Half Century Anniversary
Fifty years ago today on July 24, 1966, my dearly departed friend Brian Schubert and I jumped the El Capitan. Some twelve years later Carl Boenish and company replicated our jump and BASE jumping began as a sport. Basejumper.com - archive
General BASE
Re: [almosupremecommander] Half Century Anniversary
We used modified military parachutes and full skydiving gear, including 24' chest pack reserves, boots and helmets. My main was a standard 28' round with a TU modification. Brian was a big guy and jumped with a 35' round T-10.
Re: [MikePelkey] Half Century Anniversary
Amazing stuff what did you guys talk about before the jump what was the plan.
I didn't shit my pants on my first BASE jump because I hadn't been able to eat anything for a day before, I dunno how scared you must have been.
And how were the landings with that gear
Re: [MikePelkey] Half Century Anniversary
I'm always glad when there are guys like you around to remind all of us what giant pussies we really are." ;) Happy anniversary!
Re: [almosupremecommander] Half Century Anniversary
Actually the climb to the top took us over eight hours. We ran out of water about half way up and were more than ready to get back down to civilization. That was pretty much our plan. Brian pulled a fast one on me and jumped first without a countdown or warning. Whatever nervousness I may have felt on the climb up was completely abated when I rushed to follow him off. The experience to me, falling that close to the face of the mountain, was one I'll never forget. It was beautiful. My landing was like a feather; a standing landing pretty much on one leg with a broken bone in my left foot on a huge slab of rock at the thalus. Brian was not so lucky. He claimed to have purposely landed stiff-legged on the rocks for some reason and crushed bones in both his feet. He did some permanent damage to both his feet on that jump. He said he felt that the bottom dropped out of his parachute the last fifty feet or so. I was able to make a jump with a small ankle cast less than a month later. 
Re: [MikePelkey] Half Century Anniversary
You guys were hardcore Mike! Awesome stuff!
How did you two decide you were going to attempt such a stunt? How did the idea begin?
Re: [base570] Half Century Anniversary
A workmate suggested it to me. I brought the idea up to Brian suggesting that it had never been done before. Brian was all for it. We spent three or four weeks studying as much as we could from library books, which didn't amount to much other than the fact that it was a sheer monolith that rose some 3,200 feet above the valley floor. We actually had filming all set up, but by the time it took us to make the climb to the top, the girls who were supposed to do the filming got tired of waiting and left their post. We ended up with some very low quality still pictures taken from the top.
Re: [MikePelkey] Half Century Anniversary
So you are the guy who made me start with this sport? Thanks for that!
It was always the picture in my head, running over the edge of ElCap, which finally made me start skydiving in 1989 and making my first basejump in 1999.
Happy anniversary!
Rock on!
Re: [MikePelkey] Half Century Anniversary
MikePelkey wrote:
Fifty years ago today on July 24, 1966, my dearly departed friend Brian Schubert and I jumped the El Capitan. Some twelve years later Carl Boenish and company replicated our jump and BASE jumping began as a sport.
Bravo Mike.
Cheers to you.
and best to Brian's family.
I was less than 100 meters from his impact point @ BD years ago and helped his daughter get to the rescue crew.
Craig F