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Anyone know if the record is for highest point on earth jumped, or for longest (altitude) freefall? If there wingsuit flight was better or they opened high and flew their canopy farther out, could they have gotten more altitude?

If you take a list of the highest points in the world and then from the top down remove ones that aren't possible or that have high landing areas and find the highest point in the world with a wingsuit jumpable cliff and a very low landing area, that would be the longest freefall. That would be a lot of topographical comparison.

Until I saw this I assumed because Trango was said to be the tallest cliff in the world that it had to be the unbreakable record. I was wrong. Turns out they broke that record in BASEclimb 2.

http://www.baseclimb.com/

 
Pretty sure it's the first one, highest exit. But any way you slice it, it's still pretty high. Although I'd also like to know how much working altitude they had; the altitude of the LZ.

It's the highest exit point, ASL. Not greatest altitude gain from exit to landing.

When I was in France I saw a spire at noon that is probably the highest exit to landing. It's the tallest jump I've heard of. Maybe I'll jump it next time I'm there.

See ya.
-Bill

We did that one in 1998!!! Several people did it in 1999, and a few more have done it since.
What a canopy flight.

If memory serves it's right around 9k from exit to landing. It's the "highest" (in that sense) that I've heard of, too.

Tom Aiello and I spent 3 days trying to jump that exit point in 2002. Scary, scary, scary launch and deployment. Did I mention that it was a scary exit?

As we waited and waited for the winds to simmer down, I kept looking at the angles and thinking we were crazy. And the fact that the late Dwain W. and TVPB had jumped it already didn't help either -- they're hard as nails!

But something was calling us to that jump...but Mother Nature simply did not cooperate. That's ok, I'll be back there again.

Tom, you are right. It's a 9,000ft canopy flight...

Bryan

I remember being very scared on exit and opening and then very bored and cold for the following 15 minutes.

Hello,
I went there solo in July '01, with my wife as crew.
We spent as much time up there as we could,
checking out that super sketchy exit point.
At least the wind was blowing hard.
When we were silly with hypoxia,
we left for lower ground.
Got a tree instead.
God bless you.
Avery

I also visited this spot back in 1999. It is for sure a sketchy exit!! It seemed like the wind was constantly blowing and it was as cold as a witches tit.
515 and I decided to scrap our plans to jump this and decided to move across the valley and jump some cable cars instead. This jump was no piece of cake either.... we almost froze to death sleeping atop the mountain waiting for dawn and our ride to start up! And talk about strange having to 'spot' your exit point... I thought you only did that in skydiving! 515 almost broke his ankle trying to land in squirrely winds on a 45degree slope. We then had to hike out for 2 hours.
Still one of my favorite jumps to this day as I'm sure 515 will agree. And not a bad consolation prize either.
Congrats to the few brave/crazy soles who have managed to get off it. I'll get back there some day.....

Jason
570

Both amazing jumps. See my photo attached for the c car jump in 1999. It was my last jump with #49 from NDG list. You can just barely make him out in the bottom left corner. Very nice bloke and sorely missed.

Some tips.

There is evening warmth in technology built on the Mt and with the other jumpers.
Lay hidden until the paths of transport intersect.

It was interesting spotting. We had no dramas and great advice from a local / world legend. Thanks JM.

With this spotting technique you comfortable make one of the meadows below adjacent to a road.

http://tomarent.tripod.com/picture.htm is where this version of the photo came from.

p.s. The other side I did solo. DW and I checked it out for only a day but had to depart due to a tight schedule. I had to come back. What an amazing canopy ride. My heart was pounding out of my head from the time I made the decision until I was flying over the valley.

r.e. the comment about canopy flight being boring, we all do jumping for different reasons and there is no right and wrong reason. I had great fun on the canopy compnent of the car jump as I was doing some basic contact CRW and talking about our adventure whilst still undertaking it. Half the fun in jumping are the stories afterwards. This long canopy ride brought amazing Alp scenery, and stories during the jump.

The canopy ride from the other one was also amazing as the locals did not seem to know of anyone jumping that point beforehand (the car had been jumped on this side of the valley but lower down). I also LOVE nature and the visuals it brings, glaciers, mountains, the expressions and emotions of shocked / amazed people, the demo towards town, having my very personal space under canopy for about 15 minutes to contemplate how scared I was, etc.

It's all good.

Don't get me wrong... we were prepared for the jump. We got the same great info from JM. We went up to the top with gear and warm sleeping bags but it still got really cold at the top. We exited at the proper spot but due to funky winds we only made it half way down the mountain, landing on the little road that zig zagged it's way down.
It sounds like we were there the same time you were... we must have missed you by a few days. We did run into DW at the dam a few days before this jump. He was jumping his skyboard.... I thought he was crazy! He performed the jump very well, doing his intended front flip, but ended up having a 120 off heading with a twist. He corrected it and landed uneventfully. Were you there too? I only remember him jumping but there was someone with him.
BTW, Nice pic of the cable car jump.
catch ya later,
Jason
570

Cool.

DW and I did Europe together in 98. I hung around for an extra few weeks as he had work commitments and had to leave. I on the other hand also had work commitments but I was not very committed!!!!! This is when we checked out the 9k jump but did not go. I came back soon thereafter and did it by myself. I had to beat DW at something..... For 99, DW and I only did Norway together - I came later as I had commisssioning work on an engineering project. The rest of Europe DW travelled with other Aussies before Norway, I went there after our Norway adventures. That is when I did the c car. So it sounds like you did it a few weeks before me. This is all under the proviso that my memory serves me correctly.

The Dam Skysurf jump I was not there for. All the other aussies were.

I got this straight from the horses' mouth. Heather Swan wrote me this morning:

"We jumped from 6604m, just under the summit of Mt Meru (around 21700ft) and landed at 15,800ft. We free fell for 45 seconds before opening our canopies at around 900ft. The World Record is for the highest exit point."

I believe there may be an error somewhere in her numbers though. I get a total of 5,900 feet top to bottom (21,700 - 15,800). They were jumping with wingsuits however, so maybe 45 seconds is possible for that range of altitude. I'm going to write her back and see if I can clarify this.

Hey Mike,

45sec is doable with this much altitude, even longer (if not at high altitude, after a 6 hours climb and wearing thermal clothing!)

J