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I will be arriving Aug 8th, looking for locals or other travelers familiar with the area that will be around on those dates who wouldn't mind joining me and another jumper for some jumps from probably Yellow Ocean, La Mousse, and the Mushroom. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially regarding what type of gear/clothing to wear/bring specific to those routes. I'm planning our first stop to be the Horner Pub, but it's always good to have some advance info for planning what to bring, etc. Thanks,

Joe

Joe, your profile says you have 99 jumps. How many out of those are subterminal tracking jumps? Do you have experience / jump with tracking gear? What's your skydiving background? Have you made practise jumps with your tracking gear from airplanes?

Given the relatively low experience in base (and given that you live in the US I'm guessing that not all of those are subterminal tracking jumps) i would suggest to think about twice going yo the mushroom. It is demanding high alpine hike in rough high alpine environment. And if you are not competent tracker the wall sticks out quite fast and you have to pull early. For competent tracker with modern tracking gear it is possible to make very impressive delays from this spot but for a beginner big wall jumper this is not vey easy jump but most likely you end up with a delay comparable to yellow ocean.

Especially if you plan to go to the mushroom, bring standard gear you would use in such environment; that being minimum full waterproof outer layer and proper hiking boots. Also if you do not know the way and are not experienced in this kind of environment, maybe it is not the worst idea to book s mountain guide for a day to take you up and make sure that you guys are safe on the hike.

Most important what you need to bring is common sense and realistic view on your abilities. Life is precious so play safe!

Edit : also i noticed your other post where you are asking for advice in ITW and you are going there from LB. Maybe it would be better idea to first go to ITW which in generally is considered easier spot (given higher rock drops and forigiving wall) compared to LB to do some big wall practise before headng to LB where subterminal tracking skills are crucial.

12 of the jumps are from 1500-2000 A's almost all of those in the last year or so. Another 11 are from about 1000, same time frame. All those are slider up. Most everything else is sub 400 feet. I have been jumping a friends tracking suit at the DZ the last few weeks and plan on borrowing a tracking suit for the trip. I have been skydiving for 10 years and have 965 jumps, I have 19 tracking jumps and 99 wing suit jumps, most of which on a super mach1. I have not practiced with the tracking suit or wing suit from an antenna yet.

Perhaps the mushroom is too ambitious for this first big wall trip maybe the next trip then, I'm not too sure on how my wingsuit exits will be for base yet, hope to practice from our 2000 footer soon.

A mountain guide sounds like a great idea, any ideas on where to find one / book one etc? I'll only be in LB for a few days, while my friend will probably be there for a couple weeks. I am balancing a little jumping with a Europe trip with the wife all over Italy. I would have preferred to go to ITW first but the logistics don't really work. I will probably wait until the ITW for any wingsuiting practice.

Thank you for the great advice, I probably gave too much detail on experience level and such, but that will probably get me the best realistic advice about this trip. Thanks again.

not having a go but markus gave you solid advice itw first over lb based on your relative inexperience but you say "logistics don't work out cos I gotta holiday with the missus"
you might want to re-think whats most important to you and your wife. with respect and imho.

I have to agree with you, the advice seems very solid. The wife agrees that ITW first sounds like the safest idea, we're looking to switch our trip around to do the touring first then the jumping, so we'd go to ITW first then finish in LB, just trying to see if we can rebook all the hotels along the way now for different dates. Ahh the fun of travel.

I really appreciate the good advice and hope to see some of you out in Italy and the Swiss Valley! Thanks.