Re: [unclecharlie95] Exit database - should we create an online database of legal exits?
I assume you are thinking specifically about an Italian topo. Is this correct?
I think having the information readily available is best for people’s safety and ultimately the sport, and here’s why:
I think a lot of people like to use the argument that secrecy will prevent people who shouldn't be somewhere from jumping there. In my experience, secrecy is more often used to try to prevent people jumping somewhere, because someone doesn’t want them there. I have plenty of anecdotal evidence for this, but I‘m not here to bitch about people. The problem is if someone wants to jump something, they will find a way to jump it, whether other people help them or not. It seems to me, that the people who could benefit most from information about a jump are the ones least likely to be given it.
Many people argue that with free information other places will turn into another Lauterbrunnen. This is rubbish, because nowhere else is like lauterbrunnen. People go to lauterbrunnen because they know they will meet people to jump with, there are an abundance of relatively easy jumps, and they can make 10 jumps a day, with little effort thanks to the gondolas. Exit information IS freely available in France and the only places you are likely to run into someone else are where the hikes are less than an hour. Any legal jump in France with a 3 hour or more hike will be lucky to be jumped more than a couple of times a week.
One of the main problems of not having information available, is that secrecy promotes the passing of inaccurate information. As people relay badly remembered, second hand information it inevitably gets distorted. Consider rockdrop, add distortion to an already highly inaccurate measurement and you can get some pretty risky results. For example, I have known people who have been told that a certain exit point has a 5-6 second rock drop (likely to scare people away because they don’t want too much traffic). They have jumped the jump without verifying this information and found it easy. They have then used this as a yardstick, and told me they have jumped a certain jump, so they are happy jumping other jumps with the same 5-6 second rockdrop. I have lasered one of these jumps myself. The cliff was slightly positive (10m at -160m (hence the rockDROP) and the talus starts at 220m (I would in no way call this a 5 second rockdrop, although others may argue differently). These people now have pretty inaccurate yardsticks. Giving people accurate information would not only have allowed them to make the decision to jump these jumps based on facts, but future decisions also.
Yesterday, I uncovered the precise location of at least nine “secret” exit points just from internet videos and google maps. Now I will go to these places, and I will likely jump most of them, but I will at least laser them all (an effort which may be saved if this information were more readily available, but this is beside the point). Also, I will contact the locals before I jump at least a couple of these because I suspect there may be issues regarding the legality of these jumps. Anyone can do this, but not all jumpers have the same attitude. There are some who would not bother to contact the locals to find out any possible issues with a potentially sensitive site. There are many who don’t have a laser, and will simply jump it because they saw that it has been jumped in a V4 or say to themselves “Five and a half second rock drop – I’ve done that before”. These are the people who put their lives and these sites at risk, and the best thing we can do to combat an ignorant few is to provide these people as much accurate information as possible.
Providing information about jumps is also another opportunity to remind people of something they should already know, but may have forgotten or not realised. For instance, a reminder that your start arc is much longer at such a high altitude, and a cliff profile that may be relatively safe to jump at low altitude could be very dangerous at this altitude, could be helpful to some. Or that for a particular jump a south wind may seem nice at the exit but further down can be real nasty. Not to mention potential sensitivity issues. Everyone has the potential to overlook a crucial piece of information.
In the end people are responsible for making their own choices and the best thing we can do for their safety is to make sure these choices are based on the most complete and accurate information possible.