Basejumper.com - archive

It was his 2nd jump that day and his 2nd jump from the Nose. He jumped straight, tracked, opened at around 200 m off the ground (half-way down the face), had a 180 and hit the cliff 3 secs later.

...based on 99 jumps I have done in the LB valley and about 30 from the Nose.

On first appearance the Nose looks like a relatively easy and safe jump. The exit points (1,2 and 3) are all pretty solid and the cliff seems radically overhung. Unfortunately this can be deceptive as the overhang dissapears after about 200-250m and the cliff then becomes underhung. A short delay (4-5 sec) slider up means you can open directly above a near vertical talus. Correcting an offheading with a resultant loss of altitude means its quite possible to collapse your canopy on this "talus" which is more like an 80 degree slope. The result can be cliff strike, temporary hang-up on the talus and deflation of your canopy before starting the last 200m of the jump with a deflated-rolled up canopy.

In contrast, taking a longer delay, out tracking the talus can allow clearance from all the cliff and opening above a paddock with sufficent height-clearance to manage an off heading. Given the increased off heading rate with short delays slider up, maybe re-evaluating your next jump off the nose is in order. Answering "Yes" to 3 questions may help: Will I go slider up? Do I feel comfortable tracking over a talus at an altitude that may make some jumpers nervous? Are my tracking skills up to speed?