Basejumper.com - archive

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/27/5452988/joby-ogwyn-mount-everest-jump-wingsuit

"Five to ten steps and then I'll be out of there. It will be a running jump"

"Ogwyn oddly won't be employing a parachute for landing, and has instead opted for a top secret landing mechanism that hasn't been publicized."

WTF??

How many Sherpas will it take to set up 20,000 cardboard boxes?

LOL!

Russian technology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsepsq4IDcM

I don't know, but apparently they'll have 10 minutes to do it after he exits! Which is even more impressive since the source article has a video of him using a TonySuit tracking suit.

(I do like how the linked site didn't have any pictures so just found a photo of a Norwegian instead. Nothing says BASE like Scandinavians)

http://vimeo.com/89150313

Is he seriously going to use a TS TS (Tony Suit Tracking Suit) to jump off of everest? Are there vertical drops that big, particularly considering the density altitude's effect on the start?

The parachute-less landing must just be terrible reporting.

This is weird.

From his Facebook page on Mar 15:
"Flight training all day in Perris, testing the new Masai flight suit. Everest version. It's nice..."

That's definitely what he's got on in the video, too. Looks like he'll be flying some kind of variant of the Masai, then.

Just as a matter of perspective... there is a 650-foot + wall known as the Black Wall on 14,000-foot-high Mount Evans west of Denver, Colorado. Within 30-40 feet of the base, it's an 800-foot launch-to-impact measurement.

As you drive up the road and look at this wall at about the 12,000-foot-level on the shoulder of a 14,000-foot mountain from 1-2 miles away, it looks like a teeny tiny cliff that is not jumpable.

Everest doesn't even start until 18,000 feet (that's where base camp is), so at 29,000 feet, a 14,000-foot mountain is pretty teeny tiny.

Long blah blah short.... there are probably 1,000-foot vertical walls here and there on Everest that you hardly even notice, and there are probably more than a dozen jumpable 500-footers. Unless you have been on big mountains, it is hard to conceptualize just how massive they are. Check out this graphic to see not just how tall Everest is but how big its volume and surface area is compared to the 4,000-meter mountains that are equivalent to Mount Evans.


44

This guy was at POTM learning to paraglide/speedfly. As I understand it he will be launching a glider from the summit and cutting away above base camp.

Is there enough air at that alt for a ws to get flying off a 1000ft?

If a wingsuit BASE jump from the summit of Everest turns out to be a paraglider cutaway tracking jump, I will be very disappointed, and that would be a lot of false advertising

Prepare to be disappointed

I think the project has evolved over time, with the marketing guys slow to update the press releases etc.

Even if the title is misleading it is still an incredibly risky undertaking - at the end of the day it is targeted at the public at large, not a few thousand unbalanced people that practice half hearted suicide attempts as a hobby.

...at the end of the day it is targeted at the public at large,
not a few thousand unbalanced people that practice half
hearted suicide attempts as a hobby.

Awesome Line Bro

+1

Found this in Outside mag...

Well, jumping off the mountain is the easy part, first he has to climb it

+1


44

False advertising? My good Doctor, advertising or false advertising, wingsuit or tracking, parachute or no parachute, its all tomato tomatoe.. As long as it sells! :)

The only surprising detail about this is the lack of Jeb's death talk in the articles, after all they are homies, I believe. Nothing sells like a good death talk.

So it turns out it really was as unbelievable as it sounded (a wingsuit jump from the summit). However, launching a speedwing/paraglider from the summit is still pretty impressive, as the conditions on top are usually not that stable, and the climbers are already close to the limit of their physical ability. Even if Joby is an accomplished climber, its still very high risk, and therefore also has potential for awesome.

Good luck to him.

Kerkko
BASE1184

Anyone know what the max glide ratio is like on the Massai (1.5:1?) and how that scales to the reduced air density (1:1?)
I am wondering how much of the jump is actually going to be in the TS and how much is under canopy

Oh I agree, it's still amazingly risky, and I think speed
Flying is scarier than base. You couldn't pay me enough to try it, he'll id never make it to the launch.

The problem is I was all stoked for a wingsuit BASE jump from freaking Mount Everest, which I think we all would agree would be one of, of not the most amazing thing in the history of BASE jumping.

I said this to some friends yesterday.
It's a little like being promised a chance to sleep with Kate Upton, and then getting a dry handjob from Tara Reid. Still something that your friends will think is amazing, but you'll still be disappointed deep down.

 

I've clocked 1.7 flying crosswind with a tube3, so looking at the masai and completely talking out of my arse i'd say 2 would be possible.

Air density shouldn't affect glide, but if he flies it like in the promo video he'll be lucky to hit 1

Everest has been paraglided, tandem paraglided, hangglided, and everything in between, so the ground work is there. I'd want to have more than a months gliding experience before putting my neck on the line though. Rather him than me.

Actually, there are people who do dedicated trips up the mountain solely and only to retrieve trash (mostly empty O2 bottles). Perhaps the worst place is the highest camp right before the summit push; people shed (literally) tons of stuff at that spot, so a lot of the trash trips.

Here is some info about efforts that are already being made... and here is some more...


44

Agreed, but think it will be the opposite. I'm guessing if he is able to launch, that wing will cut away, land in a tough spot and will be left littered on the mountain.

Chuck, I disagree with you because I've never been able to summit from a dry hand job.

If it works it will be nice footage for sure. But, hey. I thought this was BJ.com, not paragliding.com.

http://everestjumplive.com/guide.html
I'm still confused if this will be an actual base jump, tracking or wingsuit.

Jumping Mt Everest is too easy, so they put the Pilot chute on the left hand side to add some extra "extrem" stuff !!

old news... see attached banner pic of Joby on the WWL site...

...on the other hand, the image you posted shows a skydiving rig with an apparently small, perhaps cross-braced main... maybe it's an Icarus... Extreme...


44

Maybe a triathlon 135?

Ha ha, mirror image that WWL pic is, just look at the GoPro.

Nah, at his weight and that altitude you'd definitely need a cross-brace if you were going to go that small.


44

you make a valid point about perspective

but then you undermine it by using a height for Everest above sea level

in terms of perspective, I would suggest the height from base (surrounding plateau) to peak would be a far better indicator of a mountain's influence

as shown in this neat little diagram

If I get asked about this one more goddamn time at work about this and hes not actually base jumping from the exit, im going to scream. And why on all media does it show a wingsuit when its a tracking suit being used?

I´m pretty sure as you have been through med school and all that you are smart enough to realise that it´s because BASEJUMPING and WINGSUIT is where it´s at! No matter if it is a miniature paragliding skydive cutaway with a base rig and a tracking suit, calling it a wingsuit basejump makes it sound rad and cutting edge. (Have to say for the record, for me climbing to everest and doing a miniature paragliding skydive cutaway with a base rig and a tracking suit from there sounds pretty goddamn rad as well).

Haha I agree markus. Is it the ultimate in ego inflation when you have to say youre doing something inconceivably cool, when youre actually doing something amazingly cool. It would be like me telling everyone im landing on mars when im really landing on the moon. Its still fucking crazy so why not just call it what it is?

Did you see the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon a few nights ago?

Tonight Show link

Well it looks like all you haters have your answer! It will be a wingsuit after all!!!!!!!!!!

Wingsuit without the wings

im gonna be honest, im HIGHLY unimpressed. miniature paragliders are so 2010.

im gonna do the first miniature horse cutaway from everest.
ill sit on the miniature horse, with my speedwing behind me to do a forward launch, kick the fuckin things in the ribs as hard as i can until it starts running its ass off, launch the paraglider while squeezing the pony with my legs, then when the pony and i get enough clearance from the mountain, ill cut away the speedwing, kick off the pony and then start tracking like a bat out of hell. ill lose the speedwing and probably the miniature pony, but it will be one HELLUVA stunt, never done before in history.

im sure you would all pay to see that kind of absolute awesomeness!!!!!!!!

Tara Reid handjob

http://sports.yahoo.com/...-team-040000053.html

I think Dr. Chuck and Wilson have the right ideas: miniature horse hand jobs from the summit of Everest, land without a parachute. Hella tits, bro.

http://www.nydailynews.com/...st-article-1.1746019

They are still saying he is going to land without a parachute........

That's kinda weird because I just saw a facebook pic today of the two (one backup) brand new apex rigs he is using for the project

https://www.facebook.com/iiro.seppanen/photos/a.608488589246069.1073741827.107897765971823/628428037252124/?type=1&theater

(edit to add link)

Maybe they're both backup rig...

["Ogwyn oddly won't be employing a parachute for landing, and has instead opted for a top secret landing mechanism that hasn't been publicized."

WTF??]

SPOILER ALERT: I have inside information from a reliable source inside the project that the pics of the BASE rigs on FB are merely a misinformation strategy to help maintain the secrecy of the actual landing system. Did anyone see pics of canopies? What I was told is that the rig will instead hold a previously extinct giant condor-like bird attached to specially designed extended risers. The creature was created in a laboratory with DNA obtained from perfectly preserved pre-historic mosquitos trapped in fossilized amber mined in what is now Siberia. Reportedly, the birds are trained to remain dormant in the closed rigs for up to twelve hours prior to deployment and are equipped with a RDS. The biggest logical challenge the team reportedly had to overcome was the fact that the birds will only feed on live human babies. They successfully developed a reliable source for live human “feeder” babies from a clinic in China, but they initially had difficulty with the babies dying from cold and hypoxia during extended testing in the Nepalese mountains; leaving the birds lethargic and irritable, thus diminishing their reliably for a safe landing. The team has since reportedly successfully addressed these challenges and are ready to move forward with Project Everest-BASE-Giant-Ass-Bird-Landing. If anyone asks, you didn’t hear this from me.

(edited to be more funny)

This would be totally believable except you gave away that it was a joke when you said "Nepalese mountains." Everyone knows Nepal is part of the Himalayas, not the other way around.


44

This was the funniest thing about your post!

+1

I just straight up asked him why theres a base rig if hes not using a parachute to land. We'll see what the answer is, or more likely the comment will just be deleted.

If you keep secrets from the media they fill in the blanks :) In other words the media just makes shit up :) Don't worry, you will see exactly what he is doing, you can watch it live along with a few hundred million other people ;)

Just a update:

There has been a very bad avalanche in the popcorn fields just above base camp 1.

12 Sherpas have been killed.

Joby has said that he is safe at base camp but some of the people that died were Sherpas on his team.

happy he is safe but very sad for the Sherpas and their familys

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...vised-live-jump.html

Lots of detail about Joby ... five of the sherpas were part of the Discovery team.


44

Sooo, the whole thing went flat. :(

From Everest Jump Live:

"Update: In light of the overwhelming tragedy at Mt Everest and respect for the families of the fallen, Discovery Channel will not be going forward with Everest Jump Live. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the whole Sherpa community."

I was wondering if part of his front crew were involved. Joby is a nice guy so I hope it all still goes well for his jump. As much of the big mountain community as he knows, I'm sure this loss can't help but be a hard moment for him.

from start to finish this whole stunt was a big disappointment.