Jump three from Baffin

[RiggerLee 61]

Ok, this is it. The infamis jump three from last year. I don''t know if I'm helping my case or ruining it. I've just about given up corting people to come with this year so fuck you all. Looks like I'll be soloing it again this year. But what else is new. Been there Done that, a couple of times.
So here it is. This is what it's really like up there. In any case here is the story. I'd been pinned down with shitty weather for about six days. Then every thing cleared up and became beutiful. Clear skys with out a cloud to be seen, dead calm. I pulled the rest of the way to the cliff. I set up the tent and had to crash for a few houres. I startedd humping early in the day. Great day but I wish it was colder. as the sun swung around it became rather warm and the snow soft. this had been the leyward side during the last storm and the new snow was rather soft. It took longer then I expected to reach the top and it was farther across and more to the right then I'd expected. I got to the exit point about 12:30. There were horse tails in the sky by then. but it was still light. I poked around and started filming. as I did the wind began to pick up. I cleand up the rig and by the time I was ready it had picked up to about ten with gust to 15. I playedd the lull game for a while. It really was not bad but I played the lull game for a while trying to judge what it was doing. There ware sign that my weather winddow was closeing but it honestly was not that bad with a fairly clean wall, the ability to open high and get out into clean air and a nice seven mile wide landing area. Or at least that is what I told my self.
Here is where the vid gets fun. First I must appologise. This is what happens when you hand a really nicce camera to some one that's never owned one in his life. It's as bad as you would think. second be advised that the first view is from a camera straped to my hip not my head. keep that in mind as you watch what comes next. Pay attention to where the edge is. Yes this is where I triped. Watch the edge as I stand back up. The second view is from a belly mount faceing down. Same footage over again. again watch where the edge is when I stand up. It was a nice view over the edge. It was very cool the way the large alpine rig which is rather top heavy was trying to roll me over the belly mount over the cliff edge. Try no to hurt your self laughing. ya ya, get it out of your system. The second half is the jump. This is even better. The wind is steady at about 15 now but I really really did not want to walk back down. And honestly it was not unreasonable. I had nothig that I could look at below me like water of trees that could have given me any warning of what was to come. I remember the moment when I reallized how fucked I was and looking back up at the exit point wishing there was some way I could get back up there. Let me back up for a moment and explain some things. The first camera again is on my hip. It was just straped there and got turned crooked. So the picture is cattiewompus by about 30 degres. Sorry I suck, but it does give you a good idea of what is level to the horizon. It is straped to my hip not my head. When you see it tilt that is thewhole canopy and body swinging under neath it. I did have about a ninty left. A risor was lose and I jumped any way. I really need to rework the cover on that rig. So I really was not surprised when it happened. The Flick turnedd back even with the break unstowed. Yeh I probable should have taken the time to unstow the other but I'm just a grab it and hork kind of guy. I have to say I really likedd that Fick. It was surpriseingly responsive for such a larg canopy, 266. I thought i would have been a slugish dog but it's nice. Every thing is cool for a while then I hit the shear layer. The wind had not been blowing above me and comeing down it was blowing below me and come ing up. When I started to hit the wind the tubulance was terrable. Whatch the horizon. I'm not doing shit. Thats the wind. You'll see the corner of the canopy as it almost stalls and dives in front of me. It rocks bad all over the place and one gust carries it off to the side and down level with the horizon. No shit this is in open air. I've never seen any thing like it. Wind shear like you would never beleave. I head away from the wall just trying to get as clean as I can. I turn into the wind early fearing a collaps down low. Once I touch down the fun begins. There it one point where I think I rolled over on my back. Second view of the same shit is fromm a downwards faceing belly cam. I turn the thing up to face me briefly then I get the idea to point it forward. I did it just on the sper of th moment. I fucked up and pointed it up side down. Give me a break. it was in a box and I could not see the camera and which way it was faceing. This one is also a little off level. So sue me I suck. This one is great. you can see even more of the canopy as it is ripped off to the side by one of the big gust. The drag video is even better. I didn''t have a cut away. I started hauling in on a line and got it down till the cascade stuck in the ring. I actually wrapped it aroundd my foot to pull it down further. No shit it didn't stop dragging me till I got ahold of the fabric of the tail and crawled on top of it. Let me say again that through all of this the Flick stayedd inflated and square. it never folded on me when by all rights I should be deader then shit. That thing is a tank. Keep the volume turnedd up I did my best to keep up a comentary during what I assumed would be my last moments of life. Then you see me pick up one of the cameras. That time doesn't really show the wind very well but trust me it was blowing. You'll see a clip that is just looking at a bunch of fabric. Lessen. You'll hear a crunch and then me curse. that is me being blown over by a gust of wind. Finally Youll see me pick up the last of the cameras and turn it off. This picture sucks on this web site but look at the jacket and it shoulld give you an idea of the wind. And just for the record let me reiterate, "I recamend against BASE jumping in winds in excess of fifty miles an hour, it is not for the faint of heart."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW96QzsImTg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84KVstfZDYQ
And if any one has any comments on how to make this video thing work better let me know. I'm not a geek and I'm lost.

Lee

Check out the new web site:
www.velocitysportswear.com
[email protected]

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

[Tyrion 0]

Quote

Well we're making progress back toward the camp!

Classic video!

[FIREFLYR 0]

BWAHAhahahaha!
Brilliant! I'm glad you're ok bro, holy shit, that's destined to be a classic.
Goodtimes.
~J

"One flew East,and one flew West..............one flew over the cuckoo's nest"
"There's absolutely no excuse for the way I'm about to act"

[Andy_Copland 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW96QzsImTg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84KVstfZDYQ

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[RiggerLee 61]

Oh, another thing. I noticed some one rated one of the videos 5 star on youtube. Lets not do that. I don't know if it can be searched that way or what, I don't know much about that site, but I posted it in the most obscure and boring way I could think of hopeing it would not get too much traffic. So lets just try to leave it as annomus as we can.

Lee

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

[obi 0]

Yo man, glad you're ok. Considering that you were on your own, I imagine it would have made your day somewhat less enjoyable to break something on landing
Reminds me of on old saying: better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground.

[evilivan 0]

Quote

"I recamend against BASE jumping in winds in excess of fifty miles an hour, it is not for the faint of heart."

No shit sherrif! You are a brave man - stupid, but brave

"If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation."
David Brent

[leroydb 0]

at least it wasn't gusty....

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[RiggerLee 61]

The gust were running about 70 mph. Note the time I was blown over.

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

[SBCmac 0]

Awesome video!!! You just made my day!

Thanks,

Michael

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[dbagdrew 0]

Thanks for sharing the video and story. I live in Canada, and it seems such a waste that I will not be able to go to these cliffs as easily as I can go to Norway, for example, which I am planning on doing this summer. Seems like I should be more loyal to my country.

Question for you.

Just curious, but did you attempt to throw any kind of Wind Drift indicator? I would think that you might have known that the winds were gusting that bad in the valley if you had. Depending on what I throw, I know I sometimes have trouble following the object all the way to the bottom of a cliff for example. Was that the case?

Andrew

Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid,
the vast limits of their knowledge. - Mark Twain

[RiggerLee 61]

I was spitting over edge but it was basicly in wind shadow. There was no drift for as far as I could see it. I through some flat chunks of snow basicly the same result. The wind did not start till about 1000 ft. I mean it was a servear wind shear. It was a warm wind blowing down off the island being funelled through the fiord. Wind at the top was about 15 and all indecations I had was that it was the same down in the bottom. The snow was well baked and the wind which had started in the last six hours, probbable caused by a pressure system moveing in to the area, had not started to pick up any snow yet. Note the horse tailes in the sky. I knew the weather window was closeing but actually expected it to be better down in the bottom. As it turns out the wind was blowing from the bottom up rather then the top down. I'm actually glad I made it back to camp. If I'd walked down I'm not sure the tent would have still been there when I arrived. It was no small task to keep the thing tied down as all the snow melted around it in the warm wind. In the end it was being held down by my only ice screw and tools hamerd into the ice.

Lee

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com