Harvesting honey can be terrifying enough if you have a fear of bees, but imagine the treacherous task while dangling 250 feet in the air in the foothills of the Himalayas.
That's how the Rai people of Nepal do it every spring, continuing the ancient tradition of honey hunting "while under constant attack by thousands of bees," photographer Eric Tourneret wrote on his website after capturing the astonishing exercise.
The men from the Bung valley scale ladders made out of braided bamboo that allow them to reach the side of the cliffs where the world's largest honeybee, Apis laboriosa, resides.
After a prayer and sacrifice of flowers and fruits are presented, men on the ground set fires to smoke the bees out of the honeycombs, according to National Geographic.
That leads swarms of angry bees to mount an attack on the men, who wear clothes made out of woven nettle fibers as protection.
When the attacks lose their intensity, the workers make their ascent: They attach themselves to the makeshift ladders and use sharpened bamboo poles to loosen the honey from the combs and collect the sweet treasure.
Tourneret wrote that the honey hunters can spend four hours at a time moving from comb to comb — setting off new bee attacks each time.
"Many, many people die doing it," said Tourneret, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper.
"The practice is dying out as the bees slowly become extinct," the French photographer added. "It is now just a ceremonial thing as opposed to a day job."
Tourneret said the indigenous gatherers refused to sell the honey, which can come from the toxic rhododendron flower and is sought after for its medicinal effects, deciding instead to share it among the local villages.
The honey typically earns a high price in other parts of Asia. It has been used as a sedative agent, and in South Korea, as a way to treat drug addicts, according to National Geographic.