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Hi All,

as the high season in LB is about to begin, just couple of reminders of the facts people should keep in mind :

- Last weekend as we went to the gear up on the high nose we saw empty plastic bottle and other trash lying around. We collected the trash and brought it down. A jumper in our group also told about jumping last weekend about 1kg of trash down from a cliff in Austria. If your mom is always cleaning up and collecting your trash at your home you need to bring your mom to the exit point as well to do the job. DO NOT LITTER! It is under no circumstances acceptable to throw empty bottles or other trash to the mountain, what you bring up you take down. There is even a trashcan next to the landing area so you don't even need to carry your trash back to LB if that's too much for you.

- Pay the landing card, it is a small amount of money and helps to keep the valley legal

- Be respectful for the farmers

- Call Air Glaciers before every jump

- Respect the jumps and be honest about your skill level and ability to perform jumps that are generally regarded as advanced tracking jumps.

- Exit stable, fly hard and pull high (enough). Play safe and have fun!

We learned the hard way, at least the one farmer we talked to, much rather receive big wave and yelled "thank you" across the field upon landing, than jumpers trying to be quiet, a small curtious wave, and quickly and quietly leaving out of respect. While we thought this quiet move was part of "leave no trace", he thought it was us ignoring his gift to us.

They also like beverage gifts left at their front door. I actually think some authentic small gifts from your home country could also be cool way to say thank you. When we asked about the BASE landing card with this one farmer, when he said we come and rape his land and he gets nothing, he had very poor comments about what he gets from the card payments. Thus, I think he really would appreciate personal "thank yous" (hand shakes, small gifts, authentic appreciative conversations, etc) in ADDITION to the card payment.

We also learned that advice we saw on the wall of the Horner and people would dispense at exit points, "land in the mowed short grass fields" is wrong for some farmers. The farmer was very upset we did not land in the tall grass field with the windsock, seeming to put priority on the windsocks, not the height of grass.

Its not easy to make everyone happy.
We have to deal with about 20 farmers.
Most of them really like basejumpers and have no problem at all with us.
Last year we had about 4000 CHF to give.
The Farmers with the main landing areas get something like 500.- some get maybe 150.- and the farmers with only very few landings maybe 60.-.
Someone even said he wants no money at all.
The one who complains the most is one who gets 500.- + ,its a long story.....
The SBA has nothing to do with who gets how much.
The farmers fight for it themselves.....
The fight is not really about the basemoney, some of them really don't like each other

But as said before, most of the farmers are really happy with the solution we have.
Of course they are even happier if you are friendly and bring them a little present.

Landing areas are marked with the windsock, so land where the windsock is.
If there is no windsock, land on short grass.
( The Yellow Ocean Windsock disappeared again, we will replace it one more time.....)

A week ago we found a huge pile of shit and toilet paper in the middle of the yellow ocean gearup area, that sucks, please just walk 20m away!

My 1c

Dear fellow base jumpers,

Unfortunately we had yet another fatal accident in Lauterbrunnen. The accident happened from the now very popular exit called High Ultimate in Stechelberg. Unfortunately this is second wingsuit fatality from the same exit in less than a month and they both seem to be related to some problems experienced after exit. We do not want to point any fingers or blame anybody but obviously safety statistics like this cannot be acceptable in long term and we as a community are not doing very good job to improve our image and situation in the valley.

Please keep in mind the following points about High Ultimate :

- It is the highest (regular) exit in the valley and has the shortest hike. Therefore it is very tempting jump. This makes it even more dangerous.
- It is SEVERLY positive after the exit and therefore NOT a beginner neither intermediate jump. Because of the nature of the exit (it demands very strong push to clear the underhung section) it is for experienced jumpers only.
- This is NOT a wingsuit jump! We know that it has been jumped successfully with wingsuit but please consider if you are current enough and have the abilities to do a very strong push to clear the positive part and same time maintain stability in a big wingsuit. It is not only about the physical push required, it is a mindfuck to jump this exit. In the back of your mind you know that you will need a very strong exit to clear it and it adds up to the stress factor and might make you to push extra hard and not do your normal solid exit. It also looks scary as you see the underhung part and this also is a very high mental stress factor. Consider this as similar situation than tracking the via ferrata exit, generally that jump is a WS only jump. It has been (and will be) tracked but the margin in these jumps is (and will be) very very slim and even smallest mistake will lead into catastrophical results.

I personally have close to 1000 base jumps with roughly 200+ with wingsuit and for me this is not a wingsuit exit. It's my personal choice but I feel that I do not have what it takes to do this jump in safe manner with ws and I know that this opinion is also shared on their behalf with some other experienced jumpers in the area.

The High Ultimate is an awesome jump and it would be a disaster to lose it. We, the Swiss BASE Association, ask you to be extra conservative when jumping this exit and help us on working for a better safety statistics in the future.

Please also read Douggs' post on the fatality that happened from the lower exit on the Ultimate, his points are very valid and underline the nature of this jump very well : http://www.basejumper.com/..._reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Our deepest condolences to the friends and family of both deceased jumpers, it has been horrible times lately and every death is a terrible tragedy.

Life is precious so play safe!

On behalf of Swiss BASE Association,
Markus

WATCH THIS BEFORE THINKING ABOUT JUMPING ULTIMATE AND THINK AGAIN...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_BJpN_SeXo


Im not a jumper, maybe I have nothing to say but I feel this is a very important video to show people how easy it is to fuck up on that jump. The video shows someone hitting his feet on the ledge after 4 seconds of freefall, the guy is clearly VERY lucky to be allive. If all those long posts do not get to you, maybe this video will make you think twice before you try to jump from ultimate.

IF the person that uploaded this video doesnt like the fact that I post it here, PM me, I will delete it right away...even though I hope thats not the case as I think this is way more eye opening than anything anyone writes...

again, watch it and keep it in mind...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_BJpN_SeXo

Who installed the ramp?

Installing the ramp that is not safe for average tourist BASE jumper (of which 90% of LB jumpers are) in a popular BASE destination is asking for more fatalities.

There are only two solutions to this problem: either remove the ramp or make it longer (and proportionally stronger to avoid any oscillations) so it truly overhangs. "Educating peoplez on the Internetz" will have little effect: there always will be someone who will think they can do this ramp, and will prove themselves wrong.

There's already more meat produced in LB by jumpers than by farmers.

The cost involved in improving the ramp can be collected via Landing Card (voluntarily, as an option).

seriously dude?

its not the ramp thats killing jumpers.

don't blame people (who were trying to make the exit safer in the winter, from what I understand) for "luring" unprepared jumpers to a "dangerous" exit.

sounds a lot like a gun control activists argument to me...

ramps don't kill jumpers...jumpers kill jumpers

the ones involved in the making of the ramp had only the best in mind for safety...not once did they tell people it made it a more beginner friendly jump

You read it wrong. There's a difference between intentions and consequences. People who installed The Ramp had best intentions and put a lot of work and money into it. Much respect to them.

However, life shows that people get killed at The Ramp. And will continue to be killed if things stay the same. Posting a sticky on the Internetz will change very little. Even posting a sign at The Ramp will change little. The Ramp is luring jumpers like a siren. So something needs to be done with The Ramp or LB will inevitably be closed to jumpers.

Next time I'm in LB and SBA decides to build a longer, safer ramp, I'll happily pitch in 50 bucks on top of the Landing Card. I have little doubt there will be enough jumpers who'll do the same, to collect enough money.

Maybe so, but you can't just dismiss human nature. The ramp does 2 things: it makes the exit incredibly obvious, and it makes it look easy. There is no doubt in my mind that many more jumpers will try Hi-ultimate with a ramp than would be willing to jump it if it wasn't there.

Not blaming the guys that put it there, it's their Valley, and it's not their fault other people can't use better judgement, but the simple fact is that a ramp for jumpers is like a UV light for flies.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree here. Ramp or no ramp, we (as a community) have proven to have very poor judgement in the past on going for jumps beyond our abilities or jumps which have too small margin in them in the LB valley. And the result can be read from the list. Maybe it's the easy access, maybe it's the sheer volume of quality jumps in small area that gets people distracted about their own abilities. But the fact is that it is not a ramp that will inevitably get LB closed, it is the poor judgement we (as jumpers) continue to display there.

So please, do not argue about a ramp this, ramp that. The fact is that we have 2 WS fatalities in one month from this exit. This exit combined with WS has proven to be a lethal combination. Draw the conclusion, think and take a step back. This is not a wingsuit exit and even without wingsuit it is an advanced jump for experienced jumpers.

Life is precious so play safe!

The problem with LB is that the seriousness of the jump is (with few exceptions) inversely proportional to the ease of access. This is the exact opposite for, by way of an example, dangerous rock climbs, which require a certain level of technical ability to get into a dangerous place in the first place.

In general, the only real solution is self-discipline, and some self-reflection on why one is choosing to jump from a particular exit point in the first place - and whether the risk/reward is worthwhile in the context of experience and currency

Please note what MarkusWyler wrote on the other thread about jumping the Stechelberg exits :

------------------------------

Please note we found a new/better solution with the paragliders for the Mürren exits.

Find detailed infos here:
http://www.basejumper.ch/...;id=19&Itemid=56

Markus

------------------------------

I crossposted Markus' post on this thread as this is a sticky thread. Please read the new rules and act accordingly!

And will continue to be killed if things stay the same. Posting a sticky on the Internetz will change very little. Even posting a sign http://www.halpabalenciaga.com/balenciaga-pistorasia.html at The Ramp will change little. The Ramp is luring jumpers like a siren. So something needs to be done with The Ramp or LB will inevitably be closed to jumpers.

would bigger ramps help? collect money from everybody who is jumping in LB, and get a sponsor........

 
Hello All,

we had last saturday the annual meeting of SBA in Lauterbrunnen. Couple of points we would like to point out :

- SBA has launched together with BAZL (civil aviation authority of CH) a safety campaign for BASE jumpers in CH. This clearly shows that the authorities are interested in what we do and also see the need for us to improve our safety record. What is good is that they (so far) have wanted to do it by informing people and not demanding more regulations and restrictions. The official SBA & BAZL poster can be found here : http://www.basejumper.ch/...p;id=24&Itemid=1. Read the poster and act accordingly!
- In the coming months we will work hard to publish more information regarding LB exits. Once this info is available, please read it, spread it around and be conservative about your abilities to jump in LB!
- Pay the landing card! 25chf is not much but it helps us to keep the valley legal.
- Respect the new airspace rules in Stechelberg. Do not cross the river in freefall.
- Jump safely, don´t bounce and enjoy the beautiful valley! :)

Thanks!