HELLvetic

Fly free Brother! I only met you briefly in Chamonix last december on a parking lot on our way to an exit point... When I first saw you I totally remember thinking:" Dude... is this old guy a jumper?" You got you stashbag out of your car and off we went to the exit point... Got to chit chat with you for 15 very intertaining minutes!!! You did come across as some sort of looney but in the most positive way!!! I had no idea that you were the guy behind the catapult... but now I put two and two together and I am not surprised in the least.... You are one of these guys who lived large and free... May I age as good as you did brother... RIP _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Too bad you couln't make it earlier cauz we will be in Norway from the 15 to the 31st of July... Dude you have to get your butt offshore man!!! Then base trips all the time. Oh yeah and one more things.. BBC is for wusssssies!! I'll show you next time how things are done! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

You "should" live...

You are sooo mean with Sven!!! Got to love him.. _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Can Î get a "HALELUJIA " for this!!! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

OH MY GOD!! You are a Red Bull Athlete!?! That is so impressive!!!! My ultimate wish in life is to become one... I sure can understand why you say it's a beautifull jump and all but saying it was one of your best jump really makes me wonder what your average/normal base jumps looks like. If this was one of your best exits, i sure want to see what your average exits look like... You are my new found hero!! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Here is a report of the first accident which took place at the nose on Saturday april 15th. Stefan was extremely conservative in his progression. His experience was about 35 bridge jumps, 2 building jumps, and a handfull (5 or 6 max) of cliff jumps he had made from the three most common exit points in LB during the few days prior to his accident. Stefan had a prior jump from the nose, so it was not the first time he jumped there when he had his accident. He was jumping an appropriately sized vented fox canopy with a 38 inch vented pilot chute. Stefan was a well known, respected rigger and was on top of his game in regards to gear maintenance, set up and packing. This is info gathered from people who saw the accident first hand. Stefan was making a stowed, slider up jump from the Nose when he had his accident. Same configuration as all the other jumps he had made in the valley in the prior days. It has been reported that he made a stable exit, took a nice but conservative delay during which he tracked a little and pulled high above the talus. The canopy inflated fully with a 180 at a reasonable distance from the wall. Wittness report that they saw him fly towards the wall with no visible attempt to turn the canopy around. It is unknown if he had twists or not as this could not be seen from the top. Stefan hit the talus a few times before the canopy collapsed and fell the rest of the way. Stefan was found with the right toggle unstowed in his hand. There is not much else I can say beside that Stefan was a very much loved and kind jumper who was very carefull in his progression. He was an amazing human being and he will be bitterly missed! He leaves a wife and two children. My prayers and thoughts goes out to them. Fly free my brother... _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Let's not get it all mixed up. There were two fatalities. One at the nose on Saturday (Stefan Grossman) and one at yellow ocean on Sunday. Base915 described the yellow ocean accident of sunday morning. He witnessed first hand what happend and in his words desribed the accident: I saw the footage of that jump and Base915's description is as acurate as they get. Nothing else more to say than it's a tragic and sad accident of someone with almost no base experience. For the first accident, the one of saturday that happend at the Nose, I/We are still trying to gather info as the picture is still not clear in regards to what exactly happened. People who witnessed the accident are not regular poster of DZ.com and I have yet to talk to one of them. I will post a report of the Nose accident as soon as we have crystal clear accurate info in regards to what exactly happened during that jump. _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Some pics of Stefan. Your smile, enthousiasm and unusual kindness is bitterly missed! PS: for those who wish, i have a few more pics and some footage of him as well. Please PM me. _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

I need to correct something. Stefan exited at the Nose and not LM. The nose is where stefan's accident took place. I was in the valley on Friday and saw Stefan make a jump from LM. I know stefan really well as I took him on his first B a few weeks back. He was a super head's up jumper and always safety concious to the point of anal retentiveness. He would always open his rig up at the exit point to make sure he was happy with his pack job and to square the center cell. He was a rigger for lots of parachutists here in the french part of switzerland and a really good one at that. I trusted my life to him when he inspected and reassembled my base rig after i had knarly tree landing a few weeks back. He always had solid exits that is why I took him on his first B. Stefan was a pretty big/bulky guy and was not jumping with any tracking pants. So from what I saw on his jump from LM his track was pretty weak. He pulled right at the begining of the talus and fairly close to it. I will post some pics of him soon. Fly free Stefan! I already miss you! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

DUUUDE!! Who is that hot, amazingly good looking guy in orange and black with you on the inner tube?? I think I am in love him Seriously bro, that little trailer reminded me of all the crap load of fun we had together and it also reminded why i jump... thanks for puting a smile on my face and a little sunshine on this gloomy day! See you soon for more "stupid ideas" I love you guys! thank you for being amazing human beings and friends. Chris _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Some more facts: Jumper is Swiss, experience level is around 40 jumps. Was doing his first few cliff jumps (5 or 6 max) Exited from LM. No track suit/pants. Very safety concious and head's up jumper... _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

No second fatality! Just mixed info! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Fatality is factual as I know the deceased jumper personally! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Sorry to report there has been a fatality in the Swiss valley today. No further details at this time! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Noooiice!! A bit stiff giving the thumb up in that second pic though! Congrats on her first jump!

Don't we all??? and the purpose of your post is??? I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer...so maybe you can enligthen me here a little! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Yeah Ian tha't what I was talking about!! You are truely the Ninja master!! All the other ones bow down an learn! Funny how I mentioned a 22 year old brunette... you went for the 35 year cute blonde mom!! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Congratulations my friend! Tha's a cool set up and I would have jumped it without a second thought. Only thing I would have maybe changed is clearing the branches around the pilote chute so it didn't get dragged through them with a possible chance of damaging it. Way to go! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

QuoteI asked him : how many jumps ya got ? Quote Come on! You guys have to be a little more sly that this!! I would start by stroking his ego a little by saying things like: "Oh my god, what you do is soo cool... I wish I had the balls to do what you do. You are an inspiration!!" Also I would pose/answer him as a young, hot, 22 years old brunette so he really catches the bait!

Don't get it all mixed up my friend... Platform diving will help you for the first few sec of a jump. After that you are shit of luck if you don't have the required skydiving skills/freeflying/ canopy control skills to deal with with all the nasty stuff that can happen past the four second mark... skydiving is a crap load of fun too!!! take your time and build the others skills that will keep you alive in Base first. Base is not going anywhere. You'll get your piece of the pie too... in due time! _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

I ,on the contrary, think that gymnastics and aerial talent are indeed very relevant to someone capacity to do a sucessfull aerial base jump. My point is, that no matter how you look at it, an aerial base jump is nothing else than a highdive jump from a tall platform. During the first five seconds of the jump, if you screwed up the launch/impulsion, you are just SOL! That's why the gymnastic/diving experience is really relevant! So you don't screw that part up! Past four/five seconds mark of a jump, another set of skills come in and that would be your freeflying/skydiving skills... those are the skills that will get you out of a bad situation should you have lost controll of the spins. The above mentioned skills can be acquired in an other environment than BASE. That's why number of base jumps are not so important in my opinion. Now of course, after the aerial, there is pull time! But usually the ones with good diving experience and freeflying skills will be able to pull relatively stable after their aerial. Then what you are left with is a conventional more or less stable pull which, like any other base opening even after a flat launch, can go to shit very easily. And that's where the base skills relevant to jump numbers come into play in my opinion. Now I am not saying, go head and throw all kinds of weird off axis stuff at 20 jumps. But if you really have the feeling you can nail a gainer (which to be honest in my book doesn't even count as an aerial) and only have 20 base jumps. I say go for it. But you have to have the background to do it... which is: - You have great body awareness. -you have thrown many aerial manoeuvres in an other ground sport (trampoline,highdiving, snowboarding..ect) -you have good canopy skills and you have the objects avoidance drills covered. - And last but not least, choose an appropriate object to do it... A 270 feet cliff or building is not appropriate for a first gainer. Someone mentioned that aerial are "for show" and are not necessary. I totally agree!! But following that reasoning... so is a BASE jump!! Totally unnecessary! But we still do it cause it's fun... _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

No worries man... It's all good! If you feel confident you can throw something in Base because you have previous experience "on the ground", then chances are it will turn out alright. (Provided you have the basics of base jumping drilled in and that you truthfully evaluate yourself regarding your skills to throw the manoeuvre) Jump numbers are not that relevant in my opinion. I have seen guys throw their first gainer at over a 100 jumps and completly hose them cause they never threw a flip on a diving board at the pool or on a trampoline before. I, like you, have been a gymnast when I was a kid, spend lots of my teenage summers at the local pool diving off the 10 meter platform just for fun. This is really the kind of experience that will help you throw a nice, "safe" and controlled aerial in BASE. You are ok in my book coco!! At least you have the balls to fess up to your antics. I tend to keep my "politically incorrect" antics/progression/fuckups to myself. _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

Dude you gonna jump that puuurdddy purple rig with your manly pink '87 fury and your psychedlic purple camo pants??? Another attempt at coming out of the closet?? You got to admit the facts are starting to pile on you... _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters

As of two weeks ago, the waterfall was still not open for jumping. To be honest I am not exactly sure what the official status of the waterfall is. I was there throughout the winter and we seem to get mixed answers regarding this spot. I am quite sure the engineering work at the foot of the waterfall is finished but the "keep off" tape around the the exit point as not been removed. After calling air glacier to make a jump from there two weeks ago we were informed that this exit is still closed for jumping. In doubt don't jump it!! There are plenty of other beautiful spots in the valley. If you absolutely want to jump from there, call air glacier and see what they say. You might get a different answer depending on who works there. But in any case do not jump from there without express permission from them! Be smart, Be respectful, Be safe. _________________________________________ Signature Max Size: 4 lines, 200 characters