BASE jumping is nothing new, but when your throw wingsuits into the mix, things get really interesting. Simply put, wingsuits add “surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift; a wingsuit flight normally ends with a parachute opening, so a wingsuit can be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude to glide through the air.” Continue reading to see five of the most extreme wingsuit base jumpers.
5. Skis
Thanks to wingsuits, skiing right off the side of a huge mountain isn’t just for James Bond anymore. And while the footage of these snowy flights certainly held my attention, I couldn’t help but wonder what happens to all of those skis they jettison? And when will someone invent a ski that you don’t jettison, but which transforms into a flight accessory on takeoff?
4. Ultimate Base Jump
Climbers, slackliners, and BASE jumping enthusiasts know about Dean Potter’s amazing skills, but for the rest of you, this video from National Geographic Adventure Magazine’s 2009 Adventurers of the Year is a great little peek at Potter’s wingsuit escapades.
3. Waterfall
Well known BASE jumper Cedric Dumont and his team had to travel four hours, on foot, through the jungle to Gocta Waterfalls in Chachapoyas, Peru, which was an unknown paradise until it was discovered in 2005. Red Bull, who sponsored the daredevil event, and Dumont studied the weather conditions before jumping off the 2,530-foot cliff. Dumont had 10 seconds of heart-dropping free fall, reaching speeds up to 125 mph before deploying his parachute.
2. Grinding the Crack
Jeb Corliss (born March 25, 1976 near Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a professional skydiver and BASE jumper. He has jumped from sites including Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Seattle’s Space Needle, and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Jeb Corliss is co-founder of 3 Triple 7, a clothing label.
He was also the original host of the Discovery Channel series Stunt Junkies, appearing in 12 episodes, but was fired by Discovery after he was arrested for attempting to BASE jump from New York’s Empire State Building. On September 25, 2011 Corliss jumped out of a helicopter at 6,000 feet and glided through a 100-ft wide archway in Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China, landing with a parachute on a nearby bridge.
1. Himalayas
Russian climber and BASE jumper Valery Rozov recently added another highlight to his incredible career in extreme sports by setting a new world record with a jump from the top of Shivling, a 6543m mountain in the Indian part of the Himalayas.
Overall, the Himalayan mountain system is the world’s highest, and is home to the world’s highest peaks, the Eight-thousanders. To comprehend the enormous scale of this mountain range, consider that Aconcagua, in the Andes, at 6,962 metres (22,841 ft), is the highest peak outside Asia, whereas the Himalayan system includes over 100 mountains exceeding 7,200 metres (23,622 ft).[4] There are 14 Himalayan peaks with elevation over 8,000 metres (26,000 ft).
