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If you went out to jump a 1050' A, packed slider up, and you found that the ladder ended at 870 and the tower narrowed to about two feet wide, the winds were light and variable, mostly down the wire, and the LZ is about 200' away from the base of the tower?

if you have to ask the answers no, but me personally would have gone from 870.

id like to know who votes "climb on" .. theyve probably never done an outside climb at 1,000 ft.

i know i havent. that sounds terrifying.

I did climb down. I knew it would probably be OK to jump from 870, and I would have, if there was a steady tailwind. With it being a solo with no GC and the limited slider up experience I have, I forced myself to climb down and wait for a better day. I was just curious as to what others would do.

I climbed on the outside for about 100' but began climbing back down once I realized that what I thought was a platform at the top of the guy wires was actually part of the stinger. The tower was so narrow at that height, that it would have been very difficult to turn around, and I was not comfortable exiting backwards.

can someone move this to the "pussyfication of base" thread please?

I thought it was rather pussy of me to climb down from that jump. Thanks for confirming it. I'll try to be more hardcore in the future.

you're welcome. maybe you should also try those penis pills i get emailed about all the time?

I'm the one emailing you.

When your mental game plan changes at the last minute sometimes it is harder to adjust than it should be. Climbing down and you are alive and unhurt, win. That said I would have taken 670 SU w 200' to the lz off a generic A. Spicy but doable. anything above that sure, just take an adequate delay to build up airspeed, speed up inflation, and snap that slider down. how were you configured (PC? small v large mesh slider?)

small mesh, 38" PC.

Personally I'd much rather be on the outside at 1,000ft than 100ft.

In theory that makes more sense, but climbing the structure at 1k sounds way more scary to me!

id like to know who votes "climb on" .. theyve probably never done an outside climb at 1,000 ft.

i know i havent. that sounds terrifying.
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It is sort of scary. Chemicals help....
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The tower was so narrow at that height, that it would have been very difficult to turn around, and I was not comfortable exiting backwards.
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It was difficult turning around, yeah. And then I had to jump out across one of the wires. That was scary.

Nah. I climbed from 0 to 400 on the outside of a vertical object and I was much, much, much happier* when I was sure I was high enough to guarantee an opening of some kind.




* Ok, not happy, but definitely less scared

Yes! Climb it. I also rather climb outside at 1000ft instead of 100ft.
Who says the jump has to be the most scary part in basejumping!

Nah, no pussification here, just some good decision making!

I have used the same gear configuration from 660 feet
so we know it would work fine from 870 feet IF the
winds had been more cooperative.

I have done a few outside climbs on the newer 3 legged
freestanding cell towers. I was worried about the pegs
but they were actually not bad. All objects were shy of
300 feet and still: The higher I got the better I felt.

Post Script

Mr_prick: 460 BASE jumps & probably 1,000+ skydives

Hikeat: 115 BASE jumps & probably ~400 skydives

 
Once you're able to overcome the mental challenge of the outside climb the higher jump is safer overall than the 870'...more separation, better chance of making the LZ.

True that, +1

There's always tomorrow when things don't feel right.... Backing down is NEVER the wrong decision.

Should have brought a wingsuit, youd make the landing area for sure.

+1

jon

I went back to the site today. I had a nice tailwind, but I decided to make the additional outside climb anyhow. I brought a couple climbing Caribbeaners with me to clip off to rest. This made a huge difference, as I was able to rest my arms after the outside climb before turning around to jump. I had intended to take six seconds, but I ended up taking it a little lower than that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN35wt63b2w

That wasn't very clever now wast it.

Couldn't have possibly turned out better after pulling too low. Great video.

haha, thats more like it! nice video.
maybe large mesh next time though?

At least you checked your alti before pitching :)

hahahahahaha that is awesome. How is the canopy?

That was awesome!

Glad you are okay.

How is the canopy?

Your flare shouldn't sound like that

You did what only 29% of respondents of your poll suggested to do, ignoring the wisdom of 71%. What did you expect?

Learning by Internetz, after all, works.


Edit: corrected spelling of Internetz.

good thing he didn't go from 870 or otherwise he would have impacted before deploying!

That and possibly pull a tad higher.

I was looking to see what time it was, wanted to get home before prime time tv started.


I have not done an inspection yet, had to celebrate with some brews last night. When I was pulling it out of the trees, I noticed at least one line torn from the attachment point and one large tear. Unfortunately, my canopy is not as tough as I am.


WTF are you talking about? Are you belittling me for not taking advice from the internet and for trying to learn from the internet at the same time? That seems a little incongruent. Are you blaming my low pull on jumping from too high?




I find it hilarious that I get more positive feedback for cheating death by a half a second or less, than I do for being abnormally conservative and backing down. That's awesome!

No, I'm blaming your low pull on not listening to Opinionz on the Internetz. You did a low pull because you asked the Internetz, "To jump or not to jump?" Internetz replied, 79% for "either not to jump or jump from 870". You didn't listen to us Expertz and jumped anyway.

That's why you got a low pull. We told ya!

Damn it, I should have known better than to go against the popular vote! From now on I'll do whatever the expertz on this forum tell me to do.

Haha what can I say man. It was dumb to pull that low, but at least you had the decency to do it in the daytime with a camera strapped to your head!! Glad your ok dude!

hahaha...awsome. Trees rock

ah, that makes me happy that was on video

couple climbing Caribbeaners with me

Jamaicans or Haitians? Cubans? What, you just left them there?

You did what only 29% of respondents of your poll suggested to do, ignoring the wisdom of 71%. What did you expect?

Man would never have flown if someone didn't lead the way.

hahahahaha I spelt thate whey rong.


carabiners

Shit, you all got it wrong. It is way more dangerous to climb down from 870 than to jump from this height. I'm dead serious.

So where's the BJ.com youtube police?! You ain't gonna tar and feather him for posting vids like that on the infamous gaytube?

True. I have personally never fallen off a ladder, so it technically shouldn't matter if it's 2ft off the deck, or 2 thousand. But, as Marta says, better to be on the ground wishing you had jumped, than wishing you hadn't.

Dan your fuckin avatar freaks me out bad!!!!! I'm scared

Sorry about that dude, I tried to upload a picture of some rabid killer kittens, but I don't know what when wrong

I guess I'll just stick with the current one then

for God's sake, I have never, ever been able to get an avatar working on this website.

I know you've probably done this but edit profile and select that picture. If it fails, then I think it's the aspect ratio of the picture. I can't make my Platypus Vampire Bat work, but the picture I'm using now came right up.

jump that shit and take it low sucka... you can jump lower then 486 (bridge slider up) jump jump jump

talk about thread drift..


460: if this works for you, let me know!

I don't mean to offend you, do what you want, but have you considered the irony in this thread?

Here's a little irony:

You ask people if it would be preferable to do a little bit of outside climbing because you're packed slider up and are concerned with making the landing area in the conditions and the wind is not exactly favorable.

(Gives the impression that you're concerned with safety to some degree)

Then, after the only thing you've changed about your plan is bring along a couple of carabiners, you over-delay and land in the trees (nowhere near your intended landing area, I assume)...

Instead of using the extra altitude to make your jump safer, (extra airspeed=better heading performance) you over-delay and land in the trees.

So, it appears to me that you're not making very good decisions.

Luck is what got you through that jump, not skill. Don't believe otherwise.

A skilled jumper would have managed their delay in order to execute the jump as planned.

Now if your plan was to dump low and land in the trees, please disregard everything I typed here

Yea, I pulled too low and landed in the trees, unintentionally. I was trying to take it deep enough to get good separation and airspeed but high enough to make the LZ. For some reason, maybe because I was so focused on trying to track, the ground rush didn't hit me until really late.

That last second goes by really fast. Been there. HAHA