Cowboy Desperado.

October 18, 2009 6:57 PM

First-person base jumping in Switzerland. Stick with it, as the horizontal movement across the rock face using the gliding bodysuit will blow your mind.
posted by lazaruslong (76 comments total)

See, now I don't have to go BASE jumping.

I kept waiting for the moment one of the guys slammed into a rocky outcrop, followed by his buddies going: "OOOOOH!"
posted by bwg at 7:05 PM on October 18

"Dude, lets totally get wild and crazy and cheat death and shit by jumping off rocks and flying real close to them. We can make poorly edited videos of it with cheesy club music to make it look exciting!"

Millions of people look death in the eye every goddamn day and don't have the leisure of making videos of it 'cause they're too busy trying to stay alive. Masturbate if you must, record if you must, but don't expect everyone else to be impressed.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:14 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

60 Minutes had some jumpers on a couple of weeks ago. Amazing video.
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:21 PM on October 18

Yeah, every time there's a discussion about highly dangerous thrill-seeking, some people will rip into them. I've never really understood that. These folks are, in their own way, doing what makes them really happy, and it happens to involve flying and recording it. So they're bad people because they're experiencing an emotion that others try to avoid?
posted by ORthey at 7:22 PM on October 18 [11 favorites has favorites]

The follow shot of the red jumper as he basically body-surfed the rock face actually made me nervous. Loved it.
posted by Mikey-San at 7:23 PM on October 18

Millions of people don't have the leisure of sitting on the internet sharing their opinions with the world either, but that's less interesting to record. Your level of hostility towards these people for recording their chosen pastime and then making a cheesy club music clip show of it strikes me as a little strange, Brandon.

I thought this was kind of interesting, sort of way too close to those rocks for comfort but kind of interesting despite the awful music.
posted by emperor.seamus at 7:24 PM on October 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

There was something about the body-suit guy that seemed cgi... anyone else get that impression?
posted by HuronBob at 7:26 PM on October 18

What's up with the crappy soundtrack? Surely the real audio is 100x more interesting?
posted by signal at 7:31 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

C'mon you guys, let's BASE jump off Old Man Blatcher's garage
posted by Scoo at 7:33 PM on October 18 [13 favorites has favorites]

In case anyone is wondering, the "cheesy club music" is by Ugress, one of my favorites. (Though I agree that it doesn't fit the video very well.)
posted by ropeladder at 7:36 PM on October 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Surely the real audio is 100x more interesting?

Maybe the camera lacked a microphone?
posted by setanor at 7:37 PM on October 18

Maybe the camera lacked a microphone?

It wouldn't be hard to add audio. Stick a microphone out of a car window while going down the highway.
posted by bh at 7:45 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

Masturbate if you must

I would, but I don't want to horn in on your act.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:51 PM on October 18 [9 favorites has favorites]

I think the music adds a lot to the video, and the video is astonishing.
posted by longsleeves at 7:54 PM on October 18

but don't expect everyone else to be impressed.

I think someone had their heart broken by a base jumper.
posted by GuyZero at 7:57 PM on October 18 [8 favorites has favorites]

Stick a microphone out of a car window while going down the highway.

...And all you'd get is a crumbly static sound as the wind overwhelmed the mic. You'd get the same thing with a mic strapped to someone's helmet. Quickly-moving air does not get along with microphones. Better to just include music, even if it's not to everyone's liking.

Oh, and as far as this:

Millions of people look death in the eye every goddamn day and don't have the leisure of making videos of it 'cause they're too busy trying to stay alive. Masturbate if you must, record if you must, but don't expect everyone else to be impressed.

There are not enough buns, ground chuck and flame-broilers in the world to express my agreement with this statement.
posted by hifiparasol at 8:02 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

god DAMN base jumpers doing their fucking BASE JUMPING in the FUCKING DRYWALL again

i've had it up to HERE with these FUCKING base jumpers
posted by Greg Nog at 8:04 PM on October 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

BASE jumper meh, but look at mother nature go! What a spectacular place that is.
posted by klanawa at 8:09 PM on October 18 [5 favorites has favorites]

I need to get myself one of those flying squirrel suits ASAP.
posted by sararah at 8:12 PM on October 18

wingwuit basejumping in Norway - first-person cam starts at about 1:30.

I think this video (the one in my link) was posted here before, but I'm glad to be reminded of it.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:26 PM on October 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

wingSuit that iw.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:26 PM on October 18

here's previous post with my link in it
and a similar one
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:28 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

My verbal response to this:
"YYYYYYYEAAHHHHHHohNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
NOOOOOOOOO!AWESOME!AWESOME!AWESOME! Is he...?

[gulp]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
posted by brundlefly at 8:43 PM on October 18

My favorite BASE jump video: Melissa Andrzejewski's head cam view of a wingsuit BASE jump off of Kiguti Peak--a big wall along the Sam Ford Fjord on the east coast of Baffin Island, Canada (north of the Arctic Circle).
posted by prinado at 8:44 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

I'm sorry this is tangentially related at best but it's also kind of adorable at least?
posted by emperor.seamus at 8:52 PM on October 18

Welp, someone's going to post it sooner or later: first-person base jumping accident. If I remember correctly, the guy in the video made a full recovery. Doesn't make it any less painful to watch, though.
posted by pravit at 9:13 PM on October 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

Brandon's comment doesn't seem as ridiculous as a lot of people in this thread are portraying it. To those who object, in your view, is there a limit to the amount of money you can spend on pure entertainment before it feels wrong? Brandon just showed where his line is, and to draw it below the amount of money required to base jump doesn't seem especially puritanical. I think a lot of the negative reaction to his comment comes from the fact that it seems like a pretty exhilarating activity, which, hell, I agree. I'm not sure that makes it any different from other monstrously expensive activities that people here would scoff at.
posted by invitapriore at 9:16 PM on October 18

I don't want to imply that I think base jumping is immoral because of how much it costs, because I don't really know that I feel that's the case. I just feel Brandon's comment isn't so terribly unreasonable.
posted by invitapriore at 9:23 PM on October 18

Huh? I doubt that BASE jumping costs any more than what serious enthusiasts spend on golf or downhill skiing. It's not 'monstrously expensive.'
posted by Flashman at 9:33 PM on October 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

... well, until you consider all the money wasted on feeding and educating these folks when they splatter their brains on fjords after only living 25% of what would be their normal lifespan.
posted by roue at 9:48 PM on October 18

Flashman: I'm thinking of it in terms of flight to a foreign country, price of wingsuit, price of room and board, and whatever minor auxiliary costs there are. Obviously, not everyone will have to shell out for all of those things to the same degree depending on their individual circumstance, but I'm guessing that for most folks who base jump their costs will add up to at least a few thousand dollars per event, right? Relative to an average income, that seems like a lot.

Either way, I'm not trying to level any moral judgments. My question is motivated out of a general curiosity about the sort of metrics people use to decide what amount is too much to pay for entertainment, especially in the case of something like base jumping where a lot of folks would understandably love to do it themselves if they had the opportunity.
posted by invitapriore at 9:48 PM on October 18

not that there's anything wrong with splattering your brains on a fjord. I can think of worse ways to go.
posted by roue at 9:49 PM on October 18

i like 2 base jump but wile im doing it i use twitter + add real-time data 2 my vlog + keep all my peeps informd of what I'm up 2 at all time bcuz its cul.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:55 PM on October 18

Yes, base jumping does burn through capital without providing much more than memories for its participants, especially where helicopters are required. But the equipment must get 500 uses, right, so per-use it might only cost $10 or less. All in all a 5-jump adventure would have a personal capital outlay equivalent to an xbox game or two.

Golf requires rather minimal personal capital outlay, and I've seen Caddy Shack so I know that the maintenance costs of the course can't be that significant, and the cost of the land itself is dependent on its location (Maui has plenty of open space for golf courses while I find the various private courses in West LA most offensive to my sensibilities).

Now, when talking about wasteful hobbies we can start on about autocrossing perhaps.
posted by mokuba at 10:13 PM on October 18

Collateral snark before I had my Monday morning coffee, pfff, it's an uphill week, then.

Personally one might agree the music is not an optimal choice, and take it from me I know a thing or two about that music and extreme sport videos. However, no matter the height of the jump, and the inevitable skill level of snark on a questionable soundtrack selection, I cannot let it pass wholly unobserved this time, since I have on good authority the music is not used by explicit permission.

Not naming any names, oh dear no, just casually informing you of the existence of a certain "endangered species" list.

When someones global and cruel world domination is achieved, I expect certain individuals might realize this list does not mean what they think it means.
posted by gmm at 11:56 PM on October 18

We need them in the gene pool - no matter how many of them kill themselves before reproducing, they survive because their genes are useful.
posted by GrimJack at 12:06 AM on October 19

Similarly great video I came across yesterday of first person mountain biking. Starts getting really good about 1/2 way through.
posted by sophist at 12:09 AM on October 19

That just makes me want to go to the alps.
posted by hellojed at 12:36 AM on October 19

Looks like this might be the original: Halvor Angvik: 10 days of jumping in the area of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. Proximity wingsuitflying and tracking. He has a few more videos on his channel page.

(satellite view of the area)
posted by effbot at 12:42 AM on October 19

(someone MeFi hacker should fix the embedded player to support HQ & HD videos, btw.)
posted by effbot at 12:45 AM on October 19

To those who object, in your view, is there a limit to the amount of money you can spend on pure entertainment before it feels wrong?

Unless you make a PPP adjusted income of less than $5,000 a year, the majority of the money you spend is spent on things that someone from 100 years ago would consider frivolous luxury.
posted by atrazine at 12:59 AM on October 19

flight to a foreign country

Yeah, spending two hours on a plane from Norway to Switzerland is indeed a huge undertaking (well, the train trip to Lauterbrunnen takes three hours, so they probably didn't get there before lunch). Sounds like someone's very much jealous of anyone doing anything on their vacation.
posted by effbot at 1:05 AM on October 19 [2 favorites has favorites]

I feel ok about this because when they get injured, most local governments will charge them for the cost of their rescue or their family for the cost of corpse recovery. And it allows rescue operations to practice on someone who seemingly doesn't care if they die. Win-win, really.
posted by stavrogin at 1:43 AM on October 19

I feel ok about this because when they get injured, most local governments will charge them for the cost of their rescue or their family for the cost of corpse recovery.

I wish I were edgy and enlightened like you.

And it allows rescue operations to practice on someone who seemingly doesn't care if they die

They're not suicide jumpers; they enjoy life by doing things that raise their adrenaline levels. You don't have to do it yourself or even be comfortable with someone else doing it, but you could at least attempt to understand why others do it. I work down the hall from a guy who likes to jump out of planes. He loves life and that's one of the ways he enjoys it. The proximity to a solid object while falling doesn't, on its own, determine how much one values life.
posted by Mikey-San at 2:29 AM on October 19

I feel ok about this because when they get injured, most local governments will charge them for the cost of their rescue or their family for the cost of corpse recovery.

Lautersbrunnen is an established jump site where base jumping is perfectly legal, as long as you follow the local regulations. You're even covered by some (but not all) rescue organizations.

(when you place an entire country on top of an alp, having a few more accidents isn't really a big deal -- in absolute numbers, base jumpers don't cause much trouble compared to skiers and hikers...)
posted by effbot at 2:49 AM on October 19

But the equipment must get 500 uses, right, so per-use it might only cost $10 or less.

Unless of course they screw up during the first jump.
posted by bwg at 3:00 AM on October 19

Unless of course they screw up during the first jump.

Or fall on their way up (see the "dark side" link on the Lautersbrunnen site).
posted by effbot at 3:26 AM on October 19

I'm wondering if they got permission from the owners of the various farms below to potentially slam into their fields like a NASA probe into the moon.
posted by ursus_comiter at 4:01 AM on October 19

ursus, I think MeFi etiquette expects you to use the "I cannot be bothered to read any other comments in this thread, but..." prefix on comments like that one.
posted by effbot at 4:14 AM on October 19

So they're bad people because they're experiencing an emotion that others try to avoid?

I don't know if they're bad people as the video only shows them base jumping, not the sort of person they are.

Speaking just for myself, the cost of their activities doesn't bother me (hell, it takes several hundred dollars at least just write this comment). Their "flirting with death" or "I do this because I love life" antics are, IMO, grossly self indulgent considering the number of people who actually face death on a regular basis.

By all means, if you like the video, enjoy it, but it didn't strike me as amazing or wonderful in any way.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:47 AM on October 19

I'm mostly a card-carrying coward, but it hasn't stopped me about thinking of someday sky-diving. So I quite enjoyed the video. And I have no particular hate for those who base-jump.

From a cost point of view, I wouldn't be surprised if base-jumping costs about the same as skydiving from a plane, per jump. Cheaper, maybe (no plane).

We went to Interlaken last year, and we took the train to Kleine Schiedegg, which goes thru Lauterbrunnen. So, thanks for reminding us of that great trip.

Brandon, you still have 3 days to register for the PROBASE race event on Oct 22 in Lauterbrunnen.
posted by Artful Codger at 5:42 AM on October 19

Base jumpers are cool and all, but base smokers are the real daredevils.

Actually, I love the video. If I were a (way) younger man, I'd try it.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 5:43 AM on October 19

Some folks jump off mountains.

Other folks express their opinions about them on Metafilter.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:56 AM on October 19

ORthey: "So they're bad people because they're experiencing an emotion that others try to avoid?"

That settles it. I'm posting my depression videos toot suite.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:03 AM on October 19

Flashman: I'm thinking of it in terms of flight to a foreign country, price of wingsuit, price of room and board, and whatever minor auxiliary costs there are.

Invitiapore: You might also want to think of it in terms of flight to a foreign country (or Hawaii), price of a set of golf clubs, price of room and board, and whatever green fees are charged by St. Andrews / The Mauna Kea Golf Club / Banff for a round of 18 holes.

Seriously, as others have pointed out, if you want to condemn a sport purely on terms of economic 'waste', BASE jumping is not the proper target. And even if it were, so what? I haven't seen anyone posting to MeFi criticizing the wasted cash that goes into bike touring or safari tourism.

Personally, I have a fear of heights that will forever bar me from BASE jumping, but I get enough adrenaline from other sports to understand the appeal. I think it's also a bit of an oversimplification to say that these folks are just cavalier daredevils. There is still a lot of prep and safety work that goes into each of these exploits, as there is in rock climbing, fire spinning, football, and other pursuits where risk is involved.

Over the last few years my girlfriend and I have made a tradition of attending the Banff Film Festival whenever their World Tour hits our town, and if you're into watching mountain biking, BASE jumping, climbing or other EXTREEEEEEEEME documentaries, then it's a good night out. The two films that I remember most for BASE jumping were Fatema's Hand and Journey to the Center, both of which go beyond the standard "WHEEE! Lookitme flying!" and focus on professional BASE jumpers who have had a long enough career to see enough of their friends die with this sport and can thus talk about the fear and trepidation that goes with every jump.

To the note about keeping the original audio in videos like these, there is an amazing moment in Journey to the Center, where the jumpers are basically crawling along a steel cable suspended over a 1000 ft. deep pit, and for, like, three minutes, the only sound is the breathing of the guy with the helmet cam, slowly getting faster and more anxious as they inch further out over this oubliette of nowhere.
posted by bl1nk at 6:20 AM on October 19

Base jumping is a pretty stupid "sport".

Someone I know worked at Yosemite, and had stories about the various asshats who insisted on base jumping from El Capitan... only to leave others -- quite literally -- to clean up their mess.

First story:
The first woman to attempt the jump wore a jumpsuit with "FIRST WOMAN TO BASE JUMP EL CAPITAN" loudly emblazoned on the front. Unfortunately, she had some problems with her chute not opening quite how she hoped, and her face whacked the side of the cliff on the way down, breaking bones and nearly tearing her nose clean off. (I don't know whether she survived or not.) A picture of her was taken upon landing, before being rushed to the hospital.

For years, employees of the hospital had that picture kind of discreetly displayed for their own amusement... mangled face, complete with the blood-stained but still quite readable captioning underneath.

Second story:
Base jumping at El Capitan was made illegal, largely because when the park services tried to regulate it, the jumpers insisted upon driving all over park lands in their trucks and basically disregarding the regulations. This led to a situation where base jumpers tried to jump in protest of the restrictions, while park officials couldn't arrest people until they did the jump, at which point they would have their equipment permanently confiscated, be arrested and fined about $2000.

On one such protest, there were about 150 protesters gathered at the bottom of El Capitan to help prevent any possible arrest, with talk of up to fifty people jumping in protest. Two successful jumps took place, and then it was Jan Davis' turn...

She apparently didn't want her good, expensive equipment confiscated, so she chose to use someone else's second-hand equipment, with a rip cord located near the legs, instead of near the shoulder like she was used to with her own equipment. Her husband filmed her complete jump, with her trying desperately to open her chute all the way to the ground.

Needless to say, the protests broke up shortly thereafter.
posted by markkraft at 7:03 AM on October 19

Wow. So, when these guys jump off a mountain, they go down?! How weird is that! I live in Switzerland, and I like to watch the ones that jump off the mountains, then fly over the valley, then fly over the next mountain, and so on. Does look fun though.

One of the peaks near me is Stanserhorn (SE from Luzern). We were up there and saw someone flying an actual hangglider, way in the distance, in the area of Titlis. We hiked along our way awhile, and then noticed the same guy was coming our way! When he flew overhead, the sound of the wind on his wing was awesome. Then he caught an updraft, and the next thing we knew, he was way over the top of the mountain.

We watch the paragliders too, we can often watch them from our patio, jumping off little old Zugerberg (a local hill), and sometimes notice them jumping off Rigi (a mountain, the other side of Zug Lake). They glide down. Looks fun. But that hang glider really thrilled me. I never see paragliders getting that kind of distance.
posted by Goofyy at 7:08 AM on October 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

Or if you don't want to risk your life for real, you can always try base jumping the video game, aka: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Demo for Windows XP/Vista).
posted by straight at 7:47 AM on October 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

lazaruslong, thank you for this. I've skydived several times (nowhere near as often as I wanted to), and even though I consider BASE a sport for the mad and insane, I love to see what they can do.

To anyone who hasn't watched that whole video: The last minute, which consists of flyovers of low peaks has sights fit to bring tears to anyone with a hint of poetry in them. Magnificent.
posted by ChrisR at 8:08 AM on October 19

I didn't listen to the sound, but the video was quite enjoyable whilst listening to Music for Airports.
posted by slogger at 8:09 AM on October 19

Their "flirting with death" or "I do this because I love life" antics are, IMO, grossly self indulgent considering the number of people who actually face death on a regular basis.



I am interested in this stance, Brandon. What makes you feel this way? I mean, where do you draw the line? Just because somewhere else, people are in danger for real, invalidates dangerous leisure time activity?

What about plain old skydiving, or spelunking, mountain climbing, mountain biking, skiing, hiking, parkour, scuba diving, boating, car racing, space exploration, or any number of other hobbies or sports that have an element of inherent risk and danger?

It seems you are saying that we should all engage in harmless activities out of thoughtfulness for others around the world who are put in harmful situations. That seems kinda strange to me. That's a hella slippery slope. I probably shouldn't eat meat when others can't, cause there's a chance I could get e-coli?
posted by lazaruslong at 8:27 AM on October 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

Why is every skate/surf/skydive video filmed with the same goddamn fisheye lens? What's wrong with filming normally?
posted by alby at 8:31 AM on October 19

Just because somewhere else, people are in danger for real, invalidates dangerous leisure time activity?

Nope, just means that I personally think base jumping is foolish, not particularly brave and grossly masturbatory. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

If you're going to put yourself in such obvious danger, at least do it for a worthwhile cause instead a thrill.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:00 AM on October 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

I hear it, I just don't get why you are applying that metric to base jumping and not other activities with obvious danger and without worthwhile causes.

I'm not an adrenaline junky personally, so I wouldn't be base jumping ever, but it just strikes me as an interesting line to draw, and for interesting reasons.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:06 AM on October 19

I just don't get why you are applying that metric to base jumping and not other activities with obvious danger and without worthwhile causes

Because the post was about base jumping, not "other activities".
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:08 AM on October 19

because the camera is very, very small so that it can be very, very light. it's an artifact of the technology.
posted by Fraxas at 9:09 AM on October 19

I'll tell you what was dangerous. Crossing the Atlantic in those little boats like Christopher Columbus had (especially dangerous for the folks already living on the western shore)! Or crossing North America in a covered wagon. For that matter, it was dangerous to fight the extremely powerful British. Or trying to escape slavery. Or driving to work on Monday morning. What were/are people thinking? Stay at home! Don't answer the door! It's DANGEROUS!
posted by Goofyy at 10:10 AM on October 19

cheesy club music??

that was an excellent track, reminiscent of some of amon tobin's finest
posted by spacediver at 10:23 AM on October 19

Fraxas, actually skydivers usually use commercial off-the-shelf digital video cameras. Granted, they've gotten lighter and smaller over the years, but basically they are simply mounted to the helmet with either a homemade or custom bracket. Some helmets have enclosures to provide a more stable and better-protected mount point for the camera, but they're still just conventional cameras.

BASE jumpers may use different gear, but I'm betting not. Perhaps a freefall videographer reading this might step in and provide more useful info?

For the record, I'm not fond of the fisheye effect either.
posted by ChrisR at 10:59 AM on October 19

All this masturbatory talk has me wondering if the jump lasts long enough for someone to rub one out mid-air.

They need to up the ante somehow.
posted by orme at 11:03 AM on October 19

orme, I read a profile on a competitive Rubix Cube solver whose training regimen was to jump at 11,000' (~45sec freefall) and solve the cube before opening his chute. How's that?
posted by ChrisR at 11:41 AM on October 19

My guess on the fisheye effect is that a regular videocamera has a relatively narrow total angle of field (there's probably a legit term for that, but I don't know it). It's (I imagine) hard to control the framing when you're falling off a mountain or grinding out a topside 180 ollie flipback* so the fisheye effectively makes it more likely that you get something worth watching in the frame.

Plus it's like totally rad fx, dude.

* Note: Fake skateboard terminology
posted by rusty at 11:52 AM on October 19

So yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't want to try BASE jumping.
posted by spilon at 1:05 PM on October 19

orme, I read a profile on a competitive Rubix Cube solver whose training regimen was to jump at 11,000' (~45sec freefall) and solve the cube before opening his chute. How's that?
posted by ChrisR

Not really as sexy, but I'll take it.
posted by orme at 7:19 AM on October 20

For some reason, I found that cool at first and then progressively more and more terrifying, right to the end.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:24 PM on October 21

Durn, it's funny you should describe it that way. I think you're accurately gauging the level of risk involved -- those flybys at the end are astonishing -- but my appreciation for it just kept going up. The last two or three jumps.. those have stuck with me. They were simply magnificent convergences of scenery and skill.
posted by ChrisR at 6:31 AM on October 22