a green technology. in other words, the price is cut in half. >> sridhar: we have fedex, we have walmart. >> stahl: you have walmart? >> sridhar: absolutely. >> stahl: staples. >> sridhar: staples. >> stahl: so who was the first? >> sridhar: google was the very first one. >> stahl: google was the first. >> sridhar: yes. >> stahl: these four units have been powering a google data center for two years. they use natural gas, but half as much as would be required for a traditional power plant. k.r. told us that, three weeks in at google, suddenly, one of the boxes just stopped. >> sridhar: your heart just drops. >> stahl: did you panic? >> sridhar: for a short while, yes. >> stahl: he fixed that. then, there was another incident.

>> sridhar: the air filters clog up and air is not coming into the system because the highway is kicking dirt. you just flip the system around, and the problem is gone. >> stahl: another company that's bought and is testing the bloom box so k.r. can work out the kinks is ebay. its boxes are on the lawn in the middle of its campus in san jose. >> john donahoe: these things fuel almost 15% of the power on this campus. >> stahl: john donahoe, the c.e.o. of ebay, says its five boxes were installed a year ago, and have already saved the company $200,000 in electricity costs. >> donahoe: it's been very successful, thus far. they've done what they said they would do. >> stahl: ebay's boxes run on bio-gas made from landfill waste, so they're carbon neutral. donahoe took us up to the roof to show off the company's more than 3,000 solar panels. but they generate a lot less electricity than the boxes on the lawn. so this, on five buildings, acres and acres and acres.

>> donahoe: yes. the footprint for bloom is much more efficient. when you average it over seven days a week, 24 hours a day, the bloom box puts out five times as much power that we can actually use. >> stahl: but not everyone is convinced that, even if the technology works, bloom-- that now makes one box a day-- will ever be able to be as big as its backers say. >> kanellos: going from a few to mass manufacturing's going to be tough. and then making them so people won't run away at the price tag, you know. it needs to be cheaper than solar. it needs to be cheaper than wind. >> stahl: what if he can get the price way down? he claims he can. >> kanellos: and if he can, the problem is then g.e. and siemens and other conglomerates probably can do the same thing. i mean, they have fuel cell patents, they have research teams that have looked at this. >> stahl: what do you think the chances are that, in ten-plus years, you and i will each have a bloom box in our basements? >> kanellos: 20%. >> stahl: hmm. >> kanellos: but it's going to say "g.e." >> stahl: companies that you

have bet on, they haven't all succeeded? >> doerr: right, i have some famous failures. >> stahl: you have some very famous failures. >> doerr: yes. >> stahl: this is perhaps the most famous one of all. doerr is praying that bloom is not the next segway. >> sridhar: in five to ten years, we would like to be in every home. >> stahl: how much do you think it's going to cost the average person to have one, to buy one? >> sridhar: a unit should cost less than $3,000. >> stahl: you are an idealist. >> sridhar: you know, it's about seeing the world as what it can be and not what it is. >> stahl: i see you seeing a bloom box in the basement of the white house. >> sridhar: absolutely. i would love that to go on the lawn. >> stahl: so, forget the basement; you want the bloom box in the rose garden? >> sridhar: maybe next to that organic vegetable garden. i would be happy with that. >> stahl: since our report aired in february, the company told us they've received over 100 new orders, including ones from p.g.&e., california's large power company.

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>> kroft: for hundreds of years, fully grown adults and very young children have dreamed about flying. people have made wings out of feathers and wood and jumped off buildings and cliffs in order to soar like a bird. and a lot of them have died trying. now, a small group of extreme sportsmen wearing specially made wing suits have come about as close to flying as you can get outside the confines of an airplane, at least for a minute or two. some people call them "birdmen," and as we told you last year, we first learned about them on the internet. the pictures we saw were so spectacular, we decided to

assemble some of the sport's top athletes and mount a small expedition with the latest high definition cameras to one of the most beautiful places on earth to see what this is all about. >> tom eric heiman: three, two, one. one to base. >> kroft: there he goes. >> j.t. holmes: he's going to come around the corner. oh, he's high. nice. >> kroft: you can hear him already. >> holmes: yeah. ( laughs ) sweet! you feel that? >> kroft: j.t. holmes is an american, a professional skier from lake tahoe. >> julian boulle: man! i got, like, little goose bumps from that speed, eh! >> kroft: julian boulle is a south african living in france, a skydiver and aerial photographer par excellence.

and that's tom eric heiman, one of our norwegian hosts darting across the valley. >> holmes: i just love just feeling that speed and watching stuff go by. it's just... it's... >> kroft: and how fast are you going? >> holmes: that was probably about 140, 150 mile an hour fly- by. >> kroft: that sound was amazing. >> holmes: did you feel it? >> kroft: yeah. >> holmes: it's so cool to watch. i can just... whoosh! >> kroft: if you want to do this, there is no better time or place than the romsdal valley of norway during the summer solstice, a paradise of fjords and farms several hundred miles northwest of oslo. myth has it that norway's trolls live here amidst the waterfalls and some of the tallest, sheerest cliffs in europe. norwegians have been parachuting off them for decades. birdmen take the extreme sport to new extremes, dropping off a cliff and free falling until the air inflates the wings of their nylon suits and propels them forward. >> holmes: the dive creates the speed. and you use that speed to glide

out and, you know, fly flatter. >> kroft: gravity makes it impossible for them to go up or even maintain altitude. for every two feet j.t. glides forward, he drops a foot. but the suit allows him to stay aloft three times longer than a skydiver. >> holmes: within a few seconds, of course, that suit... that wind is going to fill up that suit. it's going to pressurize and you're going to have total control. >> kroft: how long have you been doing this? >> holmes: five years. >> kroft: what's special about the wing suits? >> holmes: mm, you know, it... it's just like so many children dream. it's flying. >> kroft: you feel like you're flying? >> holmes: well, i am flying. ( laughs ) so, yes, i do very much feel like i'm flying. >> kroft: like a bird? >> holmes: yeah. just like a bird. a bird that can't flap his wings and go up. the birds probably laugh at us. they're probably just like, "look at these guys." >> kroft: they have long grown bored of simply flying over the valleys. in order to maximize the

sensation of speed, they need a visual reference point, so they fly just a few feet from the rock face. sometimes you're flying so close to these cliffs, it looks like you could reach out and touch them, and you are going 100 miles an hour, 140 miles an hour. >> holmes: yes. >> kroft: there's not much margin for error there. >> holmes: it feels entirely in control. and the speed actually increases your stability and it increases your safety margin, because with the speed that we're flying with, you can create lift. and you know, you can pop up and fly away at any time. there's margin there. ready, set, go. >> kroft: how quickly can you turn? >> holmes: i don't even know how to turn. you just do it. you just... you know, you just look where you want to go and you just go there. and you just feel it and go. you're like, "yeah, let's go fast. this feels good. the faster i go, the more control i have."

and you just charge with it. >> kroft: to the extent that j.t. and the others ever get nervous, it usually comes at a time that many people might consider one of the most mundane legs of the trip: when the end is in sight. what is the most dangerous part of this? >> holmes: the most important thing is to open that parachute, you know. just that moment, when you reach back and throw the... the pilot chute out there, which extracts your parachute. that's the most critical thing. i mean, if you don't do that, you're not going to live through it. >> kroft: but getting down the mountain, which only takes a minute or so, is just part of the extreme sport. the much longer and more arduous part involves scaling the mountains you are going to jump off in the first place. how long does it take to get up to the ledge where you go from? >> holmes: this one's about an hour and a half. but, you know, some of them are up to four, five, six hours for the big, big mountains around here. >> kroft: there are no chair lifts, which explains why j.t., julian, and tom erik are members of such a small and exclusive club.

you have to be a skilled climber, an accomplished skydiver, and an experienced outdoorsman to even attempt to do this. >> holmes: you know, it... that... it's that first view, looking over the edge that really hits you. you're like, "whoa, cool. this is an amazing spot to fly." >> boulle: money can't buy you this experience. you've got to have the passion to do your time. if you haven't done the time, you just can't get there. you can't arrive with, like, $10,000 and buy a wing suit experience. >> kroft: what do you have to know? what kind of skills do you have to have to be able to do what you do? >> holmes: you need to just have some mountain sense. you know, what... how long am i going to be? what if that... something goes wrong? how long is it going to be until i can get back if the weather comes in? you need to know yourself. how much water do i need to have? can i realistically walk up this mountain for two hours, or is that not within my physical capabilities? yesterday, i flew... >> kroft: it looks spontaneous, but the birdmen put together a detailed plan every time they jump.

>> there is some fog coming in. >> kroft: and they almost always have help from the locals, who serve as spotters, keeping them posted on weather conditions and potential problems on the ground. a birdman died here just last year. do you ever get spooked up there? >> holmes: i have, yeah. in the... on a... on a couple of occasions, i've had no real good reason for not... not jumping, but i just walk back down. >> boulle: we're trying to get people to understand that we're not crazy. we just want to have fun like everybody else, and we want to share nature like everyone else. we just have our own special way of doing it. >> if you die base jumping, it is your own fault. it is your own mistakes that makes that happen. >> kroft: do you think about it? i mean, when you're up there on top of the mountain, you're getting ready to go, and you all shake hands and say... do you think about the possibility... >> holmes: yeah, but we don't think, like, "i may not see you again." >> boulle: "better say good-bye. give me a kiss." >> kroft: that never enters your mind? come on.

>> holmes: if you do crash when you're flying your wing suit, you're... you're going to die. nobody lives through that. you're just going too fast. >> kroft: j.t. was just 15 when his dad took him helicopter skiing. today, he's one of the best in the world at it, making a living endorsing products and making movies for top-of-the-line production companies like msp films. you're a professional skier. >> holmes: yeah, great job. >> kroft: i mean, in your day job, you could... there are any number of ways you could kill yourself in your day job. and for fun, you take on something that's maybe even more dangerous? >> holmes: yeah, i... i do dangerous things. >> kroft: he and his friend shane mcconkey were the first to ski off mountains wearing their wing suits. then, they jettison their skis so they could fly down the mountain. you lost a good friend recently. >> holmes: yeah, i did. yeah. >> kroft: shane. >> holmes: uh-huh. >> kroft: he was... he was supposed to be with us here. >> holmes: yeah, he was. we planned this trip to meet up

with you guys, then i took off to europe. that was when he died. >> kroft: you were with him? >> holmes: yep. >> kroft: shane crashed in italy because he was unable to release his ski bindings quickly enough so he could begin flying. how did it affect you? >> holmes: it saddened me deeply. you know, i miss my friend. >> kroft: did it make you think about quitting? >> holmes: yeah. >> kroft: but you didn't. >> holmes: no, i didn't. i didn't quit. at least, i haven't quit yet. >> kroft: near the end of our stay, we chartered a helicopter for the biggest adventure of our visit. we were going to the top of one of the most famous mountains in norway, romsdalshorn. when j.t. and the others climb up here, they don't even use ropes. the chopper saved us time and energy. it was a dizzying flight, not for the faint-hearted. from the air, our landing pad looked tiny but solid, a flat piece of rock. but when we touched down, it

turned out to be an unstable patchwork of stone. these guys said that this was like the size of two football fields. this is like the size of an nba basketball court. >> boulle: for a summit, it's huge. you could throw a party up here for new year's eve. >> kroft: i'm busy new year's eve. it was early summer, but we were a mile above the valley floor and the temperature was just above freezing. >> holmes: it's kind of half the battle just getting in these things, though, you know? you kind of feel like you're climbing into the tight cockpit. >> kroft: they had a pre-flight checklist, making sure their zippers were closed, parachutes well-packed, and there were no rips in their wing suits. it was time to go to what they call the exit point. so, you having fun? >> heiman: yes, i am enjoying myself. >> kroft: i wish i could say the same thing. i am not crazy about heights. by his count, j.t. has jumped off mountains like this 125 times. but there is a bit of the first time every time he does it.

>> holmes: i feel, you know, kind of butterflies in my stomach, and you just feel like a flow of adrenaline. >> kroft: tom erik and his norwegian friend espen were the first to take the plunge. >> holmes: yeah. sweet! >> kroft: so, are you psyched right now? >> holmes: yeah, for sure. >> kroft: pumped? >> holmes: yeah. >> kroft: you're pumped? >> holmes: i am fired up. i want to go. can i go? >> kroft: you can go. we decided not to follow j.t. down the last few steps to the ledge where he was going to jump, and we were glad we didn't. he then collected himself and took a couple of deep breaths. do you ever have trouble pulling the trigger? >> holmes: no. no, i don't. but, you know, you do sometimes have trouble finding that calm moment, you know? and you're just like, "okay, this is about as calm as i'm going to be this time." okay, ready, set, go.

you know, you step off and it's like you're an astronaut; you're just weightless. and then you start to fall and you get the wind. that's when you're gaining speed. i really enjoy that part. you know, air's air, gravity's gravity. you're carving through just beautiful stuff there. >> kroft: for some of these pictures, julian was our cameraman. and at one point, he and j.t. were flying so close together, in such perfect formation, there was time for a birdman high- five, half a mile up at 140 miles an hour. it was an exhilarating moment, but it wasn't the last. >> whoo-hoo! >> kroft: over the next few days, they kept on jumping, saving the best for last. >> holmes: ready, set, go! and you're just flying along the wall on your right, and at that point, i don't really know what's going on. is julian there or not? i assume he is because he's so good. but on this jump, i can see our

shadows, and i am like, "oh, my god, sick! he's right there. he's right there!" every jump is like a little mini-adventure. these are experiences that i only want to share with people that i love and respect. >> heiman: thanks. >> holmes: yeah, buddy, good trip. >> heiman: good trip. >> holmes: we've done it again. >> heiman: yeah. >> boulle: do you think anybody else had as much fun as us today in the entire world? >> holmes: i don't think so. i really don't think so. >> boulle: i don't think it's possible. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by viagra. here in the final round of the barclays at ridgewood country club in paramus, new jersey, matt kuchar shot a final round 66 to earn a berth in the playoff. with 54-hole leader martin laird. kuchar won it with a birdie. kuchar now takes first position

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