Wingsuit Skydiving

Anybody wingsuit skydive? I took some time off of it because of money (damn those pesky 25 dollar jump tickets!) and because I got way into climbing again.

I want to get back up there though in my wingsuit (Vampire 3)!!!!! The most fun I probably ever had in life was this day there were these huge puffies all around from about 10k to 6k'. I circled above them and noticed a 'slot' in them - a canyon if you will. I timed my entrance to the canyon right and flew down into and suddenly I was surrounded by the clouds - I was flying in the cloud canyon! The canyon was perfectly made for me and my vampire and we flew in it maxing out my glide because I didnt want to touch the bottom of it...it was probably about 300 yards long and I saw the opening in the end and punched it as hard as I could go and BARELY cleared the edge without touching the clouds!

It was the sweetest moment ever and I had to let out a wahooo.

:)

I've never done any cloud-surfing, our climate doesn't support it, but Norway has some sweet rock canyons. The Silver Wall is set back from the valley and has a total altitude of 4,500 feet. You jump into a canyon where you can't see the exit for about 30 seconds. The canyon splits twice and it's important to take a right at the first split and a left at the second. The exit of the canyon is a 400 foot waterfall you fly over and can look back between your feet at.

Acrobatic wingsuit skydiving is equally as fun, playing games with your friends in the sky.

nice! The flight you describe is delicious sounding. How long have you been wingsuiting? How many base jumps did you do before you started wingsuit base? I have only done 2 base jumps and in no way feel prepared to wingsuit base haha...maybe if I fully immerse into BASE jumping it would come naturally.

There is a 2'000 foot A near my house that is just screaming to be wingsuited off with huge grassy fields everywhere around it...

A few years ago while climbing Ulamasortoq a few Norweigan's flew over the top of us.

5.samadhi wrote:. How long have you been wingsuiting? How many base jumps did you do before you started wingsuit base?

I've been wingsuiting for six years and had about 100 BASE jumps before wingsuit BASE jumping.

5.samadhi wrote:There is a 2'000 foot A near my house that is just screaming to be wingsuited off with huge grassy fields everywhere around it...

That would be more fun as a tracking suit jump.

^ yes that is how I intend to jump it first someday! Tracking is my second favorite thing to do out of a plane after wingsuiting :D

I'd like to use it as a site to really get my exit technique up if I were to jump any other cliff some day down the line.

I think it would be damn cool to try.

Interesting take on it by Cmac:


Found my essay! This is from the Great Book of BASE jumping

A SHORT AND TOO EVENTFUL JUMPING CAREER
by Chris McNamara

I saw my first BASE jumper while hanging out 2000 feet up El Capitan on the unrelentingly steep ‘Dawn Wall’. After sunset, my partner and I were on our portaledges eating dinner. Suddenly, we were shocked to hear a freight train heading right at us. It was either that or a big falling rock was about to clean us off the wall and kill us. But as we looked up, we a saw not a freight train or a giant rock but a falling body—perfectly horizontal and perfectly composed. The body didn't make a "whishing" sound. Instead, there was a violent ripping noise as though the air was being torn apart. Before we knew it, the jumper had passed 30 feet away and was gone. We were terrified, gripping the edges of our portaledge with hands and feet. Then, once we realized we weren't going to die, we turned to each other and I said, "That’s the coolest thing I've ever seen!"

In the beginning, I had no intention of jumping. But my girlfriend did, and one night I went along and climbed a 500-foot power tower with her and her ‘mentor’ who was giving her a first jump. After that, it seemed so easy to start that I just had to do it. I didn't even have skydives, which is of course how you’re supposed to do it. Standing at the exit point, I half hoped we could both just back off because of the sketchiness of the entire situation. But then it was my turn, and if figured… Sh#t, everything is worth doing once. And it was. While physical time is finite, mental time is quite elastic. Those two seconds before my canopy opened lasted forever.

After making a few BASE jumps I was into the sport but not grabbed by it. The rewards didn't seem to outweigh the risks. Then, I saw ‘SuperTerminal’, a video created by the Norwegian VKB jumpers. They were terrain flying with homemade tracking suits (modified wind breakers). Not only were they flying, they were flying CLOSE to stuff. That movie changed my whole perspective of BASE from a sport about falling to a sport about flying. Who doesn’t want to fly!? Clearly, I had found the inspiration to wingsuit BASE jump.

I’m a climber, and climbers always wish they were a part of the Golden Age: That period in the 60's and early 70's when all the big firsts were being done in Yosemite, and all previous standards were being shattered. That period in BASE jumping started with the first commercially available wingsuit in the late 90’s and will probably continue for another five years, or maybe a decade. After that, in all likelihood the progression will continue at a much slower pace. Climbing progression didn't end after the early 70's, But climbers with a sense of history realize that the sport will never again evolve that quickly and with that much excitement. The Golden Age of Wingsuit BASE is now.

When evaluating a jump, fear is your friend. It knocks some sense into you. However, once you have committed to the jump, fear just makes you tense and can reduce you to half of your self. At times, while standing on an exit, I decided to jump but my head was not straight. Sometimes, in those cases, I said, "Ah, f*#k it." Not because I really meant it - but because it cleared my head and let me relax. Once you have committed, you want to be like Robert Duval in the movie "Apocalypse Now." Bombs are going off all around him but he puts what he can't control out of his head, doesn’t seize up with fear, and generally kicks ass.

That being said, I, like many jumpers, had too many close calls. Most BASE jumpers usually have a brush with death within just a few years of jumping. For me, it was trying to out-fly a cliff band, realizing I wouldn't make it, and opening only 30 feet off the deck. There’s nothing like a three-second canopy ride to a boulder-field landing to wake you up… at least for a little while. But the truth is that when you’re motivated and progressing in BASE, a brush with death usually doesn't make you stop for too long. If anything, it reinforces your belief that things can be bleak for a split second… and then totally work out. This is a dangerous misconception.

BASE takes you way past an ordinary life and into a life of the endless unknown and countless possibilities. It’s no surprise that something so good comes at a hefty cost. Of the roughly 150 BASE jumpers that I’ve met, more than 10 are dead now. There is no escaping the brutal fact that if you meet a lot of BASE jumpers, in a few years a shocking number will no longer be around.

BASE jumping doesn’t seem to get safer with more experience. Sure, more experience can save you from making basic errors, but more experience also brings more confidence to push yourself farther. Once BASE jumping no longer has the same excitement it did originally, you look for new ways to make it exciting by trying new things. Even worse, that adrenaline you have when you first start—that mixture of fear and excitement that keeps you focused, eventually leaves. Things become routine, which is the last thing you want to happen. I realized this, and decided I needed to get out of the sport before I died BASE jumping. Here is what I realized:

• BASE jumping is probably the deadliest sport in the world.
• It is also probably the coolest.
• The best jumps are usually when you are just a little out of your comfort zone and pushing your own limits.
• The only way to be truly safe while BASE jumping is to not BASE jump.

Most jumpers will agree with the four statements above. Usually the first two rise up in your head while the second two are off to the side, creating subtle or not so subtle tension. It’s the conflict between those four statements that makes the sport so intense, complicated, and awesome. It’s why so many people love the sport, so many people quit after a few years, and so many people die.

Is BASE jumping worth dying for? If you have to ask, then the answer is probably no. When I found myself standing at the exit point wondering if it was worth it, then I sensed it was time to quit. I have this rule about jumping, and life in general: "If you’re faced with a big question and the answer is not Yes!!!!" then the answer is no.

from: supertopo.com/climbing/thre…

yes, I've read that bit in the Great Book of Base (a really interesting book I think).

A little crazy to get into jumping cliffs without having any prior canopy experience...I feel with even >400 jumps now that I still do not have enough canopy control to feel really comfortable sinking it in some real tight spots.

I would stick to big grass fields for awhile :D

The Wifey and I get down like that. Jumps are $29 a pop at our place. Both of us have good jobs and no kids, so it's pretty manageable.

Hank, Thats awesome...where do you jump? I jump at a couple different DZs (not regularly anymore). I'm going this weekend though! Below is a shitty picture showing my equipment for my two favorite things, WS and trad :D

If we jump it's usually at Skydive Mile-Hi or Skydive Moab. Mostly climbing and too much BASE jumping these days. Even if you own all your own shit, 29 bux a jump is sorta' hard to barf up when there's 2 of us. Gets spendy quick ya' know?

I'm rebuilding my own rig soon so I can finally return my friend's rig!

Rig i'm building is a dolphin container, cobalt 135 (anybody jumped these? I love them), and cricket 130 (lol). No AAD.

Complete rig cost me 700 since I got some smoking good deals on the individual parts from different people apparently desperate to sell.

Not really gonna get an AAD yet cuz I'm primarily chasing clouds solo in my wingsuit these days. If I start camera jumping again I will consider an AAD mandatory.

Been having a blast skydiving recently.

Anybody else been doing any wingsuit skydives recently???

Hank Caylor wrote:If we jump it's usually at Skydive Mile-Hi or Skydive Moab. Mostly climbing and too much BASE jumping these days. Even if you own all your own shit, 29 bux a jump is sorta' hard to barf up when there's 2 of us. Gets spendy quick ya' know?

hey Hank,

is Mile-Hi a cool dropzone??? I am thinking about moving to Boulder this coming summer and was hoping Mile-Hi was a cool chill DZ.