TomAiello

I'd just like to add that I've now received an abusive, and anonymous PM, essentially telling me that the sender will deathcamp whenever and whoever they want. I rest my case. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Add to each of those "historical record of same", and I think that about sums it up. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I have. Several times. It's kind of good practice for dealing with real emergencies. I figure if I pack myself a line over, and spin into the water here, I'll be much better prepared to deal with it should it happen somewhere else. And if I do it a couple dozen times (I haven't quite gotten that far yet), it might increase my odds of survival significantly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Some non-US dropzones are also USPA members, so you might have to sort out which non-US DZ's had some kind of USPA requirement (if any). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Honestly, I think it's because climbers, jumpers and the like are more aware of the risks they are taking. When Aunt Ethel wanders off into the woods by Mirror Lake, she doesn't think "now, I've got to be careful here, or they'll need to rescue me." On the other hand, when you gear up for a big wall (climb, or whatever), you are almost certainly aware of the risks you are taking, and consciously working to control those risks. Folks who are engaged in riskier forms of outdoor recreation are generally going to be more committed to reducing and managing the risks they take. Random tourists probably aren't even aware of their risks. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Interestingly, the vast majority of NPS SAR dollars that get spent on actual rescues are for lost hikers. The "it's too expensive to rescue you guys" argument doesn't hold water for climbers, jumpers, or anyone else, really. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hmmm. That's weird. When I use Preview (Apple's built-in .pdf reader), they come up blank. But when I use Acrobat, I can read them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There's also a photo of him about 6 feet off the deck, just before impact. I'm sure it's floating around on the internet somewhere. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Along the lines of Adam's thoughts: If you are facing a solid object, and the wind is pushing you into it (which ought to be very rare, since with a headwind, you shouldn't be exiting a solid object), it's often better to turn on toggles. The reason for this is the total distance the canopy travels toward the object. Under "ordinary" (i.e. not a headwind blowing you back into a solid object) circumstances, distance travelled toward the object is minimized by using the risers. While this may seem to result in a "slow" turn, the turn while "slower" in time used (it takes more seconds to turn), is actually "faster" in horizontal distance consumed (you move less feet toward the wall). However, if you add in a headwind, you find that the wind speed gets added to the canopies speed, over time. So, in that situation, you want to minimize the _time_ you spend turning (because you are getting blown toward the object during the turn). So, in the headwind case, you need to minimize turn time in order to minimize horizontal distance used. Which means, often, that you ought to be turning on the toggles. This is, in my opinion, perhaps the only situation in which an imminent object strike is best addressed with the toggles, rather than the risers. These situations most often occur on slider up cliff jumps (where people are willing to exit into a headwind because they can create more object separation during the freefall). Note that my use of the term "imminent object strike" pretty much means that you find your body tensing up to accept the impact. If you're 100 feet away from the object (or in any other situation where impact is not imminent) you're usually better off turning on the toggles, because a toggle turn uses less vertical altitude (and in almost every situation not involving imminent impact, vertical altitude is your most precious commodity). I find it often helps to evaluate a jump by deciding what the "most precious" thing I have at opening is: often it's separation from the wall, but sometimes it can also be time before striking the wall (in a headwind scenario) or altitude before striking the ground. In fact, at different times during the same jump, it will be different things. Choose your turn strategy to conserve your "most precious" commodity, and expend a different one, instead. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm not getting the article. The .pdf's just come up as blank pages. Anyone else having this problem, or is it just me? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

He was flying. He was up for several hours, apparently. As I recall, he was German, and claimed not to know that paragliding wasn't allowed in the Valley. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I also know of a paraglider getting arrested there (for aerial delivery), and a climber getting the same citation after tossing his haul bags (with a tarp attached to slow them). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure. But the other things wouldn't have happened without a fair bit of jumper traffic. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Some of this is response to dynastar81, and some to LawRocket. The vast majority of jumpers in the US today have no knowledge (let alone appreciation) of that history. I'd guess we've got just as many potential flat bed drivers (as a percentage of jumpers--meaning far more total people) amongst us today as there were in 1980. The NPS regulation of hanggliding in the Valley is pretty strict. You couldn't just pick up a hang glider and go throw yourself off those walls. I actually am not convinced of this. No matter how many legal jumps are made, there is a pretty consistent sub-culture of BASE that will keep flying the jolly roger. And getting connected in that part of our world will always take some knowledge of how things work in the culture--no matter how many legal jumps are being made elsewhere. No, but I think there would still be BASE ethics. The physical risk element would still be present, and that's one of the prime movers behind our ethical development. Ethics aren't just about not getting busted--they're also very much about not getting busted up. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's been attempting on several occasions. Back in the day, Jean Boenish came relatively close to working it out. As I recall, the killer issue turned out to be exit points (she wanted a safer exit, and the NPS was only willing to offer her a significantly more technical one). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I strongly recommend waiting until after your probation expires before even entering the Valley again. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Temporarily? The waterfall in the Swiss Valley. It's happened more than once. Permanently? Last year--that big hole in Mexico. I believe the NPS has us in a catch-22 on that. For actual rescue insurance, most insurers require that the jump be made legally. With the NPS saying "if you don't have insurance, we'll keep it illegal" and the insurers saying "unless they make it legal, we won't give you insurance", it's a bit of a tough spot. My personal solution is to get umbrella insurance (which would cover cost of rescue, once the NPS tried to recover those costs from me). But real rescue insurance (which would be cheaper, and available with group rates) will likely have to wait until jumping is legal. Me too. The problem is no one can speak for everyone. One of the closest jumpers to the famous valley in California regularly brings untrained (i.e. zero skydives) people up to Twin for "Death Camp," and puts them off the bridge. Do you really believe we wouldn't see "Death Camp in Yosemite"? For a hundred bucks a pop, you'd see plenty of Norcal jumpers willing to death camp your daughter off the Big Stone. I'm with you here. The vast majority of jumps in Yosemite are made in places that already have well established hiking trails, and tens of thousands of yearly (non-jumping) visitors. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've had a Bushnell for several years. I've used a Nikon a handful of times. Honestly, I don't think brand has much to do with it. Find the smallest one you can (so you can take it up to the exit point and jump it down), get a backlit display (because it sucks to have to pan over to a light to read the altitude), and try for one in the +-6 feet range (or less) if you want to do really low stuff. Other than that? I haven't really noticed much difference, so I'd choose by price. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm going to move this to error and bug reports. There's not a forum for "report attempted scams" but at the rate they're cropping up, that may not be too far in the future. I'll also PM Phreezone, who is the classifieds editor. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I once made myself a bumper sticker that read: "BASE jumpers do what skydivers have nightmares about." Of course, since I was pretty active in some not so friendly places at the time, it never made it onto the car. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

No. Someone told me today that he had done an actual freefall deployment with a packed rig in that range. I haven't asked him about it personally. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's not the details that get things moved to SC. It's comments like this one. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

10 seconds from 250 feet sounds like a lot of canopy time. Sub 200' freefalls usually have canopy rides under 5 seconds. I believe the current low freefall record is held by BASE 587 (something around 140 feet?), and I seem to recall him having a non-canopy ride (he never got the toggles off, and just PLF'd the landing). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

We were jumping all day today. But it's still a bit cold. I think today ranged from about 35-50. Maybe we can talk to the county about installing some big heaters down in the canyon. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You might want to turn your caps lock off... I've got limited flexibility (probably not so bad as yours, but I'm not sure) in my right ankle (I've got around 13 screws, due to a BASE accident). It doesn't really create any problems for me. As was said above, if you're using big student gear, landings can be very slow--about as hard as stepping down off a chair, perhaps. If you can jog (I can't), I'd say you'll have no problems with skydiving. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com