Basejumper.com - archive

I've seen more than my share of irresponsible journalism, but this takes the cake.

I guess it never occurred to them we are better now at not getting caught.

And does anyone see this as a challenge . . .

NickD
BASE 194

http://www.azdailysun.com/...y.cfm?storyID=111205

I didnt know that square parachutes TEND to turn 180 on opening. I think Ill TEND to pack it backwards, then it will TEND to open the right direction. right? screw it, I'll just buy a round.

How do we contact this guy or his boss? Maybe one could tell his boss how much his research skills suck? Has anyone thought maybe the parks system might be behind this? Maybe they are feeding the reporters these untruths?

OR maybe it is best that he obviously didnt do his research, obvious again by his own comments?

freaking $^% irresponsible is the best you could say...

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Can one of you guys post the article? It seems to have disappeared into their archives...

Thanks

With Moab becoming popular in the late 90's, I can see why jumping *may* have declined there. But saying that we all got scared away from a fatality there is total BS.

dtglasenapp@route89.com

That has to be a ranger. not even a reporter is that stupid!

I do not think it to be wise to insult a ranger. Especially when we are trying to get access to legally jump... Wether or not he is or is not intelligent does not matter. In this instance it is better to let them think what they presently think...

Actually two of the most respected backcountry rescue individuals in the world are rangers, one in Utah and one in Colorado. The one in Utah is stepping down because of a new state ruling that prohibits him from getting paid as a Ranger AND goin out on rescues. Utah will start to lose many more people in the deep dark canyons.

>>I do not think it to be wise to insult a ranger. Especially when we are trying to get access to legally jump...<<

You're right, in a way, but there are too many of us with axes to grind. The Rangers, it can be said, aren't responsible as they are just following the law, but they have been doing it with an over-zealousness and glee that I'll never forgive or forget.

The Rangers were wrong in the 60s, wrong in the 70s, wrong in the 80s, wrong in the 90s, and they are wrong now. I'm for staking a claim to our right to jump. I'm not going to play nice and then be grateful when we finally prevail. We've earned our right to jump through blood and treasure, and I will do everything in my power to my dying day to make sure the NPS never forgets how they persecuted us . . .

I can see how some wouldn't agree with that, and that's fine with me. But, we're all after the same thing and it's going to take us attacking from all sides, in all ways, to finally win the day. Every time some one is busted in the Park, and they give the Rangers an earful, it furthers the cause in the same way a hundred polite letters do. There's a reason the term is freedom fighter, and not freedom writer . . .

NickD
BASE 194

In the same way that we don't like all of "us" being lumped together, and many of "us" being punished for the actions of a few, it's probably best not to confuse "rangers" for "NPS policy" or "NPS establishment."

There are plenty of individual people working for the NPS, and other governmental entities, who are friendly to BASE in general. I even know a couple cases where the two groups ("us" and "them") overlap in a single individual.

Have I told you the story about my friend who wanted me to wear his Ranger uniform for photos jumping in NPS land? Of course, since they made it illegal, I've been too scared to jump there.

Years ago, when I was going through my training to become a fire fighter, my self and the entire class were taking a break in the engine bay, when an alarm for a structure came over the load speaker.

All of the sudden, the door to the day room burst open and out came the on duty fire fighters, hooting and hollering with what could almost be called laughter and glee.
At first I was disgusted that these guys where getting so excited about someone loosing everything they had in the world or worse someone they loved but then I realized something more.

These guys were not happy for some ones misfortune but rather they were exited to finally get to use their training. Most calls to the fire house are not for fire but rather emergency medical calls and actuall fire calls are an event to be sure.

It has occurred to me that there have been rangers that have acted in the same manor as the fire fighters I saw that day. "finally, I get to chase a bad guy."
It's relative I know but think about it. You become a cop, of any stripe, so that you can catch law breakers. Remember, rangers and cops do not have the option of choosing what laws they will enforce and which ones they will not. I imagine it is the same for the ranger/cop as it is for the lion on the savannah. When you run from them, you trigger something inside them that makes them want to kick your ass. In fact, that is just the sort of behavior trait needed to become a cop in the first place. Right or wrong thats just how it is.
True there here have been plenty of rangers who have taken this sort of behavior way too far and there will be those who will go too far in the future, but remember that most of them are just trying to provide for their families the best way they know how. If youask me, enforcing the laws of the NPS would be far better than walking a beat in south central LA.
If we treat every ranger with the same disrespect that some of them have treated us with, then we will do nothing more than drive a wedge between us and those rangers who are not so over zealous and they may be the future brass of the NPS
Sure, fight the good fight and stand up for your rights, but if you break the law (even a stupid one) expect a reaction. Don't make it worse by giving the responding officers the finger. That is unless of course you actually want to get your ass kicked.

I dig that, and I know a few BASE friendly Rangers too. There's one fellow I put through a skydiving AFF course when he was in college who later became a Park Ranger. He told me he's met other Rangers who don't hold with the old beliefs. However he said many young Rangers, who have no preconceived ideas on parachuting, regularly get their minds poisoned by the system. After Dan Osmond (spl?) was killed rope jumping at El Cap he wrote me saying Rangers were saying, "That's makes BASE jumping look pretty sane."

So sure, I know there are good and bad everywhere. But I hold the system responsible, and I hold the instruments of that system responsible too. When I was in the Marine Corps we actively protested the Vietnam War from within and it cost some of us dearly. But, the lesson I learned is when you believe something is wrong, you can't hide behind the system.

NickD
BASE 194

This is not entirely true.

Law enforcement officers are permitted great leeway in some areas and none in others. The same applies to prosecutors to an even greater degree.

The fact of the matter is that making an arrest for an essentially victimless crime speaks to the character of the arresting officer, not to mention his boredom index on any given day.

My experience is on the state level as to parks and the federal level as to...other things.

<rubs hands together gleefully> I've been wanting to use this C.S. Lewis quote for days:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

rl

I generally agree, but I also know rangers who didn't become rangers wanting to be cops. Backcountry rangers and climbing rangers, for example, generally become rangers because it's a job that allows them to live their chosen lifestyle (hanging out in the backcountry for weeks on end, climbing big walls, etc), rather than because they want to catch law breakers. While they are deputized for law enforcement duty (the Yosemite climbing ranger hauls his gun up big walls, believe it or not), I don't think it's where their real passion lies.

No doubt. I'd love to be a ranger if all I had to do all day was keep yogi from steeling picka nic baskets. What a life that would be.

What I was trying to say was that there is/was a better way for him to express his thoughts in a more productive manner and still convey the same intent in the message. There are ways to say fuk you without actually saying those words and say it with a smile


PS RLK nice quote, I like the part "but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

As soon as the NPS de-criminalizes BASE, I'll be first in line to apply for the job of Yosemite BASE Ranger.

I know this is stupid, but I still wonder.
What if 100 or 200 BASE jumpers all showed up at El Cap and started jumping, just like at Kjerag in Norway?

No official notice, no promise to get arrested....no using somebody else's gear...and no notice to the media, unless a jumper has a lead to somebody who will for sure write a sympathetic article.

I just wonder.....it is a dream, but why not dream?

We've even got a date for it. Check BASE 428's signature line.

Mass Protest. You wouldnt really need to jump, just don the rigs at the exit point. Sort of a nonviolent (non jumpin) form of civil unrest. It would bring a certain amount of publicity, but no crimes would be commited. I'll go.

I like that idea... I wonder how many rangers are on call at any given point in the day near there?

I also think that's a great idea. You get a strong enough showing and the powers that be might look at things a little different.

Then again we might all get arrested and have our gear confiscated, but that might present the NPS and the legal system necessary to support their actions a whole other level of introspection. It may give us the leverage necessary to file a class action suit and actually make a difference in the argument.

Anbody got a date in mind???

Putting on rigs would not get the job done.

The actual jumping would be essential, the more the better. It could not be just a few, it would have to be hundreds.

Sort like trying to herd cats, but it is an idea that ought to be considered.

I am tired of waiting out the bums who make the irrational NPS regs, or playing by their rules with lawyers and hidebound bureaucrats. I want to see legal NPS jumping in MY lifetime, not my grandchildrens'.

Just like Tom said, check out my signature line. That will be the 30th anniversary of my El Cap jump where I received my BASE number and I plan to celebrate it with another jump. And that's a promise.

That's too long. I'll be like 61 on Viagra by then...

Ok well maybe not the Viagra part.

why not a 10 year aniversary? 30 is sooooo over done! plus my A.D.D.....what was i gunna say?

What made you decide to make it a 30th anniversary deal? Why not 10, 15, 20, 25, whatever?

Ganja "where do we sign up?" Rodriguez

I dunno why I selected 30 years. I'll be 54 years old then, and I figured that I'd be at my BASE retirement age. Maybe I would go out with a bang....at least the bang of the jail doors shutting on me. It would be a great way to end my BASE career.

If you guys wanna do this sooner, you're more than welcome to organize it. I'm just giving myself the next 20 years to recruit my accomplices.

But perhaps Nick is right. Dating back to the 1966 El Cap jump, the rangers have been sticking it to us. That's nearly 40 years of discrimination. Maybe it's time to stop being nice and show them how we really feel?

Then maybe the 40 year El Cap BASE birthday next year. What was the exact date?

This idea has been simmering on the stove for many years. Putting off 200 + from El Cap, sort of like "The Great Escape" and Martin Luther King's march against intolerance through the south, all rolled into one. A civil disobedience protest that would make headlines around the world.

The last failed attempt at this sort of thing took the starch out of it, and I wasn't a supporter of that anyway, because six people aren't going to convince anyone of anything, even if it had gone better. We have to overwhelm them either as individuals jumping everyday or all of us at once.

I mean, come on, they have their schedule and we have ours. We can either wait for them to let us jump, or we can seize the right. Nothing else has worked, not lawyers, not letter writing, not quiet indignation, and we've been at it for over 27 years.

We need to make enough noise that the Joe Six-packs and the Soccer Moms across the nation wonder too why we can't jump. No one I've ever met in my life doesn't think BASE jumping is a cool thing, even when they would never consider it themselves.

We are magic boys and girls, we are the very embodiment of what is best about the human spirit, and the only thing stopping us is us . . .

I swear, as Carl Boenish is my witness, I will stand there and let them haul me off to what ever fate awaits me. The Yosemite dungeon would not hold us all, so makeshift pens would await us and we'd chant, "Let the Brothers Go . . . surrounded by climbers who have suffered for years under what they call oppression by the "tool." Climbers would marvel at us, and wonder why they haven't done the same.

We live in time when it "is" possible to gather 200, maybe even 300, very experienced BASE jumpers in one place. The time is now, the reason is just, and the fate of the sport is in our hands. We can roll over, or we can stand up. We can submit or go down fighting. When you are sitting on your porch, old and grey, and reminiscing on your hundred potato bridge jumps and your grandchild asks, "Gran, what did you do during the great BASE war of 2005, what are you going to say?

We can do the details though good old snail mail, they may know we are coming, but they won't know when. This will call for every stealth lesson we've ever learned over time, but the difference this time is it won't be about any individual, it will be about the sport, the thing that brought here in the first place.

Let's Seize the Right . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Would it work better if we all got busted, or if we all got away?

Will I get a T-shirt if I participate? Either way, I'm in. Just don't throw me off FIRST.

you can almost see the rangers starting to sweat...

I really don't think the rangers will care. It will not overload their resources anyway.

When you're arrested for BASE jumping in Yosemite, you're transported to the jail where you're processed and booked. After that, you're placed in a cell. Once this is done, you're free to leave until your court date as long as you have $500 to bail out. If you are found guilty, the $500 is applied to your fine.

I imagine if 200 of us go off the rock, they'll herd us up as best they can (I imagine a few will get away since it will be very difficult for them to chase 200 BASE jumpers at the same time) and maybe they'll catch half of us. It would not be hard to put 100 people in a room and charge/book us assembly line style.

They will probably not hold anyone in jail as long as we each carry $500 in our pocket to post bail. Oh yeah, there is a midnight cutoff to post bail.

Edit: Which means we can all go out and get piss drunk the same evening

T-shirts for all and the ones who already limp go first . . .

NickD
BASE194

so, what would happen if only half the group actually jumped, the other half simply stood around AS IF they had landed?

would they be able to prove whom had done what?

or would they book everyone for "conspiracy?"

who's up for hiding in the LZ, rigged up, and just walking out?

Brilliant!

Or, what if we all just drove in, got out of our cars, put on unpacked rigs, and started milling around the meadow? What would they do? What if we started packing? 200 rigs being packed in El Cap meadow? I can imagine the pure befuddlement in the Ranger station...

"I dunno, Ron, I don't think they're breaking any laws."
"But Jack, we've got to _do something_."
"Sure, what you want me to do?"

Yeah... that's too funny.

The worst of it, and a thing we seem to accept, and I don't know why, is that by just talking about it, we are guilty of conspiracy . . .

NickD
BASE 194

I don't think it's that simple. If it was, Tom Clancy would be in jail for conspiracy to commit the 9/11 attacks.

>>Brilliant!

Or, what if we all just drove in, got out of our cars, put on unpacked rigs, and started milling around the meadow? What would they do? What if we started packing? 200 rigs being packed in El Cap meadow? I can imagine the pure befuddlement in the Ranger station...

"I dunno, Ron, I don't think they're breaking any laws."
"But Jack, we've got to _do something_."
"Sure, what you want me to do?" <<

This is really starting to go someplace! I sure hope those of us capable of organizing and motivating can convert these ideas to action. There is good stuff here!

I'm pretty sure if I even show up in the meadow with a rig, they're going to lock me up and ask questions later.

Damn bust last summer......

Come on Brothers and Sisters . . .

Let's Rock . . .

NickD
BASE194

And for that, you wouldn't even need jumpers. My aunt bessie could put on a rig. Then when they busted her, she'd claim she never woulda had no intenshun of jumpin' nohow--and it would be believable.

Aunt Bessie in cuffs is just what we need. Bring her . . .

NickD
BASE 194

>>>Aunt Bessie in cuffs is just what we need. Bring her . . .

NickD
BASE 194 <<<

Charter a few tour busses (a lot cheaper than a trip to Norway or Lauterbrunnen), some go to the Tioga road El Cap trailhead to hike across, a couple go the Valley for hiking up from the bottom and maybe one goes with all the Aunt Bessies and ground crewers to put on their unpacked rigs. When everybody starts landing and milling around in the landing area, it will be totally confusing. A lot of people without rigs could point to the ground crewers who did not jump and insist to the rangers they saw them land, and later say they were mistaken. It would drive the bureaucrats nuts, and would warm the hearts of climbers, tourists sympathetic climbing rangers and everybody else....What a sight that would be...the end of the BASE ban, as long as nobody got hurt.

 

>>200 "uneventful" BASE jumps happen off one site.<<

We can do that, we've done it from other objects before . . . with ease and aplomb. . . .

We need no one's permission or support!

NickD
BASE 194

Count me in, for any of the above plans. I'll be there! I can provide two extra rigs for non-jumping decoys.

Does anybody with a solid reputation and organizing experience want to start something?

 

Sorry, didn't mean to take a stab at Abbie here. I think that there is great potential and support for an act of civil disobedience. However, I also think that, all bravado aside, such a plan should not be taken lightly and be approached with the utmost care. If anybody were to get hurt on such a protest jump, it would set us back many years. In my opinion that implies setting minimum requirements for jumpers, in terms of accountability, trustworthiness and experience. I would rather see ten jumpers and fifty decoys, than sixty jumpers. Imagine the political turmoil such an invite-only event could cause in the North American base community.

I won't jump El Cap as long as it is illegal. The potential consequences are not worth the jump to me. However, the cause transcends the jump. I'll happily play decoy, get arrested, have my gear confiscated and spend money on a fine.

Tell me when, and I'll be there.

actually, that may not be necessary.
everyone should wear the same thing, such as a black pro-tec, jeans, and an orange t-shirt printed for the event. they DON'T wear a rig, just a stash bag (again, all the same) stuffed with whatever. could be protest banners. even have a spare "kit" bag for the actual jumpers. (heck hide your real gear. you MIGHT avoid confiscation...)

I'm betting a manufacturer would be happy to sew up 100 identical stash bags...

non-jumpers would be welcome.

unless they had good video set up, I doubt they could tell us apart...

orange t shirts dont exactly fit in with the wilderness, unless of course u are hunting. camo, maybe a little agressive, but a nice forrest green t shirt with just the right amount of protest speach on it, can aid in avoiding detainment.

this event, should it happen, should NOT occur on a holiday weekend, ie labor day. I believe they up the ranger patrol on those high traffic weekends. plus it might cause a traffic accident.

the point of the orange IS to be visible! I envisage more people on the ground than in the air! aunts, cousins, whuffo's, significant others, etc. can all participate.

remember the point of a protest IS to draw attention!

heck, just people hiking the trails in this outfit, chatting with other visitors would be helpful.

after reviewing another post, 24 July 2006 sounds like a great day... the 40th anniversary of the first bust!

[. In my opinion that implies setting minimum requirements for jumpers, in terms of accountability, trustworthiness and experience. i]
Lets not forget that each jumper should be very current with both gear and jumps. No point repeating the mistakes of the past.

Wow, I awoke this morning to find an idea has sprouted wings.

This may sound sappy, but I love you guys, and I'm proud to be associated with each of you . . .

NickD
BASE 194

 
How about also making it a charity jump ??? I'd like to see how the NPS or judge could generate negative publicity about a large event which also raised money for a good cause !!!!

 

Has everybody forgotten about this? Has anything happened since? I just stumbled upon this thread. I would love to help out with any organizing. The charity idea sounds great to me! Just need a cause.... Aside from legal jumps.

Well. Lets make that a date. Is that an open invite? I would love to celebrate with you.

If its ok with you, I'd love to organise a large CRW formation record there too!!!! Anyone for a speed stack? No, I'm not joking. I'm f*(&ing serious...

Funny, I wreckon they'll have the national guard in on that day. Maybe USA customs (fingerprint and photo - or at that time they will just take DNA and record your chip implant data as you whizz past).


Nick - and we will become more so as big brother and all this crap about freedom and security leads us well beyond our Orwellian futures.

I am In as well as the rest of our crew.
Grumpy

NickDG!!!!!!! Build it and we will come.

Lets do this thing, not just talk about it.

<<<<Just like Tom said, check out my signature line. That will be the 30th anniversary of my El Cap jump where I received my BASE number and I plan to celebrate it with another jump. And that's a promise. >>>>

Sounds good. We just passed up the 40th anniversary of my El Cap jump last month.

nick,
you should offer us each a free rig & canopy to jump.
then everyone could have the same colors and logo.

you'all hear about the 3 paragliders being busted last year for kiting in toulome meadows? apparently getting three feet off the ground is aerial delivery. they'd probably bust 200 people packing just the same.

NPS has a "conspiracy to commit aerial delivery (or operating an aircraft)" charge they'll throw at you just for having a rig, and they don't treat it much differently than having witnessed you make a jump. Just a warning.