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Holy shit!!! So what actually happened to the jumper in question? Did he just smack his foot against the cliff? Or was he more seriously injured? You can't get much closer to a fatality than that!!! P.S. I love how the jumper in question manages to out-track his comrades, even after the object strike.

Probably, but right leg provides for better video. That's what's really important, right?

Thanks. Well-worded, respectful comment in support of backcountry parachuting submitted to NPS.

First jump... Jump was executed from a 360' freestander at sunset. PCA. A professional photographer came along to capture my jump along with a few others. Big thanks to him for the incredible shot. I love the contrast of the jumper all in black suspended in front of the bright landscape below, the illuminated shoe soles, the blurred background yet crisply-outlined jumper. And of course, the bright red canopy exploding off the back of the jumper!!! Also thanks to katzurki, who talked me into starting BASE. This jump was done in November 2005. A year-and-a-half later and still injury free. http://217.172.55.13/Jump 1 - Strah.jpg

Climbing a B? Been there, done it. As, I'm sure, have a lot of others. But we only climbed to the 16th floor. Beyond the 16th we decided to take the stairs.

This will be one of the bigger issues. It's a non-issue. This forum, and that one, have never been hosted in the US. The forums are owned by a corporate entity in Dubai and headquartered in South Africa. The servers are located in Canada. I agree with Tom that, at least in the mid-term, government hacking/subpoenas are probably a non-issue. However, given enough years, some government entity is going to want to get in. Most likely they'll try to do so legally. Believe it or not, government agencies by-and-large aren't too eager to hack into computer systems. They have laws against that. However, I can easily imagine a situation in which legal authorities would try to via subpoena or warrant get access to such a database. Imagine another ESB incident, or perhaps completely benign BASE jumping in the vicinity of the visiting French president's suite at the New York Hilton. Such incidents have already happened, and will happen again. Especially considering the current terrorism frenzy, I'd argue law enforcement agencies would have little difficulty convincing a judge to order the server be opened up or surrendered to authorities. Hell, in the USA, they might not even have to convince a judge. In the short term, this is all very unlikely. However, in the long term I'd argue it's very probable. And Canada (along with most other states) are not immune. Now, I won't lose any sleep over it. There are already so many other, more important things to worry about than the idea of a government agency having access to a database of BASE jumpers (which doesn't contain any names or personal details, just a city, jump numbers, registration date, alias, and some other minor details). Of course, if any government agency is willing to go through the trouble to acquire this database, the person they're after is already screwed, with or without the database. Recall the Jeb scenario...with or without some additional circumstantial evidence from a BASE jumper database, Jeb was already pretty much screwed over by the authorities (ignoring the fact that he was never convicted of the charges brought against him. The real danger is that, once authorities have access to such information, they'll use it to pass legislation or fund additional countermeasures. As the situation exists today, if a legislator wants to pass laws against BASE jumping activity in his district, he has no concrete data to turn to. All his arguments against BASE jumping are based on guesswork and estimation. Once a legislator has solid evidence (i.e. videos on YouTube, major incidents like the ESB, etc.), or worse, hard factual data (like this database), it becomes much easier to pass such legislation, or to focus countermeasures to be more effective (for example by placing extra security around antennae in high-activity areas). Anyway, the above are the issues I think such a system would face. I still argue the system would be worthwhile (if anyone wants to build it), but I think it should only exist with some modified version of the restrictions I outlined above.

Why? This would seem like it would create politics, since if two locals had disagreements, they'd be racing to respond first. Yes, I realize that this would definitely generate "political" competition. However, my reasoning behind such a restriction is that, without it, it will be easier to gauge how many people jump in a certain region. Imagine that I want to determine if there is a lot of jumping activity in, say, Butte, Montana. I send an info request to the ambassador(s) from Butte. Without the above restriction, one of three things will happen: 1) I get no reply, and I have received no valuable information. 2) I get one reply, and thus know that there is at least one local. There could be thousands, or there may be just one. 3) I get several replies (say, perhaps, 8). I suddenly know there were at least 8 ambassadors, and hence can assume Butte, Montana is more active than New York, NY, from which I got four responses. As a result, I decide to redirect the bulk of my fun-police task force to monitor jumpable objects in the vicinity of Butte, Montana. Granted, it's not the end of the world if law enforcement or any other group can determine relative concentrations of BASE jumpers (hell, they can do that using YouTube or by reading the forums). However, it's one extra restriction to help lower the likelihood of such abuse. Regardless, I expect all of this discussion is purely theoretical, because to develop and debug a system like the one I proposed would take significant time and resources. It's certainly doable, but I doubt anyone will actually step up to code it. That amount of time would be better spent jumping!!!

Ether makes some excellent points. While Tom's suggestion is excellent, and I think would be worthwhile to set up, the idea of law enforcement (or any other organization) having an easy reference to determine how many active jumpers operate in their backyard gives me the heebie-jeebies. While I think the idea has merit, I'd strongly urge the designer(s) to make sure of the following: 1) There's no way to determine the number of jumpers in an area. 2) Usernames are not displayed. 3) Access should be "by reference only" If these three points can be dealt with, I'd be all for such a system. If they can't be dealt with, I vote the system never see the light of day. One possible solution could be the following: * A registration hierarchy of BASE jumpers is created, as described above. * Access to the system is voluntary and by reference only. * Based on their position in the hierarchy (or some other ranking system), each geographical location has a small number of regional ambassadors (i.e., one designated ambassador for Wichita, three for New York, two for Washington DC, two for Madrid, etc.). * The number of ambassadors would be dependent on the popularity of a location (or the number of locals). As such, LB, even though there are few locals, would have several ambassadors because it's a popular destination. * Registered users (i.e., verified by reference) can send a contact request to any location's ambassador. * All ambassadors receive that information request, and can choose to respond or not. * If one ambassador responds, other ambassadors should be barred from responding (they can always get in contact by other means). As a result, when an info request is sent, either one and only one reply is received, or no reply is received whatsoever. * The information request form would require some mandatory details including experience and references. In this way, upon receiving a questionable info request, the ambassador would know who to turn to to verify details. Also, note that sooner or later the administrator is going to be subpoenaed for data from that system. Considering this, neither the server nor the administrator should be located in a country with a privacy-unfriendly court system (i.e. the USA).

With an offer like that, make sure you do your own pin checks.

PM sent

Hey!!! She wasn't a college girl anymore...she graduated in May, and I was in Interlaken in June. Anyway, I guess you've convinced me. I'll be making a call tomorrow to the Horny Pub in the hopes that they'll have space. Will

Well, I haven't made reservations yet, so the accommodation question is still up in the air. I stayed at Balmer's three years ago and had a good time, believe it or not. But like you mentioned, it's an active place filled with college-age backpackers. I don't plan on sleeping much if I stay there. Of course, staying there will mean starting the day 45 minutes later. If I remember correctly it's about a 10-minute walk to the train station from Balmer's, and then another 20-minute ride to the Valley. So in theory I can leave early in the morning and be in the Valley 30-45 minutes later.

I think you forgot the most important Russian export (And no, I'm not referring to mail order brides)

I'll be in the Swiss Valley 27 April - 30 April. Any other jumpers/locals who want to hook up, send me a PM. I'm planning on staying at Balmer's Hostel. It''ll be my first time in the Swiss Valley, so I'd appreciate contact info of any locals, as well as any site guidelines that aren't mentioned in the "Jumping Guidelines" thread here. Cheers, Will P.S. Any suggestions about gifts to bring for Air Glacier / local farmers? I'm from Moscow, if you can think of any Russian paraphernalia that would interest.

There are a hell of a lot of Russian jumpers. Come on over.

I am GOD!!! In all seriousness though, I see no evidence for God and stopped believing in any kind of actively-involved deity a decade ago. If I were to be spiritual, deism (especially the Prime Observer theory) is attractive, but I personally don't subscribe. To me, the world is all cause, effect, and probability.

As far as I know, I'm the only person who travelled from Moscow to jump. However, there were quite a few Russian jumpers at the event, mostly from the New York area if I remember correctly.

I don't jump stowed with my 45". I do, however, pack it for climbing, with the full understanding that over time the spandex may have to be replaced. There are several reasons I do this: 1) It makes climbing with the rig easier. 2) It minimizes bridal exposure, compared to stowing the PC between rig and jumper, or in a side pocket. 3) It gives the jumper a slightly better chance of surviving in case of falling accidentally. 4) It looks better. So far the spandex hasn't stretched whatsoever - I still feel perfectly safe jumping with a 32" or 38" PC in the pouch. This may, however, change with time. If so, the pouch gets replaced. I'm not, of course, recommending anybody else stow their 43" or larger PC. It's just what works for me. However, that hard pull with a 45" PC makes me wonder about the potential of a hard pull with a 42". Nobody has so far mentioned anything they do to lessen the likelihood of, or test for, a hard pull. Does anybody have practices they use to prevent hard pulls? Or is it just accepted that hard pulls with 42" and smaller PCs aren't a significant concern?

Is there any way to check for a hard pull on the PC? I always check and repack my PC before exit (I've never been in a situation where there wasn't time for a thorough gear check, even on illegal objects). However, I can't think of any way to check for a hard pull on the PC, without actually removing it from the BOC. Yes, you can just give it a little nudge, say a few millimeters, but that's no guarantee that it'll move all the way out of the BOC without problems. The reason I bring this up is that I recently experienced, on the ground, a hard pull with a 45" PC. Granted, it was a 45" F-111 PC that had been packed for about two weeks. Still, if that kind of effort was required to remove a 45" from the BOC, I can easily imagine similar effort being required for a sloppily-packed 42". Any thoughts? What do you all do to help ensure an easy pull when going stowed?

Congrats Coco!!! It does add a sense of accomplishment to BASE to finally knock all the letters off. Is your dad working on the number too? Remember not to miss Moscow if you're gonna tour Europe. I reckon we've got a few objects around here to flick. Wanna open another B?

I finally received my copy of the Bridge Day DVD about two weeks back. Good stuff. Unfortunately, I got to watch it a total of one times before my disc bit the dust. I don't know what exactly happened, but either my computer case was too hot, or my DVD burner rewrote some sections of the disc, but there is now visible "distortion" on the disc surface. The disc is unplayable. Would someone be willing to send me an ISO image of the disc, so that I can burn myself a new copy? I can provide an FTP site and password to send the image to. Big thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out. P.S. I did actually _BUY_ a copy of the DVD. Of course, I could just be looking to pirate it on the Russian black market. You be the judge.

23 years old. One year in BASE. 32 jumps.

Just remove all the empty beer kegs and pizza boxes from your room - you'll have plenty of space. Or pack in the snow, you pussy. What's the worst that could happen??? BTW - I'm moving to a new super-tiny flat from Dec. 1, so no more packing at my place. P.S. For any newbies reading - DO NOT PACK IN THE SNOW!!! Packing in the snow is a BAD IDEA, and if not done carefully, can kill you.

I know that here we have a good deal of winter jumping. However, not nearly as much as in the summer. It's not that jumping in the winter is any more dangerous. It's just frickin' cold!!! It's not the difficulty of jumping in the winter that makes people jump less, but rather the discomfort. During the winter, B's become much more popular for one simple reason...the trip up is HEATED!!! Or, if it's not heated, at least it's sheltered. There are some advantages to jumping in the winter. Snow can cushion landings (otoh, ice can make them harder). Also, snow is VERY reflective, which can be a huge plus on night jumps. If you're near a big city, or have a full moon, it can feel almost like a daytime jump, with the ground well illuminated. Of course, there are also disadvantages, including: * discomfort * slick exit points * slick climb to exit point * extra clothing/gear * restricted mobility (due to extra clothing/gear) * possible increased visibility And of course, there's the biggest disadvantage to cold-weather jumps: The cold seriously fucks with your mental preparedness. Jumps that for me are a relative "walk in the park" during warm weather, with only minor nerves/fear, can seriously start to screw with my mind and confidence in the winter. The cold weather can turn what would otherwise be a normal jump into something seriously terrifying, without actually raising the danger level. It's simply a mental effect.

I know of one jumper who intentionally did his FJC just as winter was starting in order to reduce the risk of injury on landing. His logic was that all the extra snow would cushion the impact if he ended up doing anything dumb close to the ground. About three months after his FJC, he broke his femur getting his 'B'. If I remember correctly, there was plenty of snow on the ground by that time. Not that it helped him at all...... He broke his leg flying into the cement fence surrounding the property. The impact with the fence itself gave his femur the spiral fracture...not the fall to the ground that followed.