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I was hoping to do my first ski base this winter off a local 350ft E. Just seeing if anybody has experience with this and would like to chime in. My question is how long of a runway is usually needed for to get good separation? Do you build a ramp at the end of it or just flatten it out? And with a short delay assuming that you have good speed leaving the exit, would you recommend slider down or up, or does it even matter?

Thanks

Think about it...

GOod questions.

I have many ski base jumps.

One very key thing is the take off. you must be certain you can ski off fast and balanced and stable and cruise through the air like you are familiar doing on skis crashing at take off would be very bad. ski off as fast as you are for sure still comfortable.

Next thing is deploying. If you have any concern at all about being unstable or rolling the windows down, go hand held... this way you can use your hands for balance and roll the windows as much as you want. Even if you opt for slider up, hand held can be a great choice.

350ft is kind of an in between size. slider up is nice for ski base and you can use a slider much lower than otherwise, but each jump is different. if you have a really horizontal trajectory and a lot of speed, sure 350ft is enough, but if you are skiing steep down and heading straight at your impact, suddenly the slider is a bad choice.

how much distance of in run? that depends on the angle of the snow and the condition of it.

build a kicker, or stomp it flat?

I suggest not building a kicker for round one, but sculpting the take off to look like something you are very comfortable skiing off of.

If you want to send me some photos I will give you my siggestions for how to hit it. jtholmes914@gmail.com

definitely let us know how it goes!

What I was going to say...

(What happened was I was writing everything in word because I was cooking so I was writing a little at a time and then I copied and pasted into this site when I finished, or at least I thought I did. I hope you didn't think I was being a smart ass...)

...If you exit going down, and like you said, you will have some speed, a 2sec delay with SU might put you really low.

...If you exit going out or up, then SU may be ok...

Plus, what is the LZ like? How far away is it? Maybe SD would be better..

Thanks for the reply, i don't have any photos of it on hand, but the spot could have max 80 ft of runway at about a 25 degree angle. it has a 350ft wall followed by a 200ft talus and a wide open treeless lz.

Sounds pretty clean. If that's the case SL up or down should be fine. Nice big landing area and clean fast take off should equal build your take off according to what you are comfortable with (flip plans or not) as long as it's a clean vertical wall. Talus should be no problem unless you think there is a chance you will land on it (which there always is), then look at the options and decide.

Not the most experienced ski BASE guy here but just my offering. Pics would be good.

Talus in the winter time? I usually just call that a ski slope.

why not start easy with a slider down and enough speed for separation followed by working your way up to more inrun speed and slider up?

You could always ask the guy that lives in town, has done ski-base, and has jumped the cliff w/ you?

But JT is the shizzle on ski-base, listen to him...

it is always a crack up when people overlook real humans around them and inquire online instead.

Listen to Ren, he knows his stuff... although i believe he only has one kidney, so keep that in mind.

If you guys ever wanna pop your ski base cherry out west, keep in mind a trip to Lover's Leap in Strawberry, CA west of SOuth lake Tahoe by way of HWY 50.

It is a really great site named Lover's Leap. You can ski base there right off from under a tree. 360 clean feet of airtime with locals that need motivation for a session because the poor cliff has been largely ignored, at least by the north lake crew, ever since Shane died. not completely ignored, but it used to be that you could count on a manicured take off and a boot pack or skin track if the snow was in...

APOOOPA?