kudos to the hanwags
conditions seemed ideal. wind speed, direction, and a nice moon all spelled get my kit and get the hell up a tower! good direction for my neighborhood tower so i grab gc and head. driving out there, i can’t see a bit of the nice moon we’re supposed to have tonight. maybe it will rise while i climb, or maybe it won’t matter - so onward i go.
sneaking up to the fence, i notice some new stuff hanging around the base of the gem... i climb into their little compound and survey the situation. looks like someone’s been here recently and i figure they’re just doing maintenance or adding a dish again or something (that’s the only problem here – they keep bolting more and more crap onto it). it’s really, really, dark and hard to even see my arms – so i think twice about the little maneuver i’m up to. looking around and realizing the winds are ideal, i decide to climb and see how it looks from above.
once above, i find a new stinger right below where i wanted to jump – plan modification time. i can hardly see the ground, so it would be nice to have plenty of altitude to setup and that would also provide a chance at flying around the guys and landing near the gc’s car headlights – but this friggin stinger is now blocking that plan. i could go way higher and free fall it, or i could just static line from where the stinger starts and land in the pitch dark. it’s heating up hanging out by this transmitter so i decide to get after it and go SL from 220’.
the winds are cranking between the wires, perfect direction but a bit heavy. as i wait for my ride to light up a spot on the road nearby so i have a alti reference, i tie off my pc with breakcord and start wondering if when i let it inflate if it will be pulling close to 80lbs! i decide to just keep it collapsed until i’m outside with it between my feet, then i’d be ready and i’ve got enough alti for a free fall with this pc – i’d just have to downwind the landing. so my ride pulls up and i climb out and release my bridle, it immediately wraps itself around my leg and the pc slips out and inflates, whipping around and going crazy. i untwist my leg, climb another 6’ up and jump my arse out of there.
it’s a nice launch and on opening i see the canopy is heading right @ 30 degrees – do to my proximity to the wire and nerves, i slightly overamp or correct too soon with a riser. so this slightly stalls my opening and i see tower flying by behind my feet – i get the toggles, let it fly for 1 second – now i’m clear pretty far with the winds – look down for my lz and can’t see shit. so i flat turn while focusing on the car’s headlights and i get about 100 degrees closer to being into the wind. however, there’s not with enough altitude to complete the turn, so i keep turning slowly from half brakes, looking down now for the flare but can’t see shit. I flare just from instinct but that’s a little too high, ooooooooo time to plf! sinking straight in, a bit crosswind and bingo, i feel the ground hitting me so i collapse like a rag doll as i notice my right foot is a lot deeper than the left and entering a friggin ankle eating gopher hole! the landing wasn’t too bad, but it was hard and i felt it in my back. my ankle was fine though! so this is why i’m really glad i wore the hanwags tonight!
if you’re new to base and think your tennies will work – think twice, buy some ankle gear – some day, you may wind up really happy like me!
