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I'm planning to do my first trip across the pond this summer for big wall BASE, primarily or exclusively wingsuiting. I could use some input re: Norway vs the Swiss valley in terms of accessibility, hikes, sites, weather, hanging out, etc.

Thanks

 For low experience WS jumpers Norway is better. Both are nice, but at least in Norway people aren't regularly going in every month.

Congratulations on your first post! Six and a half years of lurking - that's impressive. If only some other forum members would show as much restraint as you have when it comes to posting their opinions...


Are you trying to decide between Norway or Switzerland? Why not both?

Thanks. Actually I've only been lurking here for a few months. My account has carried over from Dropzone.com. In regards to Norway vs Switzerland, I'll only be taking off a couple of weeks so I want to spend my time jumping, rather than traveling.

If your aim is to get as many jumps as possible, then either go to the Valley, or to the heliboogie in Norway.

How about telling us a bit more about your experience in wingsuit base and big wall jumping so far? That would make it a lot easier for us to recommend either of those places, or something else.

V

Skydives: 1100

Wingsuit (skydiving): 250

BASE: 10 (Perrine Bridge)

Plan for the next 6 months: Put up a bunch of jumps on my new Phantom 2 (most of my jumps are on a BLADE), a couple more trips to Twin Falls, a couple of balloon jumps to practice still-air WS exits, and hopefully jump some objects either locally (Oregon) or in Norcal.

I would recommend leaving the wingsuit at home for your first big wall trip and just focus on tracking. The skill-set you acquire from tracking will make you a much better wingsuiter in the long run. Adding one variable at a time is a good way to progress. First tackle the big walls, then add a wingsuit to the mix.
You should also look at the ITW as a possible first timer destination.

I would advice that if you decide to go to the valley, then leave your wingsuit home. It is not a good starting place for ws-base. If you insist sticking to your plan and want to do ws-base, then go to Norway or ITW. I would still advice doing a bunch of jumps at any place you choose first without a wingsuit. have you read the "sticky" about the locations on top of the thread list?

V

You have no business going to the swiss valley with no terminal jumps, period.

V: Thanks, yes, I've read the sticky's but the info is fairly focused and more beneficial once you've decided on the site.

base698: Care to elaborate? I assume your comment is based on the fact that the Swiss valley walls are relative low compared with Norway.

While I certainly have a lot of experience tracking, mostly from being on the outside of dozens of 100-way RW/FS formations and have the advantage of being tall and thin, I can, of course, certainly benefit from practicing my clean still-air exits with a smooth transition to a full-on track.

Thanks for the replies. Mo' info, mo' better.

don't be fucking lazy.

the information is there.

basically it says that Swiss valley does not afford you margin for error, and if you read the BFL you will see that it has been killing a lot of people last few years.

Read more !

F*ck norway and swiss, Finland is where it's at! Book your flights immediately, the Finnish big wall season was opened up just a weekend ago and it's begging to be wingsuited... The only one we have wingsuited is the medium one up north but maybe you're the that goes into history by taking up the challenge of the finnish big wall with ws! So deffo book your flights today and do not miss this season, it will not last forever!

Ive discussed this with friends before. Is it a prerequisite to do a lot of tracking jumps before wingsuit jumps? There are people who have done 300-400 wingsuit skydives, and have done almost no subterminal tracking and have never used tracking gear. Is it really safer for them to start with tracking jumps if they pretty much only intend to wingsuit for their base career, and that is a majority of their skydiving experience. I honestly feel like a wingsuit skydive is closer to a wingsuit base jump than a tracking skydive is to a tracking jump in the valley. Just interested in people's opinions

read.
lurk.
use the search function. read old posts.
gain an understanding regarding the dynamics of this site.
attempt to fit in.

for specific advice:
- this website does NOT promote discussing actual sites, with a few well known exceptions.
- the exceptions generally are discussed in a "sticky" thread at the top of the page. (it's hard to remain quiet about all these particular sites. one site advertises for a heli-boogie, another site has way too many fatalities...)
- I'm confident more places exist. it's best to develop contacts to secure information about these places. that is done by jumping with people, possibly at the well known sites.
- this is not skydiving with people paid to welcome you.
- the fact you didn't know the above is fairly obvious.
- thus expect jokes at your expense, ridicule, etc. the suffering motivates some to do their homework. remember, if stay in the sport long enough, you can expect to see some ugly shit. it's best to become self-reliant now so no has to tell you this.

YMMV
and yes, I piss people off. I can be wrong as well.
so be it.

welcome to BASE.

expert wingsuiter skydiving?
novice big wall BASE?

think the restricted mobility of a wingsuit will help a novice move over rocky exit points?

if still air exits are new, is it better to have a full range of motion in case things do not go well?

what happens if instead of pushing a novice away from the wall, a wingsuit pushes them toward it?

why not jump a new object in the most familiar fashion until you know it?

just some considerations...
make a call, and be prepared to be wrong.

I'm guilty of this. I did do tracking jumps first but got into WS earlier than most. Not that it wasn't without a ton of WS jumps in the skydiving realm as well as jumps with a base setup in the skydive environment. I was using a prodigy and took the time to practice important things like proper pitch technique and all before bringing it to base. After I did my first few WS base it was my feeling that all other factors aside, I was much more likely to land safely opening 1000+ feet from the wall (not that I was having bad openings) than closer as I would be without tracking pants and at the time moderate base tracking skills. In fact the wingsuit jumps got me more comfortable with tracking as well as improving my technique. I'm not recommending what I did to anyone but in some cases I feel like 25-50 tracking jumps aren't necessarily required either.

Oh yea and to the Original Poster. Don't do this! No offense, but If you have to ask the forum where to go then you clearly haven't done the all the necessary research and preparation to be getting into WS base yet. Also, take Switzerland off your list. The valley is no joke.

I totally agree with most of the points you make, but i do think at some point if you have plenty of base exit experience, not necessarily terminal, it might make sense to fly a wingsuit if that is your area of comfort as opposed to tracking where you might end up pulling closer to the wall and/or trees in the event of an off heading. It seems there have been many deaths associated with poor track/off heading deployments than poor wingsuit exits. Once again, not condoning any particular method at all, just want to hear others opinions.

all this about trackingsuit vs wingsuit blah blah blha.

it dosent matter because you only have 10 jumps from the perrine.

this barely qualifies you to start looking for a mentor, much less wingsuitbase...

please dont think im trying to be a jerk, but you should really be thinking about jumping real objects for a year or so, and by then, you will (should) have a the skillset and knowledge necessary for the trips you speak of.

good luck.

+ 1

No worries. I'll take a virtual kick in the ass over the real thing anyday.

Get some tracking gear. Go to Norway for your first trip and learn how to track effectively from a cliff. Not a plane. Get 50+ tracking jumps. Remember that there's more to tracking then jumping off the cliff. What if you have a bad exit? How will you recover? When you feel that you can really track well then you might be ready for your wingsuit. Stay away from the valley until you have good tracking skills.

If you're so set on doing wingsuit for your first terminal and decide to ignore the good advice in this thread, then do yourself a favor and at LEAST do a significant amount of balloon jumps before you go.

Although your post is in reply to willh, I assume your response was directed to me. If so, I'm afraid you've misread my subsequent posts and/or intentions.
Instead, it is my intention to employ the good advice as referenced above, and was the goal of my original post.

I just wanted to bring up the question if subterminal tracking should always be a requirement for everyone. For the OP, yes, I do agree 10 jumps is not enough to do anything in the valley, just wanted to bring up a theoretical. Not sure if it was intentionally replied to me, but I my personal experience is around 70 wingsuit base jumps having done maybe 20 subterminal tracks before I started.

Yes it is. As others have noted, if you screw up the exit (go really head low, for example) then you have a much better chance of getting yourself back into a good position by flailing your arms and/or legs if you have your full range of body movements at your disposal.


Yes it is. The easiest (and, if you're not proxy flying) safest part of a wingsuit BASE jump is the terminal flight. So doing several hundred wingsuit skydives in preparation for wingsuit BASE, isn't the most efficient way to go about things. Rather use some of that time and money getting big wall BASE jumping experience.

The dynamics of subterminal air are different to terminal air. It's that simple. No amount of skydiving experience can teach you what subterminal air will feel like. I would even go as far as to say that a large amount of wingsuit skydiving experience could give one a very dangerous false sense of confidence. A lot can go wrong in the first 8 seconds of a wingsuit BASE jump.


In the Swiss valley? Well, I suppose your statement is strictly correct, but only because a typical wingsuit jump will have a higher proportion of terminal flight time! But remember, that's the easy part.

I thought I'd post to say that ITW isn't really a good choice, either, for first WS BASE, owing to a prominent skirt under the main wall, but avenfoto is absolutely right here. Until you've got another 90 BASE jumps or so under your belt, there is no good choice for first WS BASE.

Michael

+2

Whenever some resurrects an old thread, it's funny.

Then it's sad when you realize Geo and Will who posted in it, have both since passed wingsuiting.