base915

F111 or ZP? Could the PC have been, or got, damp when it was packed? Packed in a warm environment then taken outside to the cold with moisture like melted snow or sweat on it? I've heard of hard pulls due to frozen PC's in skydiving before and that's been at the back of my mind when winter BASE jumping. I'd guess that this would be more of an issue with F111 than ZP. Mike

I'm seriously interested. Got any dates in mind? Mike

Slightly off topic but: Does anyone know if low temperatures have any adverse affects on F111 or dacron? And if so how low?

Hey Doc, nice photos. Has the lump on yer heed from Norway gone down? Are you jumping at all over new year? Mike

Working OK, just snowing heavily. Perhaps that's the problem? Simply install Snowplough v1.1 or spray some antifreeze on your screen... that should do the trick.

I have 44 jumps on my 288 Rock Dragon, bought this year. 1 from a 500 foot pylon, 24 from a 340 foot tower, 17 from a 975 foot tower and 2 from a 850 foot cliff. Jumps ranged from G&T's to 5sec delays. Only one off heading which was pretty certainly down to body position. Used half break approaches and sank it in several times, loved the way it did this, very confidence inspiring. Was slightly surprised by the amount of forward speed but that may have been a reaction to the amount of obstacles and size of the landing area. I've not tried it on properly terminal jumps so can't comment on that, yet, (Swiss valley this weekend ;-) but very happy with it so far. M

The implication that the 1st jump course in Norway is ultra risky is wrong. I did my first jumps there. It was the best experience of my life bar none. If you have the requisite number of skydives (250+ I believe), pay attention to the excellent tutelage you get from the instructors at the Base Klubb, do enough practice exits on the pendulator then you'll be prepared. Many, many people have done first jump courses there. (and lived) IMHO The intensity of the whole jumping in Norway experience wins hands down over falling off a bridge. If you want to do it don't be put off.

Me to. I got one from Dmitry shortly after he set up http://www.atmogear.com/. I like it.

I borrowed a big javelin and free stowed my new Rock Dragon 288 in it. Had to lengthen the closing loop a little and it took some squeezing to fit it in but it worked fine. Sorry don't know the size of javelin, I'll try to find out for you. Lovely canopy by the way. Mike

I feel I must spring to the defence of one American. - Trucker BASE, the ONLY quiet American.

"This sling isn't going to last long loaded and sliding down a wire. Then you swing into the tower and if you don't fall you have two potential victims. IF I was trying to improvise this I might use a pulley instead of a sling." Depends what type of sling you use and how fast you abseil. The main load is on the abseil rope, the sling is just to keep you next to the wire. There will be friction so maybe use a steel wire strop or a rope protector round the sling. I don't recon you will find a pulley big enough, not easily anyway. "Your trying to transfer the load from one anchor to another. Sling to Sling To do this you have to be able to take the load off. Not to mention the larks headed sling may or may not hold on a wire cable. What happens when you find yourself with the sling sliding down, again being cut and you out of control? " In the situation I was describing the rope stays anchored to the antenna at the head of the guy wire. All you are doing is putting in a re-belay. If you think a larks head will slip add another turn to the knot and hey presto you have a prussik knot which won't slip (even if it did, the forces on it would push it back up the guy wire and not very fast at all). Add the rebelay to the tensioned rope above your belay device, no effort required, then all you have to do is pull yourself a little closer to the wire and unclip the sliding sling from your harness and ease yourself on to the rebelay. 1 or 2 foot at most. Getting the "victim" onto your harness and repelling with both is not an easy task. I practiced this two weeks ago with the proper gear. Also, you may or may not have enough friction for the two person load depending on what you chose. We use 6 bar racks. In this situation getting the victim attached to your harness is easy. If you abseil down till you are level with their head, lock off the stop or ID, clip a quick draw onto each of the large rings on their BASE harness and to your harness belay anchor point. Then cut their lines or use the cut away to get them on to your harness, they will hang from your main anchor point between your legs. For abseiling I'd use a petzel stop or an 'ID' with the tail round a karabiner on your leg loop for extra friction. This is relatively easy compared to a mid rope rescue from a croll or other ascending device. No counterbalance or pulley systems required. I do agree that training would be a good idea. The IRATA L1 course would be good. Plenty of rescues, knots, rebelays, etc in that.

Oh Yes. Very, very 'offshore'! You know what I mean Blue Tongue. Are you staying out of the smokers T shack? That's why I reply to emails within 3 seconds and monitor three BASE forums at once Yup, a brand new Level 2 rope access monkey. BTW. I don't think returning to the antenna is a good idea. Just makes the rescue more difficult. It is possible to do the whole rescue with one rope and a few slings leaving at most one sling behind on the guy wire. You can work your way down the guy wire with choked soft slings. Then abseil to the casualty etc etc..

Gus 'Life on a line' is 3 downloadable pdf documents and is superb. Well worth reading for rope rescue stuff. If I read you right, you want to recover someone from a hang up on a guy wire with minimal kit and personnel? What if they are unconscious, and if they weren't injured initialy they may be after the swing to the antenna? I've never done this, it's just my thoughts and open to critique: The rope should be as long as the guy wire, you could use two or three ropes joined with double fishermans knots (lot of stretch though and you need to have two belay devices for passing the knots) Secure the rope to the antenna at the top of the wire and abseil down the wire to them, use a sling round the wire for this. When you get to a point above them, just before the canopy wrapped round the wire. Use another sling in a larks head choked round the wire, clip the working rope (the rope under tension) to this with a karabiner (you now have a rebelay), remove the sliding sling and try to clip this through as many of the parachute lines as poss and to your harness anchor point. The hung up jumper is now secure (ish). Now abseil down verticaly to level with the (unfortunate) jumper lock off your abseil device and swing accross till you can grab or wrap your legs roun them. Attach them to you probably via largest of the three rings (both) and either cut the parachute away or cut the lines. You should now both be suspended from the rope and free to abseil to the ground (if the rope is long enough. Remember the extra friction point for the extra weight. Also be aware of suspension trauma. An unconscious but live casualty hanging in a harness can be killed by being released from suspension. I.E layed on the ground. Blood pooled in the large muscles of the legs will build up metabolic toxins and overload the system when released, causing death. (I'll try to find the artical on this). The casualty only has to be hanging immobile for 20mins for this to happen but that time varies per person. This is my humble opinion only, apart from the suspension trauma, that's fact. Comments? Mike

There are some ultra light, and thin, single dynamic ropes on the market - like the Mammut - Revelation 9.2mm - which would be lighter than the static rope you have. Great for sports climbing but in a rescue situation I would deffo prefer the 11mm static. Two would be better, a working rope and a backup (OK, that's maybe a bit OTT). I recon it's OK to sweat a little on the climb and carry a stronger rope or two. You could concievably be loading the rope with two persons plus base gear, you and the rescuee will feel a lot better if dangling on a rope rather than a string. Also, you would have to look at the hardware you intend to use with the rope. For example; the abseil device you would use for descending to the 'casualty', and possibly with the casualty attached to you. Will it work; i.e provide enough friction to slow you (both) down. You may need to consider adding more friction into the system; an extra karabiner attached to your harness leg loop should do the trick. Clip the free end of the abseil rope through the karabiner after the abseil device to add another friction corner to the system. And remember any knot you tie in the system will reduce the breaking strain of the rope. Even the best figure of eight or figure of nine knots will reduce breaking strains by up to ~20%. Look at 'Life On A Line' for rescue and rope access techniques. This is primarily a resource for cavers but the techniques have also been adapted for use in industrial rope access. http://www.draftlight.net/lifeonaline/download/ http://www.irata.org/ Cheers. Mike.

It's not vintage and nothing super spectacular happened but it's the story of one of my most favourite jumps so far. Me 'n Kiwi Bennie, are halfway through a two week European BASE trip. Driven my van from home in Empuria’ to the Swiss valley via the big gorge in SE France and the big wall in the French alps. I scared the poo out of myself, and Bennie, with a 3 sec canopy ride in the gorge and we’re both on cloud nine after some spectacular jumps in stunning locations, but the best is yet to come. Sitting in the Horner drinking beer and trying to chat to the Danish barmaids (getting no where by the way) listening to the ‘no shit there I was’ stories from the other jumpers, a nice place to be… A couple of Dutch guys and a dodgy South African ;) mention that they are going to try to jump the well-known fungus the next morning so I ask if we could tag along. I don’t think they were too keen to start with but after a couple of beers they agreed. On the 7 o’clock train to the glacier station we got the first glimpse of the wall, the weather was perfect - Bollock$, run out of time to finish the story, can’t write for $hit anyway so I’ll show you the piccies instead: Mike

Cheers Tom, Just found a possible solution; all the Slinks are now shipped with 'Performance Designs’ Slink© Riser Covers (SRC’s)' which should, according to the blurb, 'prevent that pesky slider from ever coming over your toggles again.' Mike

I've been thinking about changing to soft links on my base rig, I'd trust them more than steel. But what happens to the slider on slider up jumps? Does it, or could it, travel down the back risers and interfere or cover the steering toggles?

Shhhh, listen! ...Nope. No fat lady singing, which can only mean one thing... It isn't over yet. A speedy recovery my friend (not met yet). On the positive side that's 50% less chance of getting a testicle caught under a leg strap on opening. Or a good excuse / reason for the future off-heading openings. I'm with Trucker "why oh why didn't I take the blue pill" BASE, you can have one of mine, I'm just wasting them on the porn channel on this oil rig. That's all there is to it. Cheers. Mike (Scotland)

Hey Gil, Will the new 'B' be high enough for a FULL gainer? ...and didn't we pay the fine in Hooters, Interlaken? (does that count as site naming, Doh!) Anyhoo, fines like that I'm happy to pay. Can I also request some 'grip strip' foot prints at the exit point for the next jump; would have laughed more at J going head down from 290' if I wasn't so bloody scared. M

Excellent, more people to jump with! Also planning to be in the valley at that time. Sometimes more snow is good, the paths were very icy in Nov and Dec.... Good boots and GPS; what could possibly go wrong?

'nother PM sent. Mike

Hello Uncle C, I'm planning to be in or around the valley at that time, want to hook up? ... I need a few tips on how not to kill myself in my S-Flyer. Mike

Oh OK then, count me in

Also Warlock containers from Vertigo.

Don't forget the Atmosphere / Hacker combo from ParAAvis: http://www.paraavis.com/en/parachutes/rigs/atmosphere/ Both Atmosphere and Hacker have undergone some recent changes: Hacker - with 4 vents & zp valves, 240, 260 (290 coming soon). Atmosphere - back pad zipper pocket 250mmX340mm, dynamic corners, reserve attachment points (for skybase, paraglide style reserve) big grab toggles and slider keepers. #915 Fido, how's the jumping going?