Basejumper.com - archive

Glenn Singleman & Heather Swan are organising another BASEclimb expedition in April/May 2008, doing a 7000m+ altitude jump off Mt Shivling in India jumping Vampire V1s and flying custom built Fox's by APEX Base, and they're flogging spaces to go with them.

http://www.adrenalin.com.au/escape

Looks like all you need is a few grand and a couple of weeks off work. You're guaranteed not to be arrested, too.

The mountain is also called Shivas Penis...
So happy jerk off guys!

Is nice,
But what I read is you can only do a trek and not jump, so $ 2450 is on the high side for a mountain walk.
Ronald

I really enjoyed watching the film of the last exploit....looked alot more than a mountain walk too !

Old video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M99QbbJMYI

WTF?!? That was some of the sketchiest BASE video I have ever seen. Do those people have numbers on the bfl?

>>WTF?!? That was some of the sketchiest BASE video I have ever seen. Do those people have numbers on the bfl?<<

No . . . That was Nic Feteris and Glenn Singleman in about 1992. Nic was a pretty well known BASE jumper back in the day and did a lot of cool jumps including one from the Statue of Liberty. Glenn was a climber and not a BASE jumper. Nic taught Glenn to BASE jump and Glenn taught Nic how to climb. We all saw this video when it happened and said WTF too. But the combination of heavy film cameras on their heads and the thin air, launch altitude was 19,500-ft, produced the funky freefalls . . .

Most jumpers of the day figured them just getting there and surviving the whole thing was good enough.

They both got a lot of mileage (publicity) from doing the "the highest BASE jump in the world" and Nic went on to become a motivational speaker in his home country of Oz. The freefall distance was around four or five thousand feet on this jump but that was beyond the understanding of most wuffos and media who only heard "World's Highest BASE Jump!"

Glenn and Heather Swan then broke the record by jumping from 26,500-ft in 2006 but I don’t recall the freefall distance on that one.

NickD
BASE 194

Take care,
space

Spaces to jump were advertised on the Phoenix-Fly website a number of weeks ago.

That's why all the skydiving camera guys fall in a totaly uncontrolled style when the exit jump planes on higher jumps... When they reach around 13'500 to 14'000 feet, they slowly gain stability and can start to film

This talk about loosing stability at higher altitudes. I have been on a few record attempts, jumping from 21.000 AGL. With a couple of hunderd other jumpers. I did not see many unstable exits...

I guess it is more being at that altitude for a long time, with the fatigue of the climb on the previous days, and the stress involved.

Ronald

I was being sarcastic...
I think it was mainly because Glenn Singleman was extremly unexperienced and a horribly bad base jumper at that time (only my guess from seeing that video). But I'm sure that must have changed during the past few years (I hope so at least).
And the comments during the video are almost as horrible as the jump it self. But it reminds me on the statement someone once made that even a bag of dog food can survive a base jump

they were the fifth climbing group to ascend the Trango towers.

What about Nic Feteris tumbling ass-over-tit then? Glenn and his limited BASE experience I can understand... but Nic?

As mentioned though, probably the fatigue, etc got to them.

You can't seriously be comparing exit stability from an aircraft (having probably used O2) with a zero airspeed exit from a rather small (if I remember correctly) exit point in alpine gear and wearing 16mm cameras...can you?

Were you're world record attempts out of balloons?

You're comparing apples and... something that is'nt even fruit.

I agree that their freefall wasn't the prettiest thing ever, and that their jumps appeared to be only marginally survivable, but how many of us have even seriously THOUGHT about climbing The Great Trango Tower? For most of us, even getting to the Basecamp would not be worth the hassle, let alone climbing it AND jumping it.

I'm sure that hypoxia could have been a factor, but my hat's still off to them for the expedition in general. I hope to live life that fully by the time I die!

Of course, I also take my hat of for the trango tower jump, and the baseclimb III jump in India.

However, I don't see what the lesser air pressure has to do with bad exits. I only see that WHEN you have a bad exit, you have less air friction to correct is. Just look at nr. 2 on the baseclimb III jump. Lots of wobling. (I don't claim I would do it better)

Again, I think the biggest contributers to the not so good exits are lack of oxigen, prejump stress and fatigue from the climb.

Ronald

PS: and yes, I wish I could make such a jump too.

Higher altitude = Thinner air.
Thinner air = less resistance
Less resistance = Less/more difficult to control (at subterminal speeds).

That's my understanding. I'm sure I'm probably wrong.
cheers!
pope

Pope,

I agree with what you say. But with bad exits I mean, a bad exit from the rock. I do not speak about control afterwards.

Ronald

Coming from the expert

Hey, at least I don't land in trees (yet)