Posts Tagged ‘basejumping’

We have shown many videos on BASEjumping and wingsuit flying, but this one (BASE885) really takes the biscuit. The photography by Edgar Kraus is magnificent:

The footage was shot on Super 16mm film.

There is a fine line between these two extreme sports – BASEjumping and wingsuit flying and the one frequently leads into the other. Remember that BASE is an  acronym that stands for the four categories of objects from which one can jump; building, antenna, span, and earth.

When BASEjumping progressed to wingsuit flying, the aim was to jump as far off the cliff as possible and keep as far away from the rocks as possible. But the guys who do this sport are no ordinary sportsmen – they seek the thrill of danger, and it was not long before they were virtually trailing their fingers along mountain edges.

They are under no illusions though. The official site www.basejumper.com warns that

“BASE jumping is a highly dangerous sport that can easily injure and kill participants. Think long and hard before making a BASE jump. We do not recommend BASE jumping to anybody. You, and you alone, are responsible for your safety.

Always seek proper training and mentoring before attempting any sort of BASE jumping. Wherever you jump; take only pictures, leave only footprints.”

Erik Roner has been a professional skier and avid BASE jumper for the past 6 years. He’s been published in over 30 different magazines world-wide, starred in over 10 major ski films, participated in numerous TV shows on Discovery, National Geographic, NBC, Showtime, FUEL TV and others. Each winter he travels the world and films a progressive big mountain ski segment with Teton Gravity Research from which the following video comes from (TheErikRoner):

Here, Erik, Teton Gravity Research Big Mountain skier, BASE Jumper & Nitro Circus athlete becomes the first person to Ski BASEjump off Cajun Coulior in Jackson Hole, WY. Cajun Coulior is near the popular Corbet’s Coulior.

Erik started skydiving and BASE-jumping in 2000 and quickly developed a passion for BASE-jumping. He has helped pioneer ski BASE-jumping, skiing numerous first descents all over the globe. Ski BASE-jumping is where you ski down a line that ends or closes out in a 200ft-2000ft cliff. The line is only ski-able if you ski off the cliff and deploy a parachute.

Roner, 31, first came to the publics’ attention when he ski-BASEjumped in the 2005 film, Tangerine Dream. Although generally hanging out at and around the Tahoe ski scene, if you see a guy wearing skis and a parachute floating down off the gnarliest cliff at your favourite resort, chances are Erik has come to visit.

What sort of a man is he? Well, when a friend asked him if he’d like to “ come BASE jump dirt bikes into the Grand Canyon?” His immediate response was, “I’ve never even been on a dirt bike but, yeah, I’m in!” and that’s the sort of man he seems to be… up to any stunt in the book and if it’s the first time it’s been tried – hell yeah, why not!

We’ll end with another visually breathtaking video of Roner, Morrison and Jones doing some seriously extreme skiing on some seriously extreme mountains (NewRISC):

The building had barely been unveiled and two intrepid adventurers have already launched themselves off the top of it!

The Burj Khalifa building in Dubai was unveiled on 4th January as the world’s tallest building at 2,716.5 feet tall. It cost $1.5 billion to build.

By 7th January, and after months of planning,  it had already been conquered.

BASE jumpers Omar Al Hegelan and Nasser Al Neyadi broke the record for the world’s highest BASE jump from a man-made structure, by leaping 2,205 feet …

Both men are expert skydivers and obtained permission from the Dubai authorities to jump from the tower.

Al Hegelan began BASEjumping in 1997 and has made over 15,000 sky dives. He said, “It was amazing, one of the most beautiful sensations I’ve ever experienced.

“We did it legally, we did it safely and we set a new world record.”

Congratulations to both of them!

The word ‘Base’ in BASEjumping refers to the structures jumpers leap from: Building, Span, Antenna, Earth.

Wingsuit flying is something else. That and BASE jumping. They are about as extreme as our extreme sports go…

“The oldest rule in base jumping is to never ask permission just forgiveness!” Shane McConkey

If you are new to the concept, this is a fabulous video brought to us by redbull and dedicated to Shane McConkey who died on 26th March, 2009 whilst skiing and wingsuit flying in the Italian Dolomites. His death was the result of faulty equipment.

This particular video, which brings the sport so much to life, was taken in New Zealand when Shane, Miles Daisher and Chuck Berry explored unchartered terrain in new Zealand – another incredible Red Bull project.

The Department of Conservation in Queenstown, New Zealand, gave the team permission to film in Sinbad Gully.

As Shane says, in his blog, “Chuck has done plenty of recon work in most of Fiordland over the years so he had a very good idea where we needed to look to find big cliffs for us to jump. It would all be completely exploratory base jumping. Most of the Fiordland area has never seen a base jump. The problem is access. The mountains in Fiordland are impressive. They shoot straight up and maintain a steep angle all the way to the top. Normally base jumpers can find a way to hike to a good exit point usually with minimal climbing required. Not here. Just about everything in the area is steep, rugged terrain that would require at the very least a few days of serious climbing and rope work. We had the time and the gear but didn’t have an exact jump that we knew was possible so we decided to hire a helicopter and went big wall hunting the easy way. We flew straight to to one of the gems that Chuck has had circled on his map. The mountain was called Terror Peak and the cliff just below it was perfect. A 3,400 foot jump to the valley floor with a 1,000 foot start and some fun ledges and terrain to buzz with our wingsuits. An easy jump and flight with some great visuals along the way down.”

And the result of it was that fabulous video, and another sensational place for wingsuit flyers and BASEjumpers to practice their terrifying art!

“Miles coined the jump “Terrorflying” even though the jump was anything but that! For a base jumper, pioneering new jump sites, or what we call “Opening a new object” is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the sport. The sport is still quite young and the base world is still being discovered and mapped. To have the opportunity to open up a new site, and a big one, in a stunning place like Fiordland is an amazing experience. It was one I will not soon forget!” said McConkey.

In a sense, wingsuit flying is a cross between skydiving and hang gliding. Like both of these activities, wingsuit flying requires the flyer to either jump out of an aircraft or off a precipice to achieve a high enough altitude. While hang gliders can coast in for a safe landing, wingsuit flyers have to deploy their parachutes and float the rest of the way to the ground – they simply can’t reduce their speed fast enough for a safe landing without the use of a chute.

­But, until the moment they pull their parachute chord, wingsuit flyers can soar horizontally, like a bird, at high speeds and perform aerial acrobatics – all the while descending at a rate much slower than that of a typical skydiver.

It must be an exhilarating sport – albeit a death defying one.

This is the same crew doing mainly BASEjumps from a cliff they later called ‘Sin Good’  as “it was anything but bad”. The video is from shanemcconkey.

You might have noted the Red Bull wingsuits, the Red Bull Chutes etc. So what has Red Bull got to do with all this?

You all know what Red Bull is don’t you? That sexy slender container that contains an energy drink produced and sold by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH and sold in over 130 countries.

However, it also has an aggressive international marketing campaign. The numerous sponsored activities range from extreme sports like windsurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, wingsuit flying, BASEjumping, surfing, Formula 1 racing, and breakdancing to art shows, music, and video games.

They play a very active role in extreme sports.

We’ll finish with a longish video, also from redbull, of the boys and Red Bull having a ball in China and BASEjumping a Chinese sinkhole… and anything else that looked interesting along the way. It took months of negotiation to get the government to allow the Red Bull Air Force and friends into their borders for the BASE jumping session at one of China’s natural wonders, and although no professional film crew was allowed to accompany them, each diver operated a personal camera with great success:

This article is dedicated to Shane McConkey. He will be sorely missed.

This is becoming an exhaustive subject! Sorry. But apologies again for some more mis-information…

We recently reported on Dana Kunze’ 172 ft dive as being the highest dive in the world. We thought that was pretty extreme.

We were then corrected and told that it was actually Oliver Favre who held the title with a 177 ft dive. Also extreme.

And then Dana Kunze himself has set the record straight for us….

Yes, it is perfectly correct that Oliver Farve completed a dive of 177 ft. However, he sustained injuries – in fact he broke his back – and the rule of the game is that you are disqualified if you are injured in this sport.

Therefore… it is Dana Kunze who holds the title and achievement of being the World’s Highest Diver.

If you are an avid reader of our Blog (which we sincerely hope you are) you might remember similar rules in another extreme sport we follow with interest – freediving.

Although Sara Campbell completed an incredible 100m constant weight depth dive – the first woman to have attained this remarkable depth, she briefly blacked out as she broke the surface and was therefore disqualified. She completed the competition with a successful 96m dive – still a world record breaker. littlefreediver

There are rules that are put in place to try and protect competitors from doing themselves a damage.

There have been many debates over regulating thrill-seeking ”extreme sports’ – Freediving and High diving, to name but two, have imposed their own strict rules.

Lawmakers in Switzerland have been pushing for laws regulating fate-tempting sports, which often involve inexperienced participants, but passing such laws, whether involving caving, canyoning, paragliding, ice climbing or bungee jumping, has proved difficult in Switzerland, even in the face of several disasters in recent years.

The problem is people do extreme sports because it gives them a feeling of freedom – an escape from the nanny state we all live in. If everything became too regimented one risks pushing these people toward activities that are even less controlled.

You might have heard of the BASEjumping accident at Table Mountain, Cape Town on Friday? It seems that South Africa has a remarkably sympathetic and sensible attitude to extreme sports enthusiasts and this accident has drawn it into focus. Would the rest of the world could listen and learn…

Base jumper Karl Hayden sustained minor injuries after his canopy malfunctioned as he leapt off Table Mountain on Friday. Rescue workers spent several hours combing the mountainside before airlifting Hayden to safety, the Cape Times reported. Hayden was lucky; despite multiple fractures — wrist, rib, femur and pelvis — the Capetonian managed to avoid a spinal injury, the daily reported.

That was the situation.

And the shout that goes out worldwide saying “aren’t people like Karl Hayden wasting rescue services time and money by doing a sport that is inherently dangerous? Why should rescue survices then put themselves in danger by trying to rescue these foolhardy idiots?”

Well, the response in South Africa was calm, measured and sensible. Wayne Smith, deputy director of Metro Medical Services, South Africa, agrees that although there are risks involved, extreme sports will continue despite any attempt at regulating the activity.

“Extreme sports are always going to be around. Extreme sports are risky but society needs to give people who enjoy those types of activities the necessary space to do so,” said Smith.

Mountain rescue worker, Roy White, says he has no problem in helping those who put themselves in harm’s way.

“It’s part of my job. Most of us are quite happy to help them. Where do you draw the line from an accident to an attempted suicide? Everyone who uses the mountain faces a certain amount of risk.”

If regulations were brought in, the feeling is that very quickly most extreme sports enthusiasts would find a way to circumnavigate them. Banning a sport in a certain area would only make things worse because they would go ahead and do it anyway and that would make things even more difficult for rescue services.

It seems rescue workers and extreme sports enthusiasts reach a stalemate when it comes to regulating the sport. But perhaps the last word belongs to basic common sense.

“We can’t regulate the sport but we could advise them to leave contact details with someone. It all comes down to educating people about good mountain use,” said White. And that sort of prosaicness is comforting and oh-so sensible.

Anyway, what has happened to freedom of choice? I am not advocating that you go out there and so something so ludicrously stupid that the result is death. But, if you do an extreme sport, you are obviously aware of the risks, are you not? And having evaluated that and decided to continue, then that, surely, is your choice, is it not? and having taken that decision, you are not likely to be the type of person to squeal if something goes wrong… are you?

If you are aware of the dangers before you begin, you can’t then cry “but nobody told me…”

The problem is that we are being so conditioned by over zealous governments as to ‘what to, how to, when to… do anything’, that if anything goes wrong one instantly hears “it’s not my fault., it must be yours’”. I think for this very reason a chunk of society, in a last ditch attempt of having some control and decision over their own lives, take to an extreme sport where they decide on a sport, learn the art and then make their own decisions and no-one can tell them what to do…

What do you think?

You might remember that way back in November I did an article on the wonderful Banff Mountain Film Festival. This annual festival is right down our street – fabulous films on the great outdoors and extreme sport. I promised to bring you the updated schedule on screenings for Europe as and when it was published.

Kindly the Banff Film World Tour co-ordinator alerted us to the following screening dates around the world… not all are in at the moment, but those that are, are in Australia, Austria, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland and Switzerland.

A brief reminder as to what the Banff Mountain Film Festival is all about… enjoy this fabulous video from TheBanffCentre, with thanks.

The current available screenings can be seen in the following countries on the following dates:

AUSTRALIA

Adelaide: Venue: Mercury Theatre
May 26, 27, 2009

Brisbane: Venue: Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts
June 2, 3 & 4, 2009

Cairns: Venue: Cairns Civic Centre
June 5, 2009

Canberra: Venue: James O’Fairfax Theatre
May 13, 14, 2009

Hobart: Venue: The Plenary, Wrest Point Casino
June 18, 2009

Launceston: Venue: Earl Arts Centre
June 17,2009

Melbourne: Venue: RMIT Capitol Theatre
June 9, 10, 11 & 12, 2009

Perth: Venue: The Playhouse
May 19, 20 & 21, 2009

Sydney: Venue: Seymour Centre
May 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9, 2009

AUSTRIA

Eisenerz: Venue: Innerberger Gewerkschaftshaus
April 23, 2009

Innsbruck: Venue: Congress, Saal Tirol
March 26, 2009

Klagenfurt: Venue: Messe Klagenfurt
March 28, 2009

Liezen: Venue: Kulturhaus
April 18, 2009

Salzburg: Venue: Sporthalle Alpenstrasse
March 27, 2009

Vienna: Venue: Hauptuni, Audi Max
April 16 & 17, 2009

Vöcklabruck: Venue: Stadtsaal
March 21, 2009

Waidhofen Venue: Plenkersaal
an der Ybbs: April 2, 2009

Wolfurt: Venue: Cubus
March 20, 2009

CHILE

Portillo: 2009 dates to be announced

Puerto Natales: February 12, 13, 2009

Puerto Varas: October 8, 9, 2009

Santiago: October 1, 2, 2009

Torres del Paine:February 16, 17, 2009

FRANCE

L’Argentière: OIS Communauté de Communes du Pays des Ecrins
la Bessée: January 9, 2009

GERMANY

Augsburg: Venue: CinemaxX
April 25, 2009

Berchtesgaden: Venue: Kino, Kur- und Kongresshaus
March 19, 2009

Berlin: Venue: Globetrotter
March 26-28, 2009

Bonn: Venue: Lichtspiele Stern
April 20, 2009

Braunschweig: Venue: CinemaxX
March 24, 2009

Dresden: Venue: Theater Wechselbad
April 7, 2009

Essen: Venue: CinemaxX
March 31, 2009

Frankfurt: Venue: Cinestar Metropolis
March 23, 2009

Freiburg: Venue: CinemaxX
April 2, 2009

Garmisch- Kongresshaus/Olympiasaal
Partenkirchen: March 21, 2009

Hamburg: Venue: CinemaxX am Dammtor
April 21, 2009

Hanover: Venue: CinemaxX
March 25, 2009

Karlsruhe: Venue: Filmpalast Schauburg
April 23, 2009

Köln: Venue: Globetrotter, Olivandenhof
April 22, 2009

Mannheim: Venue: CinemaxX
April 1, 2009

Munich: Venue: Forum
March 20, 2009

Nuremburg: Venue: Loewensaal
April 29, 2009

Pforzheim: Venue: Kulturhaus Osterfeld
April 8, 2009

Rosenheim: Venue: Ballhaus
April 28, 2009

Stuttgart: Venue: CinemaxX Bosch Areal
April 24, 2009

Ulm: Venue: Xinedome
April 27, 2009

ITALY

Livigno: Venue: Telemark Club, Livigno
March 31, 2009

SCOTLAND

Fort William: Venue: The Fort William Mountain Film Festival
March 13, 2009

SWITZERLAND

Basel: Venue: Casino
April 18, 2009

Bern: Venue: Hotel Kreuz / Saal Holder
April 17, 2009

Luzern: Venue: Verkehrshaus
April 19, 2009

Naters (Oberwallis): Venue: Zentrum Missione
April 16, 2009

St. Gallen: Venue: Adlersaal
April 14, 2009

Zurich: Venue: Volkshaus
April 15, 2009

If you wish further information in any of these countries, please refer to the following list and the relevant email contact details.

In Australia, please contact: jrobinson@paddypallin.com.au

Austria: info@inn-puls.at

Chile: Patrickm@bmff.com

France: info@ice-fall.com

Germany: banff@moving-adventures.de

Italy: info@hposta.it

Scotland: info@mountainfestival.co.uk

Switzerland: banff@moving-adventures.de

And, if you live anywhere near these screenings, make the effort to go see the films. I am sure you will find it time well spent. Extreme sport in all its exotic, bewildering, fantastic, nerve-wracking, exhilarating beauty…. Hope you get the chance to see them. Sadly the only screening in France is MILES away from where we live – like 7 hours or so, so I was unable to make it, but would love some feedback from anyone who does get to one of the venues.