But some jumpers «come in» – meaning something went wrong and they didn`t. After all, it is officially the most extreme sport and the most dangerous activity in the world, with a 1 in 2,300 chance of dying, according to the British newspaper Bandolier. In contrast, hang gliding is associated with a risk of 1 in 116,000 and skydiving with 1 in 101,083. This would not be the first ban in Norway. All base jumping is prohibited on Norway`s tallest cliff, the 3,600-foot-high Trollveggen. There, in 1984, Carl Boenish, the «father» of base jumping, and his wife Jean Boenish set the world record for the highest base jump in history. A few hours later, he died jumping in the same distance. In 1986, after several other deaths, the cliff was closed to basejumpers. BASE competitions have been held since the early 1980s, using precise landings or freefall aerobatics as evaluation criteria. In recent years, an official competition has been held on the 452-meter (1,483-foot) Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, judging for the accuracy of the landing.
[18] In 2012, the World Wingsuit League held its first BASE jumping wingsuit competition in China. [19] Base jumping is dangerous for a parachute jump due to the relatively low jump heights, making it harder for humans to adapt to mistakes and/or obstacles. Although Gerdes claims that the sport is growing, internet data seems to show that wingsuit BASE jumping is not as fashionable as it used to be. There are precursors to the sport dating back hundreds of years. In 1966, Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped from El Capitan into Yosemite National Park. [6] The acronym «B.A.S.E.» (now more commonly known as «BASE») was later influenced by filmmaker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield. Carl Boenish was an important catalyst for modern base jumping, and in 1978 he filmed El Capitan jumps made with ramming parachutes and freefall tracking technology.[7] [8] While BASE jumps were made before this time, the El Capitan activity was the actual birth of what is now called BASE jump. Base jumping (/beɪs/) is the recreational sport in which you jump from solid objects and safely descend to the ground with a parachute. «BASE» is an acronym that represents four categories of solid objects from which one can jump: building, antenna (refers to radio masts), spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). [1] [2] Participants leave a solid object such as a cliff and, after an optional freefall delay, deploy a parachute to slow their descent and landing.
A popular form of BASE Jumping is the BASE Jumping suit. Experts generally recommend a long, slow training course before attempting a BASE jump in wingsuit, starting with at least 200 skydiving jumps in 18 months, then flying a skydiving wingsuit. You will also have to learn traditional base jumping at the same time by performing hundreds of jumps of varying height and difficulty. This teaching, if followed rigorously, would take several years and thousands of dollars. Base jumping is an incredibly dangerous sport that should only be tried by those who have been properly trained. It is estimated that an accident while participating in this activity is 43 times more likely than simply skydiving from an airplane. According to BLiNC Magazine, a website dedicated to the sport, more than 425 people have died in base jumping since 1981. Anyone considering trying this activity for the first time should consult with certified and experienced jumpers and receive appropriate training in advance. When Wingsuit BASE Jumping celebrates its 20th anniversary, some pilots reconsider the risk. In U.S. national parks, base jumping is generally prohibited unless a special permit is required.
Other public properties in the United States, including land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, do not prohibit air delivery, and there are many jumpable objects on BLM land. [40] Base jumping is an extreme sport that involves jumping from a solid object and parachuting to the ground. Despite the ban, Yosemite rangers are aware that BASE is still a regular phenomenon in the park. Evidence of this continues to appear in the news, usually in a way that undermines the argument that jumping should be allowed. In 2015, Yosemite veteran Dean Potter, a figurehead of the BASE outlaw scene, and his flight partner Graham Hunt died during a wingsuit flight from Taft Point. The following year, the parachute of a jumper named Austin Carey got caught in branches as he descended into the valley. The rangers found him hanging in his harness and arrested him. Unlike other forms of skydiving, such as skydiving from aircraft, BASE jumps are performed from stationary objects, which are usually at much lower altitudes, and base jumpers only carry a parachute. Base jumping is significantly more dangerous than other forms of skydiving and is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous extreme sports.
[3] As of September 8, 2022, the BASE death list reports 439 deaths for BASE jumping since April 1981. [47] Today, jumping to Yosemite is punishable by a $5,000 fine and six months in prison. Instead of risking getting caught, many California base-jumpers travel to the Swiss Alps or the Italian Dolomites, where the activity is legal. «The reasoning was that the fines in Yosemite were about what you would pay on a trip to Europe, so why not just take some legal leaps and have a good time?» said Davis Swan. (This year, Swiss politicians proposed banning the sport, citing security concerns. In 19 years, 82 jumpers have died in the country. Mountain villages have retreated, claiming that sport is good for business.) It is widely believed that Fausto Veranzio was the first person to build and test a parachute,[4] jumping from St. Mark`s Tower in Venice in 1617 at the age of over sixty-five. [5] However, these and other sporadic incidents were one-off experiments, not the systematic pursuit of a new form of skydiving. Sunndals Mayor Ståle Refstie said he supported basejumpers` rights in general, but would not oppose a ban if necessary. «I`m not in favor of a blanket ban on base jumping,» he says, admitting it would be difficult to enforce. But: «Under Norwegian law, base jumping could be banned in areas where frequent rescue operations become dangerous for the personnel involved.» If local police and emergency services called for a ban, he would support it.
The main reason base jumping is illegal in most states is that it is considered a reckless and dangerous activity. In this image, released by the Phattalung Rescue Organization, a base jumper is rescued after his parachute was caught on the edge of a rock in Phattalung, Thailand, Monday, January 13, 2020. An Austrian base jumper, 28-year-old Johannes Grasser, was rescued in the south of the Thai province after being stuck for hours on a near-vertical cliff when his parachute hit the edge of a rock nearly 200 meters (656 feet) above the surrounding area. (Phattalung Rescue Organization via AP) Giving up BASE jumping can be difficult, said Chris McNamara, a tall climber, guide writer and business owner in South Lake Tahoe who left the sport in the mid-2000s after five years. «Flying your body close to the terrain at 100 miles per hour in epic mountain ranges is probably the most incredible thing humans do,» he wrote in a 2016 essay subtitled «Why I Abandoned the Wingsuit Base.» But he had a few close phone calls and his friends started to die — dozens of them when he stopped. Unlike skydiving, which usually takes place at higher altitudes, base jumping usually takes place closer to the ground and often close to structures. This gives athletes less time to react to changing conditions or equipment failures, with much less chance of recovering from a bad jump. This can sometimes lead to serious injury or even death. In the early eighties, almost all basic jumps were made with standard skydiving equipment, including two parachutes (main and reserve) and mission components. Later, special equipment and techniques were developed specifically for the unique needs of base jumping. Base jumping can be a sport that people can enjoy if they set the right boundaries, rules, and emergency services.
Norway has become a popular holiday destination for thrill seekers, as it still allows basejumpers on several of its fjords. But it`s also a dangerous place: in 1984, Boenish died from a failed jump from Trollveggen, the highest vertical rock face in Europe. He had just set the record for the highest base jump, a few days before Trollveggen was 3,600 feet (1,100 m) tall, when his parachute would not open. After 11 accidents and three more fatalities, base jumping was banned at the site. Most thrill-seekers and adventure travelers are moderately familiar with BASE jumping, the extreme sport in which a parachute jump is performed from a stationary object. But did you know that BASE is actually an acronym that represents the four categories of objects from which you can jump: building, antenna, wingspan and earth? Over the past 15 years, base jumping has exploded in popularity, and today, there is no single type of jumper.