BASE Jumper off The Bastille in Eldo 7-31-18

BillS wrote: Who with this kind of risk profile is still active?  Hank, a guy who really should be dead, says no to it - that says something.  You can Google Wayne Crill.  No names necessary, just expand on them a bit.  My impression is they’re active for like 2 years then either quit or get killed.

The average shelf life of a BASE jumper is quite short. I've been at it since 1996, which makes me a full dinosaur. I tend to notice a large shift jumpers about every 5 years or so. Everybody gets hurt, some people get really hurt. I've seen a friend go into a talus field in Moab at full speed with no parachute out, it was sooo fucking loud and it was so gross and up close. Also having kids tends to kill BASE jumping, job relocations are a factor, sometimes just knowing how your story is likely to end drives some people away from the sport, and then of course, serious injury or death is also a large factor. I'm considered a really conservative jumper, once my Wife started to move towards BASE jumping I pumped the brakes a lot! Nothing quite so stressful as watching the love of your life go running off a building at 1am.

We adopted some young and wild donkeys recently, trained them and started racing them and that's backed us way off BASE jumping so much(thank God)! It really is a terrible idea as far as activities go. You are going to get hurt, you are going to watch awful carnage and/or death at some point, or even several points in your short stay in BASE. And there will be jumps that only blind luck is the only reason you're still alive. Just my observation on things, for whatever that's worth.

Ok, now we need to hear more about donkey racing!

Jim Turner wrote: Ok, now we need to hear more about donkey racing!

Alright, so Pack Burro Racing has been going on in Colorado since 1949. It has deep roots in Colorado's mining history. You don't ride the burro, you saddle them, put on some panniers that have to have a pick-ax, shovel and a gold mining pan. There's about 10 races every year(and growing. I'll have one in New Castle easily this next year). The races range between 8 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, 29 miles, 22 miles, 13 miles and so on. Trail running at altitude is burly, driving a burro while you're at it is brutal.

Since my Wife and I moved to the Western Slope we no longer have access to donkeys we can rent and train with prior to the start of the season. So we bought a small corral about a mile from our house, adopted 2 rescue burros straight from the "killpens" and had them delivered to us up here in the mountains. It turns out our boys are 4 and 5 years old(they live to be 35-50yrs old) and they were 100% wild. They've never worn a halter, never eaten a carrot, never walked on asphalt, never loaded into a trailer, never been saddled, never crossed a stream, never seen snow banks, never crossed a bridge etc etc etc.. so it took me a few months to get them trained to the very basics to start racing where they can then pick up many good and bad habits by seeing many other donkeys at the races. I've been kicked so hard, so many times I can't believe I'm not seriously broken and I've been bitten so many times I can't believe I have any skin left.

This is Eli and Dolomite on a training run with us.

 They are a handful, the races are brutal and weird as the burro is actually the team leader. You're only as fast as you can get that damned animal to move. They might only want to walk, or in our case they both want to run 5 minute miles all day long. Owning and training your own feral rescue donkeys is far more advantageous than renting them though, they tend to want to work for you more because you feed them good hay, give them fresh water, carrots, apples, lots of brushing, love and attention and so on. The 1st thing we did with these two is had them gelded, then we've had Farriers(to fix their fucked up hooves) out to visit three times now. We love them so much, but they're so young and wild and they still really want to try and kill us as they trust nothing and nobody. But we're slowly getting there, we've only had them for 5 months now. I've got them so we can get a halter on and off anytime, we can brush them, get them to load in and out of our trailer(that's fucking hard to do), they lose their shit and start Hee-Hawing like crazy whenever they see me/us which is many times a day. So for only having had them for 5 months, I'm super pleased. Most folks are shocked at the gains I've made with them in this time frame.

We were just going to get mountain bikes and we accidently ended up here.. not sure how that happened but it's a really really weird sport, and we love really really weird shit.

From past weekend

Hank Caylor wrote:

Alright, so Pack Burro Racing has been going on in Colorado since 1949. It has deep roots in Colorado's mining history. You don't ride the burro, you saddle them, put on some panniers that have to have a pick-ax, shovel and a gold mining pan. There's about 10 races every year(and growing. I'll have one in New Castle easily this next year). The races range between 8 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, 29 miles, 22 miles, 13 miles and so on. Trail running at altitude is burly, driving a burro while you're at it is brutal.

Since my Wife and I moved to the Western Slope we no longer have access to donkeys we can rent and train with prior to the start of the season. So we bought a small corral about a mile from our house, adopted 2 rescue burros straight from the "killpens" and had them delivered to us up here in the mountains. It turns out our boys are 4 and 5 years old(they live to be 35-50yrs old) and they were 100% wild. They've never worn a halter, never eaten a carrot, never walked on asphalt, never loaded into a trailer, never been saddled, never crossed a stream, never seen snow banks, never crossed a bridge etc etc etc.. so it took me a few months to get them trained to the very basics to start racing where they can pick up many good and bad habits by seeing many other donkeys at the races. I've been kicked so hard, so many times I can't believe I'm not seriously broken and I've been bitten so many times I can't believe I have any skin left.

This is Eli and Dolomite on a training run with us.

 They are a handful, the races are brutal and weird as the burro is actually the team leader. You're only as fast as you can get that damned animal to move. They might only want to walk, or in our case they both want to run 5 minute miles all day long. Owning and training your own feral rescue donkeys is far more advantageous than renting them though, they tend to want to work for you more because you feed them good hay, give them fresh water, carrots, apples, lots of brushing, love and attention and so on. The 1st thing we did with these two is had them gelded, then we've had Farriers(to fix their fucked up hooves) out to visit three times now. We love them so much, but they're so young and wild and they still really want to try and kill us as they trust nothing and nobody. But we're slowly getting there, we've only had them for 5 months now. I've got them so we can get a halter on and off anytime, we can brush them, get them to load in and out of our trailer(that's fucking hard to do), they lose their shit and start Hee-Hawing like crazy whenever they see me/us which is many times a day. So for only having had them for 5 months, I'm super pleased. Most folks are shocked at the gains I've made with them in this time frame.

We were just going to get mountain bikes and we accidently ended up here.. not sure how that happened but it's a really really weird sport, and we love really really weird shit.

This is the funniest and best thing I’ve ever read on MP. My college cross-country coach used to burro race - very weird sport. 

I'm really glad you got into jackasses and off base jumping, Hank! :-D You played the game and cashed in your chips at the right time.

Hank Caylor wrote: The average shelf life of a BASE jumper is quite short. I've been at it since 1996, which makes me a full dinosaur. I tend to notice a large shift jumpers about every 5 years or so. Everybody gets hurt, some people get really hurt. I've seen a friend go into a talus field in Moab at full speed with no parachute out, it was sooo fucking loud and it was so gross and up close. Also having kids tends to kill BASE jumping, job relocations are a factor, sometimes just knowing how your story is likely to end drives some people away from the sport, and then of course, serious injury or death is also a large factor. I'm considered a really conservative jumper, once my Wife started to move towards BASE jumping I pumped the brakes a lot! Nothing quite so stressful as watching the love of your life go running off a building at 1am.

We adopted some young and wild donkeys recently, trained them and started racing them and that's backed us way off BASE jumping so much(thank God)! It really is a terrible idea as far as activities go. You are going to get hurt, you are going to watch awful carnage and/or death at some point, or even several points in your short stay in BASE. And there will be jumps that only blind luck is the only reason you're still alive. Just my observation on things, for whatever that's worth.

along the way from base jumping to racing burros, you were supposed to become rodeo rider, whatever happened to that?

Rui Ferreira wrote:

along the way from base jumping to racing burros, you were supposed to become rodeo rider, whatever happened to that?

That was just a bucket list item to check off for me. Sooo many friends and family literally begged me not to do that one thing, and I finally listened for just that one time and scratched it off the list. Sometimes enough friends beg you not to do something so much that you actually listen to them. This was one of those scenarios.

Some bad ideas come with a visual.

edit to add~ Rock climbing will always be #1. BASE jumping, Triathlons, Pack Burro Racing and the like are a distant second place. The donkeys are actually a pretty close 2nd out of the rest of the activities. We just like to mix it up with other bizarre stuff besides non-stop year round climbing.

Hank Caylor wrote: I agree with you. However, nobody jumps if there's climbers on the wall, BASE jumpers get up way early as to not be detected by anybody. It also very rarely gets jumped at all. It's too low and sporty for most jumpers. I have over 800 BASE jumps all over the World, I lived in Eldo for 5 years and never even considered jumping anything in Eldo.

I saw someone BASE jump off the Bastille a few weeks ago. It was startling to say the least - for a few seconds the only association I could make with such a loud, percussive noise was massive rockfall. It was cool to see, but I was glad I wasn't mid-lead at the time. 

This was a gorgeous weather summer evening, still far from dusk, and as one would expect there were climbers everywhere, including at least a half-dozen parties on the north face of the Bastille. It did seem like this person was putting a lot of people in danger besides themselves. 

^^^^^ That was the same guy that almost crashed into my wife on the road as she was walking our dog and he was coming in for the landing. She didn't know which side of the road to jump to and he yelled at her to stay where she was and he swerved around her. Startled her but the dog ,Rosie,freaked out ....thought it was some giant pterodactyl swooping in for the kill. Rosie busted out of her collar and sprinted up the road. The jumper gathered up his chute, apologized to my wife and walked to his car. Cheers 

Damn that sucks Steve and Em. My Wife and I still actively BASE jump, just legal stuff though, and since we live up in the mountains now this shows how out of the loop I am with Front Range jumpers. That shit move of jumping during the day with climbers everywhere is called "day blazing" an object, and it used to be heavily frowned upon by nearly everyone. Maybe the sport's gotten too big and the new folks just don't care? Whatever the reason, that's a really shitty thing they're doing. Scaring climbers and terrifying dogs with that crap is such poor style I don't really know what to say. Try and get their picture and tell one of the Eldo Rangers asap..

Hank, My wife took it in stride ( I think she was mad at first ) as the guy was very apologetic about startling her and scaring the dog. Rosie didn’t run very far up the road cause she’s lazy and probably forgot what she was running from !

Cindy, Thank you for starting this thread. It is one of the best EVER!

@ErikaNW - was your xc coach Oscar Boes @ Mines?  He was mine.  One day in 1990 he took me out for a training run with the burros.  WOW, it was hard as snot!  They ran so so so fast down the hills and up them.  I’ll never forget it.  Kind of like skitching behind a car or fast dogs on skis.  Crazy, hard and fun!  

 Figures you and yours would be into something this weird and good, Hank.  Hard and amazing.

Yes Cindy - Coach Boes! I only ran 1 season then discovered bike racing. I wonder if we crossed paths - 1989 I think? That’s fantastic that you got to run with him and the burros. I was always fascinated by the craziness of the whole thing. I think my sister Erin (she ran ‘84-88) might have run with coach and his burros too. Small world.

Hank, a true renaissance man of wildness. Sounds like maybe you've met your match with those burros. Cool to read the update of what
you're doing. Cheers!
Brad

Hank - did you delete your post about burro racing? I just came back to look for it and it’s gone. :(

Oh crap, I thought it might be uninteresting, so yeah I nuked it.. poop, sorry about that. We're blasting out of town really early in the morning for Buena Vista, big race there tomorrow. I can PM you any info or re-posting it is also easy. Totally your choice. I thought because it wasn't climbing related it might not be interesting to others.

They're all brushed up and ready to race tomorrow though, wish us luck!

And thanks Brad, the suffering and tiny glimpses of winning are soooo hard-earned and glorious!

Erika - Yes, small world indeed.  I was there 82-85 but not running, so may have known your sister by sight as there were so few females.  86-89 I left and was bike racing out of state, got into it the first season Mines had a cycling team.  Came back and discovered running with Coach Boes in 89/90.  Sounds like we just missed each other.  Maybe we should have a Mines climbing day for homecoming?

Cindy wrote: Erika - Yes, small world indeed.  I was there 82-85 but not running, so may have known your sister by sight as there were so few females.  86-89 I left and was bike racing out of state, got into it the first season Mines had a cycling team.  Came back and discovered running with Coach Boes in 89/90.  Sounds like we just missed each other.  Maybe we should have a Mines climbing day for homecoming?

My Wife is a Dam Safety Engineer for the State of Colorado and the Mines Mascot is a burro named Bandit. He's a good baby who's done dozens and dozens of races. On game days when he would be at the School of Mines stadium, they would keep him and a few of his donkey buddies corralled in our front yard in South Golden.