Scariest BASE Jump You've Ever Done?

[Kramer 0]

Entertain us with your stories of BASE jumping.

What's the scariest jump you've ever made? I'm really interested in BASE Jumping. It's still a few years away for me, but give me somethin to look forward to.

Let's hear it.

-Kramer

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

[skreamer 1]

[url "http://juliabell.home.att.net/"]Be entertained.[url]

[BASE813 0]

every one i do

[Faber 0]

my first jump after my accsident.. i made a similar jump(solo,same setup,200ft lower just not such a long delay/hard opening).
It took me 40 mins to climb 400ft,and it took 20mins at the exit before i jumped.All of it were a masive brain fu#k,but im happy i did it that way.

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[freefal 0]

This isn't neccesarrily the scariest jump I've ever done, but it is one of the wildest trips to an exit point I've ever heard of. This is the story of how I got my "B" to qualify for my BASE number. Hope you like it...
Chapter One:(Zoomee)

So, Dan and I were just flipping some burgers on the grill Saturday night, and we noticed how pleasant the weather was. We planned on heading for a quick Tonetta run, but we took a little detour.

Dan: "Maybe we should swing by the D.T. along the way"
Zoom: "Sure, we could use our new laser range finder that we bought today to verify the height"
Dan: "Maybe we should have our rigs and gear ready for "just in case""
Zoom: I'll bring the break chord, "just in case". Wouldn't it be cool if we actually make a jump?
Dan: Yeah, cool.

So we get downtown around 10pm. ####'s parking lot is totally empty, we got a full moon, and wind is out of the right direction. The hotel lobby is full, so walking in with our stash bags will be no problem.

28 floors later, we make it to the stairwell. We make it the roof access door. Dan and I look at each other with a grin, and nod at each other before we open the door.

I grab the door knob.......

(to be continued)

Z

**************************************

Chapter Two: (Dan)

Shit. It's locked. So we wander around for a little bit looking for another door, but as usual in these scenarios, we're just wasting time.

We go out and look at ****. But of course we can't get in. We punch a couple numbers in the keypad. No dice. Hmmm....what now.

Zoom says let's go check out #-#-#. OK. We drive down there and check the plywood door. Of course it's locked. One difference we notice is some lights are on inside. Another difference is this window washing type platform on the south wall. Looks interesting. The fence into that area is a joke. So we go check it out. The power is on to the thing. The light on the up/down switch is flashing. After some fumbling around, we finally figure out you have to twist the e-stop button in addition to pulling it out. Once we do that, shazam! The thing moves! It can safely hold three people. Who do we call????
(to be continued)

Dan

**************************************

Chapter Three: (Me)

The phone call:

After a long lazy Saturday of not accomplishing much more than babysitting and running errands Kristin and I decide to sit out on the deck and have a few beers. After about 4 beers the phone rings. Zoomee says, "To B or not to B. That is the question." They tell me about the construction scaffold thing on the side of the building and I can't believe them.

My building...
The one I've driven slowly past and scoped out for months...
The one I have detailed floor plans for showing the exit elevation...
The one none of us could find a way into is now somehow accessible... and I'm packed!
Thankfully, my BASE jumping brothers/mentors had the consideration to call me. They said the platform on the lift would only hold three people and I was the one who had gathered the most intel and done the most work on this one so it only seemed right to call me.

I met them at Tanners in record time where we contemplated calling one more person. “I don't know if that thing will even hold the three of us,” one of them says. To which I reply, “I’m so nervous, I think I could puke.” We headed off on our covert mission with no ground crew because we figured something will probably fall through anyway and there’s no use dragging anyone else into the mix. We park Zoomee’s car about a block and a half away and decide to gear up in the shadows behind one of the dumpsters in the construction site at the base before getting on the scaffold. Once we get there I see the reason for the reservation about calling anyone else. This scaffold is small, maybe 7’x2 ½’, and it’s supported by one small metal cable that’s routed through a motor on the side. There are some other ropes, the power cord and two rollers that ride up the side of the building, but all the weight of us, gear, the coiled up ropes and power cord (and the huge load of crap I was about to dump in my pants!) was going to be supported by one small metal cable. No track or guides. No other support. Just the three of us dangling and bouncing up the building. I definitely think I could puke now!

Once we were on our way up… at a breakneck speed of about ½ mph I realized how obvious and vulnerable we were. Anyone coming down the one-way street could look up and see us. We were at about 20’ up when we hit our first snag. I’m not being metaphorical here either. We actually had to back the scaffold back down and unhook the ropes and power cable from the concrete ledge they were snagged on. At about 50’ up two guys walked under and looked up but just kept walking as if it were normal for window washers to be working at night… in black helmets… with backpacks on! At about 100’ a cop drove right under us but didn’t notice anything because we were above his normal field of view.

When we finally made it to the top we hit our second snag. The beam holding the scaffold cable out from the building wasn’t elevated above the lip of the building’s edge. So there we were standing on the platform dangling about 9 feet from the top of the building with no more cable to climb looking at each other like a bunch of retards. “I don’t know about jumping off this rickety platform”, I said. Zoom had the crazy idea of climbing up on top of the scaffold railing and frame to the beam and over the ledge to the roof. Fortunately, he had the balls to try this while Dan and I watched in awe. (Remember going to the circus as a kid and watching the tightrope walker? You held your breath the whole time just waiting for him to slip or something. Well, it was kinda like that, but Zoom was 360 feet above a construction site!) I was next, and after I got over the side I was shaking so hard I had to sit down for a minute and try to breathe.

So there we were on top of the city. The view was awesome and even if this somehow didn’t work out we had still taken one of the juiciest trips to an exit point that I’ve ever heard of. This juice was completely different than any other I’d felt before. Take your first skydive, add in your first BASE jump, multiply that by 100 and you can begin to understand the kind of juice that was oozing out of every pore in my body. My mouth has never been that dry before. My stomach has never been that tight.

Then we hit another snag. A cop/security car pulled up right next to the landing area and a one guy got out walked into the building down the street. Was he a cop or security guard? Was he coming back out or would he be in there for a while? Could he be in there all night? After deliberating for about 5 minutes we finally decided to go. Through a well-planned exit order analysis (rock/paper/scissors) it was decided that Zoom would go first followed by me then Dan. Before I knew it Zoomee had left the building. With no time for my traditional “air hump” I did the ol’ 321-c ya and was gone. I opened a little off heading to the left and headed straight for one building (bad) then risered too hard to the right and headed for another (worse). Then I released my toggles and let them up into full flight and found myself catapulted down the urban canyon of buildings way too fast (holy sh1t!) I wrestled my Mojo into control and did a stand up landing right past the intersection. I turned around to see Dan touch down a few feet away then watched in terror as Zoomee fumbled for what seemed like forever for his keys. Once we were in the car, we noticed the security guard and another security guy walking toward the car. Zoomee dug through canopy material to find the parking brake release (Go! Go! They’re coming right at us!) and we were off. We didn’t stop until we were back in his basement with some drinks in our hands and big grins on our faces.

Since we couldn’t send the scaffold back down, it’s probably safe to say that this B is pretty well burned. It's ok though. We've got others toys in town and this one was one helluva hard one to do anyway. Even if we could have sent the scaffold back down, I don't know how anyone else could get back up there without getting busted. After an experience like that with the ride up, the climb over, the near misses under canopy and the brush with security I’ve got my B fix for quite a while though!

Donk anD BoneZ in the Hizzzzouuuuse!

"Ignorance is bliss" and "Patience is a virtue"... So if you're stupid and don't mind waiting around for a while, I guess you can have a pretty good life!

[DaveO 0]

The scariest BASE jumps are the ones that go wrong and you realize that the only reason your still alive is pure luck!

"When it comes to BASE, I'll never give advice, only my opinion"

[base615 77]

My scariest succesful jump has got to be Le Tree, however, during my jumping career I had 2 BASE accidents, one of them was the calmest experience of my life and one was the scariest jump I ever made.

Calmest:
121ft bridge static-lined. Still unsure of why but my static-line failed causing me to go into freefall with my shrivel flap still attached. I suddenly realised what was happening, realised there was nothing I could do and accepted that I was about to die. At that point I was incredibly calm. As it happened, I managed to get bottom skin inflation just above the ground and ploughed in hard.

Scariest:
300ft underhung (and bowled) cliff at night. 1 second delay followed by a bit more than 120 left. I turned away and the left control line (furthest left cascaded line) caught on something. My canopy collapsed, I ended up facing out to sea unable to see anything but knowing the cliff was going to hit. I hit the cliff a few times and ploughed into the rocky beach fast. In a lot of pain, I walked out and later found out I'd fractured some vertebrae. Although this wasn't my last jump, the point my canopy collapsed and I realised I couldn't do anything about it was the point my BASE career finished.

I find it incredible how you can have 2 situations where you're feeling the same thing (helplessness) yet you react in totally different ways. I was hospital following the bridge jump and all I could think about was jumping again whereas the cliff strike filled me with total panic.

[czechbase 0]

Now that's living it!

www.motavi.com

[Kramer 0]

Awesome bedtime story. Thanks freefal!

-Kramer

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!