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The Swiss news papers are full of the fatality from yesterday and I’m afraid there is more to come.
It is possible (and I can understand this) that the locals have enough of the dying in front of there door steps. The people in Lauterbrunnen live from Tourism and I can ensure to everyone, the BASE tourists are not the main focus of Lauterbrunnen. And if bad publicity effects their business I’m sure consequences will be taken.
So the best we can do in Lauterbrunnen is not die there.
To avoid this, it is very important for everyone to know a few things about Lauterbrunnen:

1) Lauterbrunnen is no fucking playground or DZ. It is a place where you can go easy to the exit points without having to climb or sweat, but every jump there is technical (even Yellow Ocean).

2) Don’t do aerials or acrobatic jumps of any other exit then yellow ocean. And only do them from YO if you are experienced in doing these kinds of jumps. The talus comes out pretty bad on all the Nose exits and the La Mousse jumps so if you fuck up an aerial or if you come out of it late you will be very close to the talus.

3) Know how to track before you come to Lauterbrunnen. It is to late to lean it there

4) Don’t pull to low. Forget the fucking Street, Tree, River or any other fucking distance you want to reach. It is more important to not die then to be able to tell how much of a cool tracker you are in the Horner that evening

5) Lauterbrunnen is no fucking playground or DZ

6) Don’t pull high as well. Like mentioned before, the talus comes out on every jump so if you decide to pull high you will end up close to the wall which will be a problem if you have an off heading.
This is also why number 3 (tracking abilities) is important. If you need to pull high because you can not outtrack the talus, you should not be in Lauterbrunnen.

7) Don’t take first jumpers to Lauterbrunnen. Even Yellow Ocean is not a good place for first jumps. Never do Hand Held jumps in Lauterbrunnen.

8) Lauterbrunnen is no fucking playground or DZ


Al the other things that have been said many times like don’t jump the waterfall, don’t shit on the exit points, don’t litter etc should go without saying…

This is my personal opinion and does not represent the opinion of the Swiss BASE Association

This post is not directed to the fatality from yesterday, it is just that 3 fatalities in one month is much too many!

Lauterbrunnen has been a well known BASE spot for quite some time now and people still don't seem to get it. It's technical, it's demanding and it's very dangerous. The beauty of the valley is deceiving.

Lauterbrunnen and Kjerag are by far the two most well known BASE spots in Europe. People from all over the world travel to these spots, making it almost "main stream" to be a BASE jumper there. The last couple of years there has been a change in attitude amongst jumpers, when tracking became "the thing" to do. Jumping used to be about BASE, the beauty and fear of it, but now it has become more about performance. Tracking is a good thing, it can make a jump safer and it's fun. But people seems to be so caught up with it that they forget about what they do. Now a days to make a "successful" jump from Kjerag you need to deploy over the landingarea, or from La Mousse you need to deploy over the road. Very low pulls are common. It seems we're losing respect for what we are doing, and it's not making us safer. This is BASE, not cricket. Appreciate BASE for what it is. Think about what you do.

And as Martin Rosén put it... stop dying!

Micke N
Team Bautasten of Sweden

...all right but useless....the next bus with basetourists is on the way....the next fatality wait to happen....
a 5 year old and a basejumper got the same IQ...
they learn when they burn the fingers on the oven...
you can yell ten times...be carefull!!! its HOT!!!!
nobody cares...
i give up....

now i understand the locals in swiss...why they tread their secret spots like a question of national security....

i'd like to see a more distinguished view on base jumpers.
we're not all the same, are we?

i don't like to gear up in a turd.
others seem to enjoy their pile of shit at the exit.

hey man,...we are not all the same....
but we also dont think the same......
that is the problem....

Hi there,

I fully agree with you and a lot of people forget one of the most important rule for me in Base jump : train from a plane and then when you are 150% sure of yourself do the same thing in base.

I am not very often in LB but each time I see jumpers not able to track pulling next to the wall. Each time the same excuse from the jumper "I am used to low stuff so I am not very accurate with my tracking".

The same other extreme is the challenge to go to the tree, the road, the river and at the end the ground. Once again it is too much confidence in ourselves that generally kills us.

My 2 cents point of view,

Take care and have fun,

Franz

 
Sorry to hear about the fatality again Frown
LB has become in past few years THE place to play for most BASE jumpers around the world, mostly due easy excess, legality and most important because false opinion and information spread out about what this valley offer for jumping.

Technically Martin is right, but…
1000 time before was written that people need to do this or that, need to come prepared, etc. Well, obviously that does not help.
Question is why?!

In my opinion there are several reasons...

BASE has become easy excess activity, almost trend to go in eyes of young skydivers who enter skydiving for just enough to start BASE

Laziness is the way to go too. Why to spend hundreds of jumps learning such simple things like jumping off and ''track''?! My answer is: Because, one good solid exit from the cliff does not mean that every exit after will be ok. Jumping of the cliff (especially positive) is not the same as jumping from the bridge.
Besides, we can witness the 4 or 5 or even 9-way going off from under hang walls there were the average experience is terribly poor, but the rock drop is 8 second or less.

Lack of knowledge about cliffs in general
Jumpers coming to LB as the place to be after heaving few or zero jumps slider up.
I personally witnessed more than few groups who were asking about what to do and how to do in LB. All of them were told that LB is easy!!!

Among the jumpers, I can see constant competition driven with wrong attitude or reasons. Those ego driven jumpers who comes to show how to die, not only pisses the locals, they pisses off the others (mostly local) jumpers too.

As the consequences of the increased number of fatalities we will probably face the scenario were the jumping in LB will become illegal. What then, same scenario will happen to other legal EU places?! Next legal site were we can expect big preassure and problems will probably be Arco.

It is the last moment to get some practice and make jumps w more care than ever if BASE community wants to have the LB and other places legal. Be mature in decisions and jump with brain, not without it.

I think someone has mentioned this earlier but the local policeman probably has one of the hardest jobs around.

I spoke with him several years ago after an accident and he mentioned it wasn't the first he'd been involved with. If the same guy is still the local cop then he is being exposed to some gross trauma and a hell of a lot of misery. Please spare him a thought...

I totally concur with the comments about LB not being a place to start out...

It is a shame nowadays it is "cool" to tell your friends how did you survive a stupid planned jump, or how fast and uneven was your packjob, and once this kind of people survive one, the next for sure will be a bigger stupid thing, just to "impress" people.

This way of thinking will close the hole world....

In my opinion, we can think 100 or more rules to jump in the valley, or anywhere, but there will be people to break it, in name of the glory.......

I think a first good step is, TALK TO THIS PEOPLE, we can't avoid them because they will keep jumping.
COOL is when something well planned, happens exacly the way it was supose to, and you don't need to use your plan B. It can be a PCA, a hand held, a flat and stable jump, etc

We can make some coments on their video in Youtube or skdmovies, to not incentivate a stupid behave,

And yes, we do need to incentivate "flat and stable" thing, tracking improvement on safe walls, on heading openings, etc....

I am not blaming the guy who went in, for sure he was just trying to push his limits. Like we all are.

Regs,
Andre.

 
"I think a first good step is, TALK TO THIS PEOPLE, we can't avoid them because they will keep jumping."

yes andre,....but it dosent work...what should i do when i stand at the high nose an several people with cargopants and sweatshirts are gearing up...
tell them that they are having a baaad plan...?
tell them that they are idiots....?
even when we are down and start and educated conversation, they tell you "why,..? it works well so many times..what do you want from me...?"
i know a person that make this 13-way from lamousse and i could not belive it that this person participated on this summit of dumness...
i wont ask what this person thought to do this...because i know the awnser...the same shit...

like robi said...think and act mature....

yeah,..right....but....they wont listen....
i dont know what to do...meanwhile i feel helpless....

I think a closure of the valley is wise now. As we did a couple of years ago. Generally this was a good thing.

Could the Swiss Base Assoc place a poster in the Horner with some specific comments about the various exit points?

e.g: La M-impact with weak exit or back to earth flying about 7 secs

Nose. Need to out track 2 ledges to ensure a safe jump. This probably requires good tracking skills, a delay of 11-13 secs and track pantz are a good idea. Short delays and poor tracking result in the majority of the valleys fatalities. Not for beginners.

You can probably word smith the grammar but the concept may help? Placement in the Horner should enhance awareness.

play safe
Neil

I agree 100% with Mikki.

Lauterbrunnen is not a BASE playground, all the jumps are serious and sub terminal tracking skills are a must.

That said, the police, Airglaciers and the mountain guides also retrieve dead paragliders, mountaineers, motorcyclists, hikers and probably mountain bikers too. It's unpleasant but it's their job.
These BASE deaths in the valley don't help our cause but I don't think they single us out any more than, say, the climbers for example - six of whom died in one avalanche earlier this year.
So I think talk of closing the valley to BASE is a little unreasonable.

IMHO more information would be the biggest help. Information at each exit point, and printed in as many languages as possible at the Horner. Something like:

Exit Name
Simple profile diagram showing: exit, profile of the cliff, profile of the tallus and landing area. (see pic attached)
Height above landing area.
Height to rock drop impact and number of seconds to impact.
Recommended delay (with a good track).
Recommended PC size.
[anything else?]

My feeling is that we shouldn't dictate what you can and can't do BUT we should provide enough information so that an informed decision can be made.

Mike (LB resident)

 
I see nothing wrong with the suggestion. If nothing else it could save people time. I remember when I was there, ten years ago? I was basically wondering around lost. I didn't meet another base jumper till the evening of the last day I was there. I would talk to locals and they were like, "Yes, they jump from over there." waveing vaguely at one side of the valley. So I was just poking along the edge of the walls with a short peace of rope peeking over the edge looking for exit points. Any type of beta would have been welcome. When I went home I actually left my map with some notes with the little shop at the camp site incase another jumper showed up there like that. I doubt that's a problem nowadays.

Lee

 
My feeling about providing all that information is that it will make the clueless feel even more sure of themselves and that soloing is okay. If I were going to Europe I would only jump with locals available and play by the rules of site preservation (unless I have previous sufficient knowledge of the site to know the procedure), and therefore expect others to do the same. I would not expect or be happy of Europeans coming to unfamiliar US objects and jumping solo. Perhaps new ways of promoting this route (consult locals) would produce results?
Just a thought...

We are working out something and Infos will be given during the next weeks.

A couple of days ago there was an article in the BZ (Berner Zeitung - local paper of Bern) and it said that there are certain people (officials?) looking into prohibiting the jumping there, BUT that there is NO legislation in place to do so (at the moment!!!).

I personally don't think they will go as far as pushing a law through that would make that possible, but you never know. Perhaps they are looking at that as we speak.

This means that the situation is extra fragile right now and that proper (jumping) behaviour and especially NOT dying is vital for future jumping there. A temporary closure, as Toni mentioned, might even be the better solution so that it has some time to blow over...

Also the program 10-vor-10 (ten to ten) had a documentary about the recent events. Things that were said in that documentary had many good and especially some very poor aspects in when it comes to what 'normal' people might think of base jumpers... Some comments IMO did simply not help this whole situation... Anyway, that's another discussion.

Peace,
J.

 

All base jumps are solos once you leave the edge. Being a base jumper implies the knowledge and ability to make your own decisions regarding this. There is nothing they can do for you once you step off the exit point. Why would you let their decisions override or even influence yours. I really worry about people that need some one to hold there hand. It's your life not theirs. Maybe you don't want to abdicate the right to make these decisions.

Basically what I'm saying is that if you're not ready to solo a site you don't belong on top of it to begin with.

Lee

 
And although I completely agree with that, and that's fine and good, it's keeping those who aren't ready off the top that's the dilemna here. What I was trying to say is by supplying such info I feel that you help(hold hand) of someone who is not ready and will not consult or listen to the locals. In this way more people will jump with disregard for the local site policies and guidelines.

Information is there! Period.

Everyone interesting jumping in the valley can find the information about the exits. If you don't find them by yourself, it is easy, go collect the infos yourself: Measuring height, rock drop, observing wind, etc...

And yes, as J. said, talking to media never helped.

We will sit together to see what we can do. Please be patient, there will be good things coming.

"All base jumps are solos once you leave the edge."

Nugget?...

whatch this movie at around 1.05:
fucking stupid!!!
this are hand held jumps from the new high nose. how fucking retarded do you have to be to do this!
This is absolutly not nescessary. do first base jumps of a bridge please.

The pc of this guy even has a handle.
Going handheld with a pc with a handle is a no no in my book.

I am old and always scared, but I listen to the wise locals. Moritz and Michi have done a fine job giving advice about the valley. Heed their advice.

I don´t care for the morons, I care for the valley, Keep the valley open!!

Bööse sein

Walter

What was going on? Were these the jumpers first jumps? Why was he going hand held from the high nose?!? Please, would the people involved explain what was going on.

Gus (MBK), is that you in the vid?

Look at 4:10 same video. That was really close.

Same here. Since 2003 I go as often as possible to LB and I love the valley, the lokals (especially Elsbeth) and the Horners. When I'm there I feel like comming home and for me it would be so unbelievable shitty when jumping wouldn't be allowed anymore. I would get really mad. Please, KEEP THE VALLEY OPEN!!!

One thing: There are also very nice fine guys who jump there regularly and I enjoy it every time I meet them. Cheers to Andi (Rap-Doctor), Fritz, 2xBernhard, Walter, Neil and many more.

Not to forget: Obi (it was a pleasure)

Another thing to keep in mind,there are PARAGLIDERS that fly below the launch points on both sides of the valley.It is a good idea to LOOK before you exit...

Yep, they hug the cliffs pretty close. Gift wrapping yourself in their wing would ruin both your days.

Please take a look at this thread on the UK board too:

http://www.basejumper.org/.../viewtopic.php?t=978


If anyone is thinking of running a first jump course for their mates in Lb. Don't.

Agree with Mikki here.

Few comments:

1. About the Comment from Gus concerning the french progression system:

Yes, this used to be the progression system in Switzerland, I learned to BASE that way. After teaching people that way, we discussed the system and decided against 4s handhelds inside the progression because it is dangerous doing bigger delays handheld because of the drag in the bridle, preliminars openings, horseshoe mals, etc... (btw: delays bigger than 2s, the handle doesn't change anything).

So by the newer opinion, it is not good to do longer delays handheld.


IMPORTANT: NEVER NEVER NEVER DO SHORT DELAYS AT NOSE #2,3,4 and 5!!!!! (Have those people ever watched the wall before doing this shit?)

There is one exit, where this is possible, not necessary to mention it...

2. There are other not so funny things on the video, which is commonly known: Arials with Velcro Rig. Guy thrown of the Ramp at YO (have you ever watched down before doing it?)

3. If you know that these are stupid things, don't put the video online, please, still people want to repeat that shit.



Please for all, LB is not a Playing Place. Still seeing stuff like 50 Airplane Jumpers doing first BASE Jumps, 50 BASE Jumpers doing things not appropriate to their level, etc...

You miss one funny jump if you don't do it that way, but what you risk is your life!!! This is not a DZ, where someone is going to tell you what to do. (BTW, Would you sell your velocity 89 to a 50 jump guy? Would you take a 50 jump guy to a 20 way headdown jump? Comparable things happens in BASE, escpecially here in LB)


After all, also after watching this video, still the idea of closing the valley, even for one year can be considered.

Things are going to change in the valley, please tell me what do you think guys?
(mail me if you don't want to publish your thoughts)

Thanks
/t.


PS: Just to calm my ghosts, understand me right: this doesn't mean I never do/did shit or I will never get troubles, accidents, etc. in BASE myself...

What problems have you seen from that?

i think its not a question whats doable....more a question of minimising the risk...
esspecially when to situation in the valley is that tense...

it is ok to do a 2 sec delay handheld from a building....but why do it at a terminal wall that give you the opportunity to track and avoid a potential cliffstrike...

its ok to do aerials with a velcro rig....but why do it when a pin rig stays 99,999999% close till opening...

for terminal arials is a pinrig for sure a little bit safer...

the situation in the valley demands the right weapon of choice and the right attitude...
handheld in the valley? why?
my 2cents....

 
God, it's been so long sence I was there. I guess it's been ten years. I recall even then there was concern from the locals about the deaths. I arrived shortly after a fatality. I can only imagion what it must be like now. Haveing said that I don't know if I even have the right to comment on this but there is something I feel the need to point out. Closeing the valley for a year might be a good idea at this point. Perhaps this should be done and it might be best if it was done volentaroly by the jumpers rather then by the goverment. This might be the best chance to perserve jumping in the valley. But here is the problem. If you agread to close it for a year many people would see it as just another illeagle site. Can you imagion how bad it would look for us when they are seen or busted. We go to them with our own set of rules trying to show respect for the valley and the dead and then they continue to see people blazing the site. Wait untill there is a death then. We would look like such asses.
A moratorium might be a good idea but if it was not respected that could only make things worse.

Lee

In Aerodynamic range, I think it's not wise.

At short delays (to 4s), no problem...

Ah, I see. You're talking about jumps where you expose your back to high speed airflow? I agree.

I don't think that rotations that are a problem with velcro. I do think that high speed airflow can create problems.

Hello,

And perhaps after the temporary closure of the valley, the Swiss BASE Association should implement a permit structure (similar to Kjerag) and be very strict about issuing those permits according to whatever guidelines they feel appropriate based on each applicant jumpers past experience, reference, jump numbers, proper gear and clothing, etc…

I know/understand that we aren’t typically the type of folks who appreciate regulatory structures; however there is a greater emergence of the type(s) of jumpers, who not only have callous disregard for their own safety and wellbeing, but also behave selfishly by not thinking about or not caring about how their actions impact other people’s ability to peruse and enjoy the lifestyle.

Just a thought!

Regards,

Tom Dancs