The Geography of BASE Jumping

The Development of BASE Jumping

2012-01-12T21:02:00.000+00:00

Wingsuit Flying (WiSBASE)

Wingsuit Flying by Matt Hoover

Wingsuit flying uses a special suit to increase the surface area of the person generating forward movement. This allows the skydiver or BASE Jumper to have a much longer flight and have a feeling of flying. The Jumper opens a parachute at the same height as a normal BASE Jumper to land.

Popular places for WiSBASE are Kjerag and Trollstigen in Norway, Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland, and Monte Brento in Italy.

Proximity Flying

Proximity Flying is an extreme form of WiSBASE where Jumpers try to get themselves as close to objects as they can. This is the most dangerous form of BASE Jumping and also the one that people find most exciting to watch. Two of the best Proximity Flyers at the moment are Jeb Corliss and Jokke Sommer.

"Grinding The Crack" by Jeb Corliss

"Playing with the Vampire 4" by Jokke Sommer

Free Base

Free BASE Jumping is a sport invented by Dean Potter who wanted to combine Free Climbing (rock climbing with no safety lines) and BASE Jumping. It is when he climbs up a rock face only wearing a parachute and if he falls off, he parachutes safely down. He also slack lines (like tightrope walking) with a parachute.

"Free BASE" by Dean Potter

Famous Places for BASE Jumping - Norway

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Norway has become a favourite destination for BASE Jumpers across the world. This is because BASE Jumping is still legal in most places and dramatic cliffs and fjords make for good places to jump off.

BASE Jumping in Norway by KhanOssie

BASE Jumping in Norway by GoPro

Troll Wall

Troll Wall by LoveThesePics

Troll Wall (Trollveggen) is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe at 1,100m. The rock is gneiss, and is quite loose.

The wall is popular with climbers and BASE Jumpers alike. Jorma Öster made the first BASE Jump off Troll Wall in 1980. Carl Boenish died there in 1984 shortly after setting the world record for the highest BASE Jump in history. BASE Jumping was made illegal there in 1986, after a number of fatalities. This was because it is impossible to rescue injured or dead people from the cliff by helicopter and rescuers have to climb the wall at great danger to themselves.

Preacher's Pulpit / Pulpit Rock

Preacher's Pulpit / Pulpit Rock by LoveThesePics

Preacher's Pulpit or Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen) is a 604m high granite cliff looking over Lysefjorden, western Norway. The top of the cliff is almost flat and is 25m by 25m.

Preikestolen is a famous tourist attraction. During the four summer months of 2009, approximately 130,000 people took the hike up to the top.

The angular shape was formed by freeze-thaw action during the last ice-age.

Troll's Tongue

Troll's Tongue by LoveThesePics

Troll's Tongue (Trolltunga) is a piece of rock that juts out horizontally over Odda, Norway. There is a drop of 350m into the water below.

There used to be a trolley car that brought visitors up most of the way, but anyone wanting to visit or jump Trolltunga must hike the whole way up now.

For more great pictures go to:
LoveThesePics

Famous Places for BASE Jumping - America

2011-12-12T21:34:00.000+00:00

El Capitan and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley is located in Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada mountains, California. It is a glacial valley and is 13km long and averages at 1.6km wide. It is surrounded by high granite peaks such as El Capitan and Half Dome. There is a Mediterranean climate in the park. This, along with the scenery attracts lots of tourists. BASE Jumping is illegal in any National Parks, and anyone caught jumping will have their gear confiscated and will have to pay a $2,000 fine.

El Capitan by Nick Strobel

El Capitan is located on the north face of Yosemite Valley. It is a 1095m high granite cliff. The El Capitan granite is relatively free from joints which is why it did not get as eroded as the rest of the valley. The face has long been a favourite for rock-climbers and is a popular and controversial place for BASE Jumpers.

Half Dome by Sanjay Acharya

Half Dome is located on the eastern end of Yosemite Valley. It rises 1,444m above the valley floor. It is regarded as a good place to jump from as it has a ledge which extrudes from the dome known as the diving board. This allows jumpers to distance themselves from the cliff.

New River Gorge Bridge, Fayetteville, West Virginia

Bridge day is a one day festival in West Virginia where BASE Jumping is legal. On the third Saturday of every October, the bridge is closed to traffic and opened to pedestrians. More than 450 experienced BASE Jumpers jump off the bridge each year, with around 80,000 spectators looking on.

"Bridge Day 2011" by Luke Nesler

The History of BASE Jumping

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There have been references that people have been jumping off fixed objects with parachutes for the past 900 years. These jumps were practised infrequently and were mainly by Chinese acrobats and daredevil groups in Europe. Most off these ended badly. Fixed object jumps died out in the late 1700s with the invention of hot air balloons.

Carl Boenish from "Sky Diver Magazine" by
Lyle Cameron Sr.

Carl Boenish is considered the father of modern BASE Jumping. This is because he used modern equipment and techniques to fixed object jumps.

Boenish was a free-fall film-maker. In 1975, he went to Yosemite National Park, in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California to film some hang-gliding footage. It was then that he saw the scale of the cliffs surrounding him. On 8th August 1978, Boenish filmed four of his friends jump El Capitan. This footage spread throughout the skydiving community and popularity for the sport increased.
In 1980, Yosemite National Park began issuing permits for jumpers. Over the next nine weeks, 372 jumps were made from El Capitan but several accidents and damage to the park forced the closure of the program. This did not deter hard-core jumpers, who jumped illegally or at different locations.

In the 1980s there were a number of advances in fixed-object jumping. People experimented with different equipment, methods of jumping and objects to jump off.

In 1981, Carl Boenish coined the name BASE Jumping. He also started issuing numbers to people who jumped off all four objects. Texas jumper Phil Smith received BASE#1. Numbers now are in the 1400s.

What is BASE Jumping?

2011-12-06T20:44:00.000+00:00

BASE Jumping is a sport where people jump off fixed objects with a parachute. B.A.S.E. stands for the places you can jump from; Building, Antenna (radio mast), Span (bridge) and Earth (cliff).

Ueli Gegenschatz Base Jump. This is an example of how many jumps can be illegal.

BASE Jumping is highly dangerous sport. Although it is not illegal in itself, many jumps are illegal as they have to trespass to jump or land.

Introduction

2011-11-29T08:55:00.000+00:00

Hi, my name is Jack. In the next few weeks I will be doing a blog about the geography of BASE Jumping.

In this blog I will be writing about:

The history of BASE Jumping
Famous places for BASE Jumping
The development of BASE Jumping

The background for this blog came from: http://www.pcdesktopwallpaper.com/