RiggerLee

I've got mixed feelings on the other subject. Aveation on the whole has done pretty well with their record. You can say that we've been hamstringed and it's true but honestly the biggest problems have been from liability. Now if you look at some of the other disaplins that were never really regulated you'll find a diffrent story. If all you've seen is skydiveing you'll have a squewed perspective. And base did come from skydiveing. Some of the most critical tecnologies and designs were stolen blatently from established rigs and harness designs. There was also an established tradition of... Quality and responceability. For the most part they were already riggers, or they had worked for manufactures or in lofts. So there was kind of a structure and a lot of it transferd over with the experence and tecnology. If you have ever been around ultralights or hang gliders you would have seen a very diffrent picture. It's gotten a lot better. Things are way way better then they used to be but I still see some scarry shit. I mean just black fucking death looking for a place to happen. And some really ignorant people looking for a way to die. Don't get me wrong there are some truly sharp guys out there as well. But if you think back there was a time when ultralights were scarry as shit. Wings snapping like twigs, stability problems, really bad construction, and don't even get started on the engions. Hang gliders can be almost as bad and some of those guys treat there gear like shit. No respect for what saves there life. Paragliders are getting really good but they started out pretty damn scarry as well. They still under build some of there shit. All of these sports have killed larg numbers of there pertisapents. I used to be like the rest of you, "Damn the FAA" and all that. Over the years I've come to reallize that we could have done a lot worse. The FAA is not the worst goverment office out there. Not even close. The truth is we have been really lucky in this country. In the end it's probably for the best that they have kept there fingers in even to the very small extent that they have. I'm honestly not sure there would still be any skydiving if it had just been left unregulated. There is a real chance we would have been out lawed or regulated out of exestance with out the USPA and the FAA. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Stand tall and be proud. You are rappedly becomeing a real base jumper. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Thats right I'm going to make you look at even more pictures. I supose you don't have to look, but that would mean you have far more self control then I do. Now I'll stop this if you will all just buy plane tickets for this spring. If you continue to resist this will just get worse. I have thousands of slides. Don't make me post the video. Don't make me, don't make me do it! Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

That's the mountian at the end of Sellim island in Scott inlet. It's the tip of the peninsala that forms a great bay. It holds one of the niceest camp sites around. It's one of the traditional camp sites of the Inuet. Before the goverment decided to concentrate them into towns for there own good they used to live a simi nomadic life stile moveing from seasonal camps. Now they are stuck in a town a hundred miles from the game. Since the world decided that seal fur was some how evil and decided that no one else should ever be able to buy it eather they passed laws destroying the fur trade. Now they have no way to pay the cash money to suport there snowmobills and can no longer suport there families. There is nolonger any type of economy and the traditional skills are disapearing not being passed on. but thats enough of a tiraid, stepping off the soap box. I'm trying to remember how tall it is. I want to say it's in the 4000 ft range. That is the out faceing wall in the fiord. The back side is far less steep. You wouldn't guess the out side would be so spectacular. In truth it's not the best wall around You might be able to find a nice exit point in the middle of that hollow on the face where you could get going. I don't think you could out track that first big ledge with out a wing suit. Honestly I included it here as just a pritty picture of what the seanery is like up there. There are much nicer walls around. By the way, to the best of my knowlage it has never been climbed. There are good odds that not only has it never been jumped but that no human being has ever sat foot on top of it. But that's not unusual for up there. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Never hought about that. I can't down hill to save my life. To me they're just big snow shoes. Nice for crossing leads though. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

There are with out a doubt far easier and cheeper cliffs you can do. The only responce I have is that it is becomeing progresively more difacult to find 5000 foot virgins in the continental U.S. I guess it's just a matter of taist. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I'll startby refring you to the last post on the other thread "hit list". Send me a list of questions and I'll try to answer them. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

i'm tired so I'm going to cheat and paist some things togather from a couple of e-mails. It may be a bit in coharent. I'm down in Dallas. Just got back from shooting the Black Water demo team jumping into the Armed Forces Bowl foot ball game. I would not even concider mailing my camera up there. Those are the things that you'll have to cary. Just plan on spending a couple hundred dollars on extra baggage. The harness and rope are fine. The things you might need to buy or borrow are: Crampons, ice axe or tool, high altitude plastic mountianearing boots, warm synthetic bag, etc. A lot of the things you probable have or can borrow. Here I'll try to find a list of stuff from another e-mail. Gear, To be honest that's secondary to knowing how to use it. They fact that you have to ask means your a bit behind the power curve. In any case here is a list just keep in mind that throwing down a CC might be enough to get you up there but it may not be enough to get you back alive. If you buy this stuff you need to pack it up and head to CO and start useing it. List of shit: Tent four season with good tie downs and a good high vestabule. this you can share with another jumper. example: North Face Mountian 25 $400 High altitude plastic Mountianearing boots. example: Yellow Koflacs Artic Exp? $350 Several pairs of socks example: Smart Wool Mountianearing Good synthetic bag at least 0 -15 if you want to be cozy.example Mountian Hardwear 4th demention $350 Bivi bag in case you get stuck. Cheep synthetic or down. The main thing is small enough to jump. At least +15 degrees. You could go warmer but you will be missrobal Shitty REI 35 degree for $100 Some kind of bivi bag cover example dryloft sleeping bag cover. $100 Gaters Wind stoper gloves $30 Mit Shells and liners $60 Balaclova $20 Wind stopper hat $30 Liquid fuel stove you should probable have one of your own and spare parts MSR Dragon Fly $100 Foam pad 3/4 in ridge rest better to have two or 1 1/2 Good Long under wear top and bottom say two sets Good Fleace top and bottom $60 to $100 each Gortex or cheeper eqv pants with zippers to go over boots. Shell jacket. Wind breaker, $60 or Fancy stupid over priced gortex shit that you will sweat your ass off in for $400+ crampons, flat point, example S-12 $60 Axe of some type keeping in mind that you will have to jump with it $40 to $160 for a tool Harnes $40 a few beaners, rapel, etc $50 to $200 depending on what you can get by with and how fancy you want. Rope If we want to do some of the more tec sites. Probable about one half rope apeace or one for two. about $130 Glacer glasses $100 Sled one for every two people $400 Or cheep toy sled for a fraction of the price. Poles $60 Camp chair. $40 I could probable go on but those are the things that come to mind. Big items at least. but before you go out and buy any of this shit first buy the old Bible, Mountianearing Freedom of the Hills and read it. Then buy what little you can as you can and go live in the snow on top of a forteener. That is when you will start to figure this stuff out. Thats when you will start to figure out what you need and what you use. Spring is the time to be up there. March is still black night and cold. Mid April till the end of may is the best time to be there. If you get too far into June it starts to get rather hot. A lot of stuff starts to come down. It's just not refreazing at "night". Ice seasons vary but you can generaly count on it through mid to late june. Travel with a heavy komotic may be epic late in the season. Best bet is May At least three weeks, better a month. I'd bee up for six late April through early June. I'd like to see who is serious about going before trying to set dates. Travel: I fly to Ottawa for about 600 plus baggage. Ottawa to Clyde was 2000 US last year. Last year the snowmobil was 1000 us round trip. Best to ship food and heavy stuff up by mail in advance. Allow 8 weeks to be safe. No shit there is a back log and you are last on the list. From europe you might try to get a flight in to Iqaluit but from there you are stuck on first air. When you get a chance you might tell me a bit of your story and send a list of questions I'll be happy to answer them I don't know you. I'd love to have some people come with me this year but I wont bull shit you this trip is not for every one You might want to think carefully as to whether you are really down for a trip like this. What I can tell you is that better base jumpers then you have declined. A snow mobile is tricky. If there is one that will start then some one is probable out running it. They only last for about a season and a half. Two years if your lucky. That why the guiding price is so high. Unless you're willing to wait till spring and have it shipped up on the one boat a year in late augest/september then you'll have to pay through the ass to have it flown up. You could have a guide stay a couple of days when he drops us off and come a couple of days early when he picks us up. They will be out in the area from time to time as well. He might be able to run you around then. At the minimum your looking at a couple hundred a day. Remember he needs to be bringing another cliant out and has a very short season to make all the cash money he will see for a year. If you are flexable and can arange a time when he does not have other work waiting for him they would be a lot more aimeable to some thing like that. The distances are so big that you just about need transport to get really good pictures. But if you get them... let's just say not every one has those shots. antother e-mail: Levi is running an out fitting service there now. He took shipment of all my food. Be careful how you lable things. Comercal shipments get taxed hard. Put any thing you ship in some old box and mark it as your personal stuff for your personal trip. Do not have some company for example drop ship you a rope in a brand new box marked as a sell. You gona come play again this year? What are your plans? Levi Palituq PO Box 99, house 232 Clyde River, Nunavut XOA OEO Canada levi@qiniq.com In march you can see -35 at night and that is still black nights. By mid April your looking at -15 for a low. Ofical 24 in Clyde is some where around May 10th I think. But by mid April it will never be darker then twilight. Still has a good bit of cycle about -15 to +15. By May things are getting warmer. you'll see about -5 at the begining. by mid may lows might be like +10. By the end of May you'll just barly be freezing at night if your lucky. June is warm and you can nolonger depend on a freeze cycle when things go into shadow. A lo of wet stuff starts commeing down. You'll be sking along in your long underware just trying not to get sun burned. I'm talking +65. all of these are in F and my best guess based on memory. Plane Ticket are one of the big ones. I think I payed $650 to Ottawa but from there you are stuck on first air. It was $2000 from there to Clyde. about another $500 total for excess baggage. The snowmobill was $1000 round trip last year. I'm about to crash. I'll reread his and may try to make it more coharent tomarow. Lee Quote Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Yes, I'm going to continue to torture you with these thing till some body gives in and comes with me. It's going to be every bit as bad as when you had to sit through the slides of your inlaws vacation. And I'm not going to stop till I catch my self a fish or they ban my ass. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

You may be a little off base with this one. People are not lineing up to go up there. Trust me on this. I've been trying despratly to find people to come with me. It's become kind of a yearly ritual. I don't know how many times I've tracked people down calling them out of the blue asking them if they want to go this year. It's the same shit every year. I make the rounds calling every one I know that might be even vagely interested. It's always the same thing, no money, no time, too cold, are you fucking crazy? I wouldn't be here doing this if I wasn't out of options. I'm honestly not trying to rub any bodys nose in this. I don't think we know each other. I'm normaly a rather private person. I don't normaly go around waveing my own flag. I guess that's why I feel a little defencive. I'm a bit uncomterble doing it. I guess I'm feeling a bit guilty. As to you mere mortals... All I can say is put up or shut up. I wish you could see me. My emince stature, my grand presence, a greek god come to life. Tom hates going out with me becouse I get all the women. The truth is that I'm a short, ugle, unplesent little bastard, with a small pecker that couldn't get laid even if I was a millionare in a whore houes. And I'm not rich but I made it happen. Not once but three times. I'm not in great shape but I don't stop till I get there. I'm at best a meadeocer climber but I've bullied my way to the top of a lot of objects. In short there is absolutly nothing specal about me. The only diffrence is I bought the tickets and I went. I don't want to say that any one could do it, but any one could prepare to do it. There is a slight but important diffrence there. A lot of you could do this. It's mostly just a matter of will. As for you... in case you didn't notice this is a cattle call. I don't want to say that it's an open invatation but it is an invatation. You could be there jumping all those cliffs this spring. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I like the way the sun lights up the cloud at 1000 feet across the fiord from you. Some of the panoramics with the fin bracketing the frame on one side are nice and thats a great pic of the profile of Kigut just before it goes out of sight. I see they let you pack in the loby of the school. What did te kids think of all that? It's good to see that he did get his baloon up. How did that thing work out as a chase vehical? is that six wheels or eight? Did you ship that and the balloon up there by boat over the summer? How many flights did he get? Come on give. I never got to hear the details. One of these days we really do need to sit down and swap stories. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Those are some great shots of Thor. I wish I could read French. I have being an illiterate American. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Most of those pic's from Sam Ford were taken very late in the season, June, and it was a very dry year. The snow had melted out on the ice leaveing a lot of water on the surface and I was haveing trouble traveling then a stroke of luck. A storm blew in and we got a good cold snap that refroze the serface into this big beutiful ice ring. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Baffin was never as big a secret as people think. Sylvesters jump was off Asguard. In fact I know Ox jumped Thor which is a great cliff some years earlier. Jean Banish ran a trip to the park at one point. I don't know if that was the same trip Ox was on or not. He was planning on takeing a trip up to the NE coast then he broke his back. He didn't make it up there till several years later when he went up there with Barlia. If you'll recall Barlia had all ready been up to the park to jump Asguard with Patreak. See Good Stuff. The NE coast was just less well known till Mark Sinnet started that big wave of climbers with The Great and Secret Show but even then a few other groops had been up there. The best pics I found were in Climbing several years earlier from a photographer that went up that way. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I hate to sound like a shit but I never understood what people were makeing such a big deal over. This was not an unusual occerance. I don't know why the media made such a big deal out of it. Don't get me wrong it sucked but there are deaths like this every year. Normaly they don't get more then a blurb. I'd like to say that it's nice that people are seeing what the rescue teams do and the effort that they will expend to save lives but with the way they ran with it this kind of back lash is envitable. It might have been best if they were just left the anonomus heros they have always been. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

For those of you not familiar with Sam Ford here are a few of the things on the menu this spring. On another subject, who has jumped what up there? Could we dispense with the whole site-naming thing for this discussion? Honestly any one with the dedication and resources to go there, the skill to survive there, and the ability to reach the exit points is probable qualified to be there. This is not a burnable site you can drive to. I remember when I could count the total number of accents on my fingers much less the jumps that were made. I’ve lost track of who all has been up there to play. I’ve been all over but I only have jumps off Kigut, The Beak, Scott Wall, Hang Over Hill or more precisely the cliff south of it, and The Prow. Every one knows about Ox, Dave, the Red Bull crowd, the Limes, and I herd a Russian climber took a rig along on Great Sail. Chad was up last year but we never bumped into each other. I think he got some jumps off Kigut. Who else is a vet? Lee P.S. Yes, these are all from the same valley, wait I lied one is in Clyde but it can easly be done as a day trip when you come back to town. Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I've been bussy. Now that the lateist Black Water gig is over I can get back to my Baffin campain. Here are some better pics of the sites I was jumping last spring. I had to go back and dredge up photos from the second trip. I just couldn't figure out how to get a good image off those tapes. Not a geek. Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

After the Polar bears I can't seem to work up a lot of dread for an over grown goat. Still those pic's are awsom. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Not base related? Frankly I think it's the things I've seen and places it's taken me that have kept me base jumping as much as any thing else. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Has any one posted or does any one have a set of pictures of the rangers that work in that part of the park? I think it would be a fine thing if a set of mug shots were to become "Sticky" at the top of this page. They keep their "List" why shouldn't we keep one of our own? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Do you keep track of the conditions when you jump? In perticular Density Altitude? What are you normally at on these jumps and can you quantify the effect of higher DA. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

For A while I've had an idea in my head for a low altitude D-bag. Where the canopy would pack in a longer bag more like a sleave. Whith the center cell already fully spread. Imagion takeing a normal pack job and spreading the line groups and center cell to width. It would now look basicly like a U. S fold the bottom half of the U in thirds to shorten it like a reserve pack leaveing the ears above with out narrowing. The bag would be a large square with a square sewn down in the upper middle between the ears. Probable easiest to spit the sides to aid packing. The flap would be a trapazoid that would come up high enough to close the whole mouth and fassen with two rubber bands with a tail pocket above it. For carry it would fold in thirds but at the exit you would fold the sides out and clip the two corners so that it would be spread. I've never been in to the low stuff. And I'm not advocateing this I have never gotten around to building one. The idea is utterly untested and consist of nothing more then the wind blown out of my ass. Just curious if any one has built a more specalized D-bag for really low oppenings? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I didn't get as much video as I would have liked from the last trip. the battery charger had a melt down and I was left with only the batteries that I had with me. I was going to film every thing as it turns out I got more then I was expecting about six houres. Most of the stuff I filmed lacks a lot of the B roll kind of footage that would go in to makeing a film and you don't get the best shots when your alone. I'll often keep a journal on my trips. Depending on the trip it may or may not be long and may or may not be very compleat. As you will note my spelling is not much better then Magots. I'm probable not the best person to write a book but the real problem is that I've never really had any thing bad happen on my trips so there isn't really a good dramatic story line to any of them. I'd like to get some more people up there this year and try to get enough footage for a real fim about the place. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I'm from Texas. My homophobea alarms will not even alow me to fully decifer your post. It's like Norton My mind just wont go there. If you want to come on this trip you can but you will not under any cercomstances be sleeping in my tent. And be advised that I do not have near enough rope to pull you off one of those faces. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

"The Alpine Pack" Copy rite Lee Hardesty 2000 I've done diffrent things over the years but for the last trip I took the Alpine with me. Imagion a combanation internal frame back pack and base rig. It will cary tent small bag, stove, pot to melt watter and cook, foam pad, ice tools, poles, exter cloathing, food and some climbing gear. Yes it is just as scarry as it sounds. I ment to redesign it before I left but didn't get to it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com