Basejumper.com - archive

Hey Guys!

Here is the new official FRASCA II.3 at Walshmens Walk Collum.

I will post some more things, but i just wanted to get as many (Full Resolution!) pictures as i can. Anything from the Rope jump i want, B-role stuff and all.

Please Email full res shots to me, if there is more than a few, maybe send me a CD if it is not too much trouble?

My Email:
mhecker1@mscd.edu

If you are sending a CD, My Address will be:

Matt Hecker
SINE Innovations
115 S. 34th st.
Boulder, Co 80305

and of course, any footy that i was not able to firewire, especialy the good stuff, i would love. I know it would be a pain, but a tape or a AVI file on cd will work great. I am throwing together a video of the week, all the stuff at the walk, and a few highlights elsewhere.

Please do this with Haste, i am already getting ancy to start editing and i need all the footy. PM me if you are sending, so i know how long to wait.

Also, I need a list of all the People who jumped our system, first names are fine but full is better. I just want it all in the credits.


Alex and I just finished the De-rig (untangling ropes at home) started at 9am today. (ugg, i didnt sleep much last night sigh...), 5 hours of rope stuffing, untieing, cleaning, and organising. we looked over all the system, the stress points we usualy find damage. All looked well. the only thing we noticed was a core shot on the reserve line at the knot on the jumpers side from somebody forgeting to clear the reserve fully before rapping, we noticed it onsite, cut it, and retied it. Other than that the system had no squaks.

We measured the lines, (we do this to catalog the stretch over time and usage) the jumplines were normal, about 3 percent longer than before they were ever weighted. The tyroleans had no noticable change after we let them recover on the long ride home.

FRASCA II.3 took 8 hours of pre-rigging(Alex and I) it took 5.5hours to rig onsight (Alex, Nic, me, kevin, Nicholas, Kevin2) The system was up for 2 half days and 2 full days of jumping. it took 119 jumps in that time. it took 10 people less than an hour to tear down and stuff in the car (special thanks to the Last load and teardown crew, the Canadians.)

As for everyone who jumped, Im glad it all went well. Only 1 jump mishap, a jumpline wrap that cleared itself violently (they tend to do that on rope jumps) I really want footy of that if anyone has it.

Sadly, I think that was our last system at Walshmens Walk. We have outgrown that sight. We have gone much bigger, but not with such a reliable, repeateble system. We will return, as usual, with bigger dreams and longer falls. We need a new sight, over 130 meters at least.

I was impressed with the level of maturity (did -I- just say that out loud?) that the people who jumped our system approached it with. everybody who jumped understood that it was not a amusment park ride, and every bit as dangerouse as a BASE jump with different risks. In NO way do we guarentee our system, but we obviously fealt comfortable enough letting 33 first time "deathcampers" huck it.

One thing i noticed was the difference between BASE jumpers and Climbers, about equal amounts of the two tried the jump, and the climbers were obviously much more technicaly prepared for the system, but they also took the Hit (the rope catch) much better, they knew what rope falls were like and carried that over. While BASE jumpers had better Exit performance and free fall position, they were surprised by the way the rope suspended them. this is to be expected, naturaly. It was strange to see, how relaxed a BASE jumper is with GOING IN ground rush,

And as usual, PLEASE, dont try this at home. Better men than me and my crew have died screwing this stuff up. IT IS NOT SIMPLE. It took us 5 years to get comfortable enough to build this system and let our brothers and sisters try it on. If you really want to start this, come along on a full system. Scouting to measuring, designing to prerigging, the first onsight tests, and finaly a jumpable system. You will probably change your mind.

Start with bridge jumps, have us or somebody who knows what they are doing take you. (you guys know who you are) Tyrolean Systems are by far the most dangerous and complex.

anyway, hope everybody is well, glad MOAB was MOAB, because it always is.

I included some of my favorite pictures, enjoy!

Cheers!


and I love you all. *sigh...

Great pics, but I totally don't understand this.

Is there a video I could download to see exit to end?

Moad Rope Swing

Link to The Moab Chronicles

.

It looks like Russel got an E of sorts after all.E

Hey Matt

massive thanks to you and your crew for sharing this!

you guys really hooked us up, Brad is definitely addicted now, Sparky couldn't stop talking about the rope jumps and I still can't decide if the rope jump or the base jump from the Tyrolean was the bigger rush...

it was a pleasure to meet you all and to be able to give a little back by helping pack up.

PM sent with names.

cya
sam

Edited to add: one of the most awesome things was seeing Andrew and Jimmy (the climbers from Canada, who I met when we climbed Castleton Tower the same day as them) do their first rope jumps, so true what you said about climbers and basejumpers, I hope I exhited some of my neglected climbing experience...

Guys the rope jumps were sick that was the first time i had even even seen this and you guys letme get three in the groundrush was quite outstanding. I went to moab with a basejumping addiction and came back with a ropejumping addiction you guys rock i would love to come out and scout a site and learn how to do the set up.
can't thank you enough
B.rad
(Canadian last load)

That video is sick. Major ground rush.
Hope to see more soon.
DQ

*sigh*.....

Hey guys!

Thanks so much for sharing your system. The setup is fabulous, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work that went into designing it and setting it up. Three days later, I still think about the jump pretty much every time I close my eyes.

Michael Cooper
(a happy rope jumper)

Wow, that was amazing. Just when I think I have done everything I want to do you have to post something like that.

Ditto... well said. Thanks so much for letting me play on your ropes. The 2 jumps I got were amazing!!
Thanks again!!
Jen
(the girl )

Oh Yeah! we need to share the best quotes of the week, my memories...

"MATT! what are you doing?"-jesse
"I dono man, just film it"-Matt

"heres to smokin' it low..."- sparky

"I kinda wish i hadn't done a gainer..."- After a Jumpline wrap between the legs. ouch.

"The wind is coming in waves, it will be gone in 2 minutes!"- sparky

hehehe... it was 'here's to smokin' it down" hehehe... I came up with that

it was a fun weekend!
Jen

do you share your rigging-know-how?

i only rope-jumped a 30 meter high bridge (with 20 meter of rope to swing) near my hometown severel times but now found 2 almost 100 meter high spans which both allow something like a 60-meter-rope-jump. this will be our project for next summer.

and then: maybe a tyrolean someday?

you guys would have the knowledge and experience to help others to prevent stupid avoidable mistakes on rigging a tyrolean-rope-jump-system, don't you?

would you share your rigging-know-how?

greetings from europe.

So I was down at "the Tomb" and the wind was not agreeing with us. "Damn", what to do now. So Sam, Sparky and a few guys say, "lets go to Walshmens and hang out.." I am thinking cool, no jumping, but that will be cool. I walk over there, and low and behold. The jumping shall commence... But with ropes. WOW!!! Couldn't believe what I was witnessing. I was just happy to watch something so amazing, muchless get to participate myself. I couldn't believe I actually tryed to pitch my PC on exit. hahaha!! the ground rush was so amazing!! Found my new addiction. Thankyou to Matt, Nic, and Kevin for being so generous, and sharing your system with some winded out jumpers. You made my day/year!!! Keep doing what you are doing! you rock!

How big is that cliff in the video. ft./or meters.

depends on the Exit point.
210 to impact is lowest
240 to impact at west exit
260ish to the bottem of the landing (creek)

Just wanted to say thanks to all you guys for the great time. Wish I could have been there the last morning for one more jump and help with the tear down, buuuuutttttt i was a little hungover and tired from being in jail the entire night before ....note to self...don't get to crazy abusing the rental car...but thanks again and hope to meet up with you guys again soon.
-BK-

Thanks.

I was wondering how often you guys go out to Moab.. I've never heard of rope jumping until i saw the Moab video. It looks like it would be amazing. I would love to try it!

Usualy 3 times a year. we are planning for early/mid April. but a new system is in the works and bigger (double) is the goal. i

Are you guys inviting to new comers that would like try it??

not yet, if we put up FRASCA again, then of course. but it will take us awhile to get confident on anew system. especialy a tyrolean rig in moab. Frasca was 2 years old, with about a thousand jumps on it.

How'd you come up with that name? Is there a meaning behind it? An acronym for something?

Our 1st system we set up when we were in 9th grade, out of tree hanging on the edge of a cliff we called "Flight Simulator" we thought it was the coolest thing in the world. only 60 feet of freefall, but it was way fun. we spent a whole summer at that sight, changing stuff around.

Our systems changed a lot after that (it was a sketchy system, but we still rig it up for just us every now and then, to see if we still have it) But then, 2 years ago, we started designing a new system, and after we started testing it we realised it had a lot in common with the old Flight simulator, just much more elaborate.

Alex and I are pilots by trade, and when we were in training we used a really high budget version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, an actual flight simulator. The company that made them was Called FRASCA, thus, the name.

All our sytems have names, so we can keep them organised, and they all come from different parts of our lives.

IE-

Flight Simulator Tree"
Flight Simulator CIA" (Conifer International Airport)
Flight Simulator Moab.
Jump Program"-a really cool constant tension freefall system, the jump line has no slack, the system keeps it tight for the 100' freefall (name from the matrix...)


BlueShift I, II, III
Sidereal I,II
RedShift I,II
(all astronomy terms)

Wee1Top, Wee1top I,II
(Biological Chemistry)


FRACA I, II.1, II.2, II.3

The system at Walshmens Walk was all FRASCA II.2/II.3

yeah, we are weird.

Thats really cool. How did you guys get started with it... just decided to see what you could do and how much fun ya could have in high school?

The tyroleans had no noticable change after we let them recover on the long ride home.

Hey all, this is nic, if i met any of you in moab. i just thought i would add that the Wee1Top name came from the combination of an inhibiting kinase of CDK (Wee1) and the cool Topoisomerase enzymes 1 and 2 (Top1 and 2)which cut DNA and hold on for their life as supercoils and torsional stress swirl them around... they're just like us! I know, i'm a nerd, but at least we have an EMT everywhere we go now.
and if hecker hasn't addressed the question about our anchors, they're a combination of about everything attempted to be equalized with so much stuff that you really have to see to make sense of.
Also, if anyone knows how to get a hold of Russel, please let me or hecker know. thanks.

You can PM him on this forum (username: pBASEtobe, or email him via his website. If neither of those work, PM me and I'll send you his phone number.

PM sent.

Dude, you are a nerd.
I get my new base gear in a month, buy my old rig and we are set, the boys will be unleashed on the world. how bout it?

@calvin19:

how much time do you spend on CALCULATING forces, rope-expansion, etc. every time before you set up those tyrolean-rope-jumps?

not a lot, just rough estimates to be sure we are well within limits. we do most of the measuring on sight to learn more. we use a dynafor Load cell, and a few creative measuring teqniques

ah, ok - very interesting!

how much force do you accept on each of your horizontal ropes and how much do you accept on the vertical rope (on the jumpers body)?

is the force cell rigged on the tyrolean permanently or do you remove it after being sure, that you are within the limits?

what do you mean with "creative measuring teqniques"?

... Trial and error

Super impressive!!!


So let me get this straight,.... all the shock is absorbed by the two cables(?) running across the divide?

That's pretty fuckin awesome!! I wanna jump

do you mean, that you used the same ropes for over a thousand jumps?

That is what it appears to say...

We dont count very reliably, but the two 200 meter tyroleans have seen 7 different systems, and have taken somewhere between 1200 and 2000 rope jumps.

the dynamic lines we use as 'jump lines' take 50-500 jumps each, depending on how they are rappeled on. a mammut line we used for 4 diferent moab trips took about 500 jumps, 150 of those 70 meter FRASCA freefalls. we still use that rope as a tensioning amplifier. looks in mint condition.

the only reason we retire a line is if it is melted through. (grigris get hot) or the sheath was not twilled correctly and it slips. the mammut line was just, well, old. it still had brand new dynamic propeties (we measure this stuff after every system)

What's your experience with rope brands? Any of them clearly better in your opinion?

I've had a Mammut rope last for 4 months of pendulator, and then replaced it with a Maxim rope (it was cheap) which got trashed after 2 sessions (cut the sheath completely through). I went back to another Mammut rope.

I have posted a few times in other Rope Huck threads that our best jump lines BY FAR are mammut. we put 500ish jumps on one once, and only retired it because we got scared of useing a 2 year old rope.

keep in mind that every jump has a 10-100 meter rappel at the end of it, in our systems this is on the lower part of the jump line. and grigris get really hot. Dynamic loading of a rope is a VERY small part of its wear-life. rapping destroys ropes quick, and Maxim ropes were the worst we have ever seen. poor impact absorbsion, and bad sheath life.

DEF. Mammut.

Best static ropes are sterling. also hands down.
Blue water is good value, but they have poor handling.

yeaH! i was the fatty that cut the cheap rope!

This looks just like a hell of a lot of fun! I so wanna try thi s some day!

Is this something a person can use to learn to exit properly for a BASE jump? Just saying..?

do you mean that the rope really broke? jumping rope or tyrolean traverse?

The sheath failed on a pendulator launch. The core of the rope survived and we were able to lower him to the ground without injury.

Although it was a lot harder with all the screaming and crying . . .

i catolouge the rope failures i have had and seen, could you give me some info on how this happened? a picture maybe? i cannot see how a rope could fail on a belayed pendulator. (i know nothing of your setup) please enlighten me!
the worst we have had on our rope jumps is a full sheath failure and 4 of 7 core strands severed. but that was a rigging mistake (not me, stupid moe)

I've since modified the system to prevent this, but I think what happened was that as the jumper exited, some slack was created in the pendulator line, and the carabiner that was attached to it bounced up, somehow snagging it's locking ring on the sheath of the rope. That's my best guess, anyway. It was a pretty weird thing, and I still have trouble visualizing how it's possible. At any rate, I've switched the attachment point to 2 pulleys (and 2 separate lines), and it's no longer an issue with that system.

this will be off topic but maybe interesting though: tom, how big is your pendulator. i once saw a norwegian pendulator in a video and was very supprised how small the system was: they used a ladder to jump into a mini tyrolean traverse which was rigged about 6 meters above the ground. is this a usual size for base-training-pendulators?

As far as I know, the pendulator in Lysebotn is the biggest one that is in regular use. The ones I've built have all been smaller.

You don't really need very much freefall to evaluate a student's exit. With practice, you can tell in pretty much the first 2 feet if it's scary, just fine, or kind of in the middle. It's the scary ones that most need the pendulator. In my experience, that's about 1 student in 5, with 2 more being in the middle, so the pendulator is helpful, and the last 2 pretty much nailing the exit from the first try.

"Tom, how big is your pendulator?" I might be new to this thread, but that seems like something between Tom and his lady. I'm going out on a limb and saying i think mostwanted was wasted when he typed those words...

a diveing board works fine, so only 10 feet is plenty.

ps-

FRASCA i think is the biggest and funnest.

JK, its just a fun jump. hell, the exit IS a BASE jump, with a lot more freefall.

we saw a lot of newbies that have NO freefall at all do a PERFECT 70 meter belly down exit and freefall.

Someone told me he had seen some amazing rope jumping done in a show at TV. It was calles "Masters of Stone". I searched this in Youtube.com, and got this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TokjJrMB9qs

There are some pretty spectacular jumps there. And one I believe is as high, or higher, than those you filmed in your movie. Pretty amazing.

Anyone of you knew this guy? Died in -98...

Thats one remarkable guy and some quite breathtaking free climbing as well as 'freefall' rope work...

There is a regular poster here who was part of Dan's rope jumping crew back when he was in high school.

Holy shit, how many pieces of pro did he rip from the rock at 7:17???

I haven't watched the video, but if it's the one I'm thinking of, the answer is none. Dano did a full rope length whipper on one of those videos in which he ends up with an armlength of gear stacked up on his rope, because he cut most of the way through all the draws. When he jumped the remaining webbing snapped, and the rope end carabiners slid down to him, while the pro stayed in the rock. He then climbed the pitch and retrieved the gear.

Taking another look, yep i see what you mean.



Those dyno's are awe inspiring when you consider he's free climbing it.

Dano was nothing if not awe inspiring. Doesn't anybody here remember Bridge Day West in '95? We spent 3 days doing rope, base, and bungee of the Auburn bridge. I often pull out the video. Amazing how many of the people who were there are now gone. RIP Dano.

Is that something you can share with us, who wasnt there?

 

Makes you appreciate it even more having some climbing experience doesn't it?! Having only a couple can be un-nerving but setting up a whole rope's worth!!!

Can't believe it's been so long.

jon

ok, i then think it maybe was another pendulator i saw in that video. is there any video where the pendulator is shown? maybe on skydivingmovies.com? have you got some pictures of the pendulator in kjerag you could post here?

Thanks for sharing that link. There was a lot of video on there I hadn't seen. I knew Dan Osman was the man, but fuck! I got chills watching most of that. Greeny looked amazing.

Dan was the man, no questions asked.

Personally I'm so afraid of heights that I can barley watch it ...

There are great people out there, sometimes I dream of being one of them ... what a venture ... amazing

PerFlare

Hey, do you actively measure any of the loads being placed on the lines/anchors? Or do you just estimate?

I own a dynofor load cell, a german company (i stole it)
it measures the force of whatever we put it on. so yeah, we actively measure. but for a long while we estimated. 'trial and error' mostly trial. only 1 error.

I own a dynofor load cell, a german company (i stole it)
it measures the force of whatever we put it on. so yeah, we actively measure. but for a long while we estimated. 'trial and error' mostly trial. only 1 error.
Where do you place it and what sort of loads does it see? What safety factor are you using?

pm sent