Staso

i went here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Col - plenty of hypoxia . i was hypoxic probably for a week -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i went to North Col of mt Everest last year (May 2011) and spent a night at 23k. was one of the hardest things i had to do! -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

is toggle swooping common for paragliders? -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i can so vouch for that! i went to North Col of mount Everest last year (http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3874865). when i got back home i had a very strange sensation of perceiving comfort. it was early June and it was nice and warm. it felt so strange to be barefoot and to wear shorts and a t-shirt. i kept thinking that something was wrong and in a second a cold gust will come in and i will have to run for my down jacket and pants. it was with me for a while. we do take our comfort for granted. i only went to 23k feet and it was unbelievably hard. it boggles my mind that people go all the way up and some of them do it without supplemental oxygen. at high altitude everything is a tremendous struggle. but it's definitely worth doing! -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

majority of speed skydivers exit head towards the prop - this way you're getting basically to HD position right away in the relative wind. then it's a natural transition to real HD as your horizontal speed translates to vertical. diving toward the formation might be different from simply obtaining highest speed right away though. i used to dive out for my speed dives, and i dialed them pretty good. but eventually I switched my exit. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i recently posted this on my wall: -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

the top speed readings are basically useless. people used to get supersonic and negative speeds. the more you flail the higher your top speed will be. we used to have pro-tracks mounted on ankles and people used to do a kick at the end of the dive to get a spike on the graph. so when someone tells me they got ~300 mph on their audible as top speed i just chuckle. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

mchamp, check out #40 on this list. 421 km/h - roughly 260 MPH. i'm used to be into this kind of flying. i'm number #10 on that list -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

fair enough! i'm just a little tired of people saying bad stuff about safire2's, how they had a weak flare and how it wasnt a good platform to learn how to swoop on.. or that sabre2's were better for that purpose. seems billvon is the only one more or less to vouch for it. next year, hopefully, i'll get my grabby hands on an XF2, then i'll be able to make a more accurate statement regarding flare-power, and which was even MORE awesome! i went from sabre to safire2 to crossfire2. safire was an awesome canopy. much better opening and felt a lot more agile then sabre. good glide, very good flare. the only thing about it - very short recovery arc, so you need to be close to the ground if you want to swoop it and i used to scary people whipping 180 low to the ground. but as long as you aware of the arc, it could be done safely. on both of my safire2 and crossfire2 i had a slider one size down to speed up the openings - they were too slow to my taste. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

He was a pathologist in LA who got a doc friend to write him a scrip. No dosage instructions as the doc didn't know any more than my buddy. Funny now but he was pretty un-nerved at the time and had a miserable night and day after. jon diamox is the sh*t when it comes to acclimatization. it doesn't replace it, but rather speeds it up by changing your blood chemistry (acidity). last may i went to north col of mnt. Everest and spend a night at 23k+ and diamox was a good help. the side effects - peeing more and beer doesn't taste very good. but it beats feeling like crap at the alti -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

Last May I went to North Col of Mount Everest: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3874865. After spending a night at 23k and descending to advanced base camp and laying flat in the tent for couple of hours my heart rate at rest was 120. Usually my rate is somewhat high - at ground level is somewhere around 70-80. Coming back from the expedition with all the extra blood cells changed that a lot (for a short period of time). About 2 weeks after reaching the highest point of my trip, at ground level back in Boston my heart rate was 42 :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

my favorite view from 23,200 ft :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

Humid air will be lower density than drier air. It seems counter intuitive, but it is true. Huh???? humid air is of lower density - it's a fact. H20 atomic weight is lower then "average" atomic weight of the air. since for any given temperature and pressure there is the same number of molecules in the given volume of the gas, in humid air some of the heavy "air molecules" are replaced by lighter water molecules, thus lowering overall atomic weight of the moist air and making it less dense. airplanes perform the worst on hot humid days, when air density is the lowest. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

so it yours! :) from http://gssdb.speedskydiving.eu/hall_of_fame.php?links=off Stan Snigir World Cup Belgium - Spa - 468.70 National Record :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i hiked to Fox glacier with my wife last November and then we flew around mt Cook on a helicopter - it was awesome. we landed on a snow field with a good view of the mt Cook in the background. New Zealand is a very cool country and we really enjoyed our time there. and here is a picture of another "lotsa ice" from a different side of the world - north col of mt Everest. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i spent a night there. we got to the Col at around 5 pm and then spent 5 or 6 hours melting snow and ice. I managed to get some sleep there but it was weird and disturbing sleep - hypoxia plays some tricks on your brain. I couldn't wait next morning to bolt out of there! :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

Just memorial at the base camp. also i saw a memorial for David Sharp - he was the guy on Discovery "Everest Beyond the limit" show who was found at around 8400 and who many expedition passed by. Seeing that made it very real .. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

3 more pics ... -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

Almost a year ago I wrapped up my skydiving career on jump 1001 and started getting ready for the next adventure in my life – climbing North Col of Mt. Everest. North Col is a saddle between mount Everest and mount Changtse with the elevation of 23100 ft (it’s slightly lower but there is a permanent slab of ice on top of it and some camps are higher than the lowest point). After 10 month of extensive training, running, swimming, weight lifting and climbing in New England I was finally ready a went on with my expedition. Now after 1 month of sheer misery (I think that’s the best word that describes being above 18000 ft for me :) ) and 17 pounds lighter I’m back and can say that I’ve done it and that I don’t want to do it again :) Getting to 23k altitude without a plane is a very tough job and staying there is for a while is a pretty dismal experience. Here are some pics for you folks to enjoy. The rest of them could be found here: picasaweb.google.com/stan.snigir There are 17 albums going from 00 – Kathmandu, Nepal to 17 – North Col, Everest. If someone wants to do something like that I can recommend the company I went with. I think my next thing is camping :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i ordered a smaller slider for both my safire2 and crossfire2 canopies exactly for that reason. smaller slider helps. i went one size smaller - got 139 sq ft canopy slider for my 149 safire2 and 129 for 139 crossfire2. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ4PtafRB9c&feature=player_embedded#movie_player -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

it doesn't make much sense. if he is not jumping this setup because he got another helmet, why is the other helmet listed for sale as well? -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

the finale of my story :) I got a ZIF to CF adapter and 32 GB CF card (see attached). Put those two together and swapped it with the HDD in my camera. Format it and I got 700 minutes of solid state drive camera :) Total cost is about $50. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

it's also important to keep your core warm. you'd be surprised how much difference it would make. i used to jump in this gloves: http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3652849. with a thin liner they were warm enough for new england winter. liners make huge difference too - it's better to have two layers with the same overall thickness as one thicker one. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

here is my beast! -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum