Holidays !

Finally on holidays !

I'm sorry for this long time without any news. I was quite busy at work those last months and I had quite a lot of stuff to prepare for my incoming long holidays. I going on a trip with my girlfriend in a few week. Two and a half months around Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. No base jump planned but climbing, diving and enjoying the culture change.

Speaking of base jumping I could start to base jump my new wingsuit some weeks ago. I have now a bit more than 10 base jumps on it and I can say that I start to feel it good. After a good session of skydives I was feeling comfortable in the air but good performances were hard to reach. The suit was kind of drifting me sometimes and a bit unstable but nothing scary. I realized when jumping with other people that I was flying it too slow. It's kind of unusual on the Vampire series. On the last jump I made I had a bit of an head low exit and then tried to keep the speed and I realized all the potential that this suit has. I'm already looking forward to keep working on it ! I'm planning a few days in Lauterbrunnen just before new year.

Skydiving over Epagny, Switzerland. 

Working on that new wingsuit. (Screen shot by Bras Noir)

I also want to wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year. Thanks for reading and flowing me. I can tell you that next year will be full of good flights and awesome moments. 

Here is a little christmas video we made a few years ago with my mate David Bugnion, enjoy ! 

Veni, Vidi, Volavi. Episode 2.

Hey all !

Here is the second episode of Veni, Vidi, Volavi ! 

We filmed this one in Switzerland, in the exceptional area of the Diablerets' glacier. We had a perfect day and I could fly a nice proximity line that I worked some times before. We even had the visit of the beard vulture before the jump. 

I let you discover this !

New wingsuit !

 Almost a month since the last post. Sorry for this long time.

I could jump nearly every week-end this last weeks. I don't remember exactly in wich order but I went back to Varan, jumped Sans Bet and also the Pointe de Sâles. We had some nice weather last few weeks but now it seems to get pretty bad. It's colder and much more rainy.

During the flight from Pointe de Sâles

I hope to get a least a few more nice week-end as I just received my brand new wingsuit. A nice red Vampire 5 by Phoenix-fly. I already tested it skydiving last week-end. It's quite a big change from my old Ghost 2. The suit is much bigger and fly much faster. It's crazy the feeling of speed you get already in skydiving, I can't imagine on base jump. The suit is also much more "nervous" than my old suit. Just a little shoulder push and you are already in a steep turn. The first skydive was kind of "shaky" as I had to tame the suit after the second and third jump were just pleasure. I still have to put some more skydive on it before taking it on a cliff. I wouldn't feel comfortable to base jump it now even if I feel the urge to do it.

New wingsuit !

Urge and base jumping are two things that don't go well together. We had a sad series of accidents this summer. Some of them were clearly people who wanted to go too fast. If some of you ever want to start base jumping one day just give it the time it takes. We all want to go too fast, me included. I made some mistakes and I will make some others. The important thing in my mind is learning from them and not repeat them. Also try to learn from other's mistakes.

This last week-end the weather was really bad so it was perfect conditions to go to the Reels Snowboarding Film Festival in Annecy. My mates Julien and Marc who are filming the series "Veni, Vidi, Volavi. A Pure Celebration Of Gravity" with me were presenting their last movie "Incoming". This movie is a blast check out the trailer :

  

Talking about "Veni, Vidi, Volavi" the second episode should be out soon. We had some delay with the editing but now everything is done and the episode is ready. Stay tuned on EpicTV . Here is a little screenshot from it.

Have a nice week ! 

S**t week-end no.1

We are getting closer to autumn and winter the weather start to sucks. Last week-end was so shitty that I couldn't jump at all. So I decided to start this new kind of post, the "S**t week-end". As I have no jump to talk about I will post some videos and maybe website that I think you should check. They will be about base jumping, skydiving, climbing and maybe some other off topic stuff.

To start, I discovered this nice and funny video of the Petzl Argentinian RocTrip 2012. The music and the editing are really well made. I started to climb seriously last spring and I really enjoy it. It's incredible to see those guys climbing level. It brings me also some nice memories because 5 years ago I spent nearly 6 months in Argentina studying, traveling and skydiving.

You should also check the "best of" video of my friend Erwan Madoré. Nice jumps and good vibes ! Already looking forward to jump with him again !

Have fun !

Veni Vidi Volavi Episode 1 !

Here is the first episode of Veni Vidi Volavi. I hope you will enjoy it ! Thanks to everybody involved in this project and to EpicTV !

You can follow us on Facebook if you like some news of us !

Enjoy !

Two crazy weeks.

Last two weeks have been crazy. I couldn't post anything coz my computer crashed. I had some crazy weeks at work but also some nice jumps on week-ends !

Two week-end ago we filmed the first episode of the series Veni, Vidi, Volavi. A pure celebration or gravity. In this series I will try to show some under known part of base jumping. The amazing places where we jump, the nice hikes we do, the preparation and a lot of other things. If you want to hear more about it you can check out our Facebook page. 

For the first episode I choose a place that I really like and that I know quite well, "Sans-Bet". Erwan joined me on for this one. This jump is situated close to the "Sixt-Fer à Cheval" reserve. The view during the hike and on the exit point is amazing. The hike was quite hard for the camera crew but we could film some really nice images. After a nice exit I could fly a line that I already worked on previous jumps. We also made a little interview to add to the flying parts. It was my first time standing alone in the front of a camera. That was definitely the hardest part of it, I hope I won't look too stupid. The first episode should appear next week on Epictv.com . To give you a little taste of it here are a few photos made by my girlfriend. 

Last week-end I joined my flying mate David to spot a line on "La Quille du Diable" jump in Switzerland. I studied the jump and the line on maps and I had to fly it to be sure it was doable and possible to film it for the second episode of the series. We slept in sweet little hamlet called "Le Godey". We started the three hours walk quite early. The landscape is incredible and I hope you will discover it in the second episode. At the exit point we meet some other jumpers and geared up for the jump. The rock drop is quite short there but I made a nice exit and could manage to fly exactly the line I wanted to. This is it for the past two week-ends.

The line I hope to fly again for episode II

Yesterday I could manage a jump at the "Vuardes" with Erwan just before the storm and today was too cloudy to jump. I will let you know as soon as the first episode of the series is online and I really hope you will like it ! 

Thanks for reading me !

Big news !

I'm really excited to announce that I'm teaming with Julien Roserens ( 24 Pictures ) to produce a series for EpicTV . The series is called "Veni, Vidi, Volavi. A Pure Celebration Of Gravity." Here is a little description of what it's gonna be about :

Veni, Vidi, Volavi follows wingsuit BASE jumper, Guillaume Beck, in the practice of his passion. Far from the usual sensationalist or death defying styles used in the mainstream media, there will be no competiton or pressure in this series. Veni, Vidi, Volavi is purely about the beauty of this sport and what gravity represents to Guillaume. 

What you can expect : Amazing mountain environments. A celebration of friendship. Dedication to learning and improving. And...Flying. Lots of It. In different terrain. Oh and of course - Fun. 

Check out our facebook page to stay tuned about it !

From base jumping to stage diving

We just came back from our road trip to Austria and Cezch Republic.

This trip started by leaving Geneva direction Salzburg on friday 19th of july. We made a first little stop in Zurich on the way to visit some of my family and spend a nice day there. We took the road next day for what we thought would be a 4 hours drive. In fact we spend most of the day in the traffic (stupid GPS). Everybody was on holidays and seemed to head for the same place as us. To arrive around Salzburg it took us around 6 hours. We had to meet a local base jumper in Mondsee. There we discovered a beautiful area with lakes, mountains and the wall I would jump on the evening, the Drachenwand. We meet Wolfgang the local who took me up there. It's an easy 30 mins walk to get to the top from the other side of the mountain. The wind was still pretty strong on the exit but not too bad to jump. I went for an easy straight line away form the wall. Pulled high and had a nice landing. We spend the next two days in the area. We visited Salzburg, a really beautiful old city. The day after we went climbing and lake swimming in St Gilgen. I really enjoyed this place. I meet two other locals Chris and Marco that day. We could arrange an evening jump on Drachenwand and then planned some higher jumps for the next day.

Next morning we drove a bit more than an hour to Dachstein cable car. The guys promised me a nice jump, arriving there I enjoyed the nice view and couldn't wait to take the cable car to see how it was up there. The cable car had a little terrace on top of it. We had the chance to make the way up on top of it !

Enjoying the view from the top of Dachstein's cable car. 

The cable car takes you up to a nice glacier valley on top of the mountain. From there we had to walk and then climb for around an hour to get to the exit point. Chris and Marco went for a two way and I just followed them the all way. It's was pretty amazing to fly behind them with Marco's smoke drawing a nice trail to follow. After this nice flight we all landed in the same field so exited about the jump. We had now to walk back to our cars in a lovely mountain environment.

The view on Dachstein (photo by Len Sirmanovitch).

Following Chris and Marco. (Screenshot) 

After jump walk (photo by Len Sirmanovitch). 

On the evening we drove to the next jump location. About an other hour from Dachstein. We camped there and had a nice dinner by the river. Even in the evening the weather was still nice and warm. We could discover a crazy sky full of stars.

After an hard early wake up, I had to pack my rig. I hate packing before jumping. I always try to get rid of this right after a jump or during my working week. Having to get up earlier then the already early wake up time to start to pack is a pain in the ass. I packed and had breakfast. It was a bit windy but the sun was hidden by light clouds and it seemed like it would stay like this the whole day. We started the walk after checking some landing zones. The landing zones were quite tight and we had to be careful of the ranger. We were in a national park and we thought it wouldn't be a great idea to get caught be one of them.

We started the walk at 8.30 am and from the informations we got it would take us around 3 hours to get up to the top and that we won't need any climbing stuff. After 45 minutes of a nice walk by a river we reached a nice cottage where we drank something and had a little rest. We walked again after this and started to get into the serious part. Arriving nearly at the bottom of the cliff were we would jump we still had 700 meters of altitude to get to the top. The little easy path changed it self in a steep but cool climbing way. I really enjoyed it, no need for climbing equipment but you have to be careful of your steps. On top of this part we realized that we weren't quit at the exit. We started to doubt a bit about the infos we've got. We started the walk more than 3 hours ago and still had to get around a big peak. That's when Chris told me that the guy who gave him the infos jumped this one for the last time six years ago. We continued our way and decided to try a shortcut. Base jumpers always want to take shortcuts ... Most of the time we end up in fucked up situations. This one was no exception. We ended up doing some free climbing crossings with all our base gear on the back. We got through some quite shitty and scary parts just to find out on the other side that the real path was higher that what we though and that we lost some time and took some risks for nothing.

Nice little path. (Phone picture) 

Watch your steps ! (Phone picture) 

The exit point was not that far now. We walked the last part and arrived where the exit was supposed to be. Nothing was looking like a safe exit. The only thing we could see was a scary rope going down a curved part of the cliff. Nothing you really wanted to hang to and as some people told us climbing equipment was useless we skipped this one .... for a while. Chris made a couple of phone calls to get more informations and we figured out the we had to go down that rope. I wasn't really joyful at this time. I'm shit scared of climb downs and we had nothing to ensure us. We took a break to rest a bit as we were walking, climbing and searching for more than 5 hours. We geared up and decided to go for it. I asked the guys to let me jump first and not letting me last up there. I wasn't sure I would climb down that rope alone. Chris went down first. There was a shitty little ledge around 10 meters down the rope with just enough space to put your wingsuit boosters on. I took a deep breath and started to climb down. I was really scared. Little by little I could get down to Chris and started to put my boosters on. For the one who are not use to wingsuit, boosters are the lower part of the wingsuit. You have to put this part over your shoes and then close the leg zipper. Imagine doing this on a small ledge were you can only stand up with 700 meters under you. It wasn't really comfortable but once this part done I was feeling like released. I now just had to jump. After thanking Chris and Marco for showing me this jump and helping me to push my limits, I made a nice exit and felt in my element again. As I was more tired of what I expected I flew an easy straight line. The flight was great and uneventful. I choose a part of a dry river without too much boulder to land. I packed my stuff in my backpack quickly to avoid to be seen by a ranger. A little bit later I joined the other who had a nice jump and my girlfriend on a parking like nothing happened.

Climbing down that f***ing rope. (Screenshot)

Finally in the air ! Feeling much better ! (Screenshot)

After saying bye to Chris and Marco we started our way to Czech Republic. We spend the next day on the road and doing some laundry. We arrived in the little city called Rokycany where the Fluff Fest take place every year. Fluff Fest is one of the best punk-hardcore festival in Europe. Hardcore kids form all over the world meet there every year and share their passion for music. We had lots of fun and saw amazing shows of bands like Catharsis, Harm's Way, Vitamin X, Oathbreaker and many other. 3 days of stage dives, moshing, delicious vegan food, political debates and vinyls quest. Here is a little video made by my girlfriend of Vitamin X' show.

First holidays' week-end.

 I'm finally on holidays. I waited a lot for them. Now, three weeks without work, free to jump, climb, travel (and rest a bit).

For this first few days I went with my girlfriend to Samoens area. We spend 4 days there. I joined there Bras Noir, Sky Branlor, Luc, Igor and Erwan from Paris. Between saturday and sunday we archived a nice trilogy. Jumping Sans Bet, Criou and ...... a jump somewhere around. I won't name it, you will know why after. 

We stared saturday morning with Sans Bet. I discovered this jump last year but could only jump it once. I was really happy when Bras Noir told me we would start with this one. The walk is around 2h30. Most of it is in large green field with no shade at all. It's a bit hot but when you stand at the top it's definitely worth it. You have an incredible view on the reserve of Sixt Fer à Cheval. "Le Cirque" of Sixt is just incredible with multiple waterfalls and the magnificent "Corne de Chamoix". We took a moment to admire the view and then climbed down to the exit point to gear up. Bras Noir, Igor and Sky Branlor made a three way, Erwan and me jumped together and Luc decided to fly on his own. 

Sans Bet with the "Cirque" and "Corne de Chamoix" on the left. (Screenshot)

The few First second of Sans Bet looks like you are diving straight into the "Cirque". You have some nice proximity line on the right. I choose to fly over the three "bump" on the right side. Then I followed the edge of a big ledge. After a nice left turn I found a nice green field to buzz. Everything went perfectly and I was glad to jump this exit again. 

We all went to Bras Noir's place to eat and pack our rig. After packing, eating and resting we started the walk for the second jump of the day. It was pretty hard to begin. Your body just doesn't want to walk again. The first hour is the worst. Once your are warm again you don't feel your legs anymore. Around three hours and we arrived at the top. I heard a lot about jumping the Criou in the evening light but never had the chance to do it before. It's a for sure something to do ! The light there is perfect during the sunset, a nice orange that gives to the jump a special touch. As the exit is quite easy and large we went for a six way. We exited all at the same time but flew different lines. I wanted to ride the famous field on this jump but miscalculated a bit my approach and flew a bit lower than what I wanted. I choose to fly just a bit lower of the field and discovered a really nice tree line. This jump ended this day, we just had to repack before eating and going to bed.

Enjoying the sunset under canopy. (Photo by Len Sirmanovitch)

Landing after a this nice sunset jump. (Photo by Len Sirmanovitch)

On Sunday the alarm clock at 6 am was kind of a pain in the ass. I was still really tired of saturday. We had a meeting point at 7am. We had to be early and quick. Our jump today was illegal. Yes some mountain jumps are illegal. This one is situated in a natural reserve and ranger like to "hunt" base jumpers. I won't give much more detail on this jump apart that it's a really nice one and sad that we have to go like ninjas to jump it ( even if it add a part of fun in it ). Some locals tried to talk with park authorities but they absolutely don't want any discussions. 

Jumping in natural reserve is an interesting topic. In my opinion we don't threaten any wild life in our activity. We are accused to frighten the bearded vulture but we know that some of them are living in another valley close to an highway and lots of traffic. I don't think that the few minutes we spend in the air or the "noise" we make is disturbing them. I think a discussion should be possible to show that most base jumper are respecting the environment where they have the chance to play. As discussed with the other guys on this jump, we all think that sharing informations with park rangers could be helpful both ways. Avoiding to jump during the breeding period wouldn't be a problem for us. We could also share our observation with them as we are spending quite a lot of time in the wild and seeing often some wild life.

To all base jumper ( and non base jumper ) reading this, please as I always say, nature gave us this incredible playground we have to leave it as it is. Jump but leave no trace. 

Monday was kind of day off. I went climbing with my girlfriend, Bars Noir and his girlfriend. I also rested a bit after all those walks my legs were quite sore. We left Samoens on tuesday morning as I had to go to Sallanches I took the opportunity to jump again Varan. I went there alone. Sometime it's really nice to be alone on jumps. You have time to think and can really enjoy the environment where you are. The jump was around 1.30 minutes. This time I didn't wanted to jump working on something or trying something. I spend most of it just enjoying the fact that I was .... flying. 

Always enjoying a 1.30 minutes flight. (Sceenshot) 

In two days we are leaving for Austria were I should meet jumpers there and I hope I will be able to jump. After that we are heading to Czech republic for an awesome punk-hardcore festival. So expect  new stories when I return !

Enjoy your summer time !

Devouly Wingsuit Week-end.

What a week-end !

I took day off on friday and started this long week-end with another jump in Varan. I think I've already wrote enough about this jump in my two last posts so I'm gonna skip this one. 

Aurelien "Bras Noir" invited me to join him and the guys of the Vercors Base Team in the Devouly area. I always wanted to go there to jump the "Chateau de Cartes". This jump was on my "to do list" for a long time, since I saw it in the revolutionary video "Ready to Go". I couldn't refuse the invitation. After a 2h30 drive from Geneva to the place, I arrived there with my girlfriend by night. 

Saturday morning we could finally discover the nice landscape around us. After that we headed to the "Chateau de Cartes". My girlfriend and Matt's girlfriend Sandrine walked a bit with us and went to a nice spot between two of the rock spikes to see us playing around. 2 hours after the walk's started we arrived at the top and discovered this amazing playground. It really looks like it was made for wingsuit proximity flying. We geared up and I choose to fly an easy line to discovery nicely the place without to much pressure. I jumped last after three other jumpers. Flying this place is incredible. We all made some nice flyby where the girls were standing and they could shoot a few really nice pictures.

Bras Noir, Mat, Mael and myself around Le Chateau de Cartes.

Saying hello to the girls ! 

We made it back to our base camp to pack, eat and rest a bit. The camp was really nice, close to a river and just a few minutes from the jumps' walks. A tough decision had to be taken, should we try to hike for another jump ? The day before we arrived the guys couldn't jump on the evening. They had to walk back down. The conditions were pretty the same but we decided to try a second jump. 

At the cliff's bottom we all thought  it was pretty stupid to go up but we choose to walk at least half of the walk and see how the weather would change. As we arrived around the middle of the walk it was still 50/50, cloudy but not too much, we continued. After a bit less than two hours we arrived at the exit and it was all stuck in the clouds. At this moment we all knew we maybe took the wrong decision before and may have to walk back down. The clouds were changing a lot so we waited all geared up to see if a window will open to let us jump. We called the people at the camp and they told us that is was pretty fucked up. We waited and waited ready to jump at any time and turning on and off our cameras every two minutes for about an hour. Someone got a call from the camp. Good news, a window was just a bit further away form the exit. With a bit of chance it would move to us. A few minutes after we could see the ground ! It was it, we just had to jump ! 3,2,1, a plus ! I was off for one of my best fly ever ! 

Just after the exit I was still in the clouds I started to discover the "Chateau de Cartes" in an amazing evening light. The picture was perfect. I flew nearly the same line as the first jump but with better performance and speed. I ended up opening my parachute seeing all the other guys under canopy with the sun set as background. We all couldn't believe that we jumped and had such an amazing jump after waiting that long at the exit. Everybody was so happy we ended eating all together at the camp. Talking about this crazy jump and sunday's jump, the "Petit Ferrand". 

We woke up quite early and started the walk around 8am. The way up is about 4 hours with some quite steep parts but all in a nice landscape. With the two walks from the day before my legs were quite sore but I arrived at the top with some good energy left. I directly saw that awesome proximity line that everybody wants to make. A nice large and green field, steep enough to ride it with a good margin of security. We made a three way with Bras Noir and Mat. I exited first and flew directly direction the field. Arriving over it, Bras Noir passed me on my left side. Looking down I could see Mat already riding the highest part of the field. I followed him and it was unreal to see the three of us over the field with our shadows following us. It was another incredible jump !

Grand Ferrand in the evening light.

We ended the week-end resting in the river near the camp before leaving it with tons of perfect memories in our mind. I made a little video of this week-end check it out !

This is living my dream. 

Back to Varan

After a cloudy-rainy saturday, I went back to Varan on sunday. It's always a pleasure to jump this huge flight. I headed there with Aurelien "Bras Noir" and his girlfriend. It was still a bit cloudy but the walk was nice. We came across the same group of ibex and on the top we were in the same situation as last saturday. We had to wait for a window in the clouds to jump. After a while a nice gap appeared and we took our chance !

Nice picture of our exit by Val Courtois

I made a quite steep exit as it can be seen on the picture but I recovered a nice flying position quickly. As this jump is really good to work on your glide ratio. You have around 1900 meters to play. I worked in changing a bit my shoulder or belly position to see how it change my flight. I also had fun seeing Aurelien playing around with his much larger wingsuit. The view was great because it was still cloudy and it gave to the jump a nice atmosphere.

 Another nice jump and I'm already looking forward for the next one. 

A view of Varan nicely coated with clouds. (screen shot)

As saturday was unjumpeable I rested a bit and watched the new movie of my firend Julien and his crew, "Le petit bus rouge". You may have already seen their movie "I believe I can fly", if you don't you should ! 

In this new production they mix base jumping, climbing, slack lines, high lines with a touch of circus elements and craziness as always. The result is hard to describe. It's fresh and gives a new outlook on our sport. You have to check it out !

Two week-ends in the sky.

Last two weeks have been nice even if the weather is still not at it's best. Saturday two week-ends ago I went to the jump called "Vuardes" with my flying mate Erwan. This jump is really nice. I like this place. Up there you have a really nice view on the Arve's valley and an awesome panorama on the mountains. The way to the exit is easy you can manage a couple of jumps in the morning if the winds isn't too strong. The exit it self is quite short, around 180 meters at the top of the trees down the cliff. You have to start to fly fast and on the fist time you jump this one it can be impressive. You have multiple lines to fly. The easiest if you fly straight to the valley or you can find some trickiest line if you fly on the left side of the cliff. You have some nice possibilities for proximity flight there. We made a two way with Erwan and I choose to buzz the trees on one of the left lines. It was a great jump ! After landing the wind got stronger and we had to forget our plans of a second jump.

Erwan jumping with style (Screen shot).

On Sunday, I went to Bex. There I joined David and Mathias to have some fun skydiving. We flew together and made some nice flights even if it was hard for me to follow them with their V4 and V5.

Skydiving with David and Mathias (Screen shot)

This week-end we could only jump on saturday. We were 4 wingsuit flyers heading for a jump at "Varan". The weather was cloudy and we didn't know how it was up there. The walk is not that hard and we meet on our way a beautiful group of ibex. When arrived at the top the weather conditions were quite bad. Julien who walked a bit faster than us was already geared up and jumped while we still could see the valley. Just after his jump the clouds came back. We had only one option left, waiting till the next hole in the clouds. It took a while and we were asking ourselves if we wanted to walk down when the sun came back. We got up and jumped quickly to avoid another hour if waiting. Varan is a huge jump, around 1900 meters. I decided to work on my glide ratio on this jump. I was really surprised once again of what I could get out of my old Ghost 2. 

Waiting time at Varan with Laurent and Erwan

12 way !

Finally !

On saturday, I could make my first high jump of the year and it wasn't a plain mountain jump.

My friend Aurelien aka Bras Noir planned for a while to organize a big way from the Criou. This week-end was the good one ! I arrived at the climb start seeing already about 6 to 7 jumper. It already made my day. The thing I didn't know at the time is that more jumpers were already on the way up. We started to walk at 9 am. The way up to Criou is quite long, about 3 hours. It starts with an hour in the forest and then 2 others directly under a burning sun. I will not complain about it coz it was so nice to finally have a day that looked like summer.

During the way up I had some nice talks with my friend Erwan and his girlfiend. We also catch up with Julien and Seb who started the walk a bit earlier than us. We arrived at the top after a bit more than 3 hours. I was feeling good not too tired and exited to see all those jumpers up there.

It was time to make a little briefing, to count how many jumpers we were and who wanted to jump alone. We were 15 on the exit, three decided to jump on their own. So let's plan a 12 way !

A part of the jumpers.
(Photo Erwan Madoré)

It wasn't really easy as for a total of 12 jumper the average I.Q. was around 12. After some times we decided to divide the 12 in two groups. One group would fly the proximity line of the jump. The other would make a flyby on a friend with a paraglider flying on the way. I choose to go for the proximity line. I had to exit second of the 12.

We geared up and got our mind into the jump. It's not that easy to get into it when you are surrounded by friends, everyone exited and a bit in an euphoric mood. I heard Chap making the countdown as I wasn't totally ready. He exited and followed him a bit in a rush. My exit went a bit unstable but I could manage it quit easily. I flew my route to the proximity part. Arriving on the fun part I saw Ferry flying under me and quite faster than me so I dived to get to my line as planned. It was just awesome, the ground passed under me so fast. I turned my head and saw Julien passing me on my right. I extended a bit my wings to gain some altitude to pass the trees situated at the end of the "proxy field".

I gained some good height and could open my parachute safely and land it without problems. After that we went to Aurelien's house and we had a nice party in the evening.

Hoping this is just the first awesome jump of a nice summer I let you check the video down here.

No jumps so let's get back to 2012.

I told you in my last post the weather is just crazy. Rain, wind, snow and so on. As I couldn't jump this week-end, I will let you discover or rediscover my last year "best of" video.

Last year I was really lucky to meet some awesome people. They showed me a lot of jumps in France. Some really nice mountain jumps with nice proximity line to fly. I had a lot of fun and hope you can feel it in the video. 

I would like to thanks David, Erwan, Lukas, Fabien, Ludo, Aurelien, Julien and everybody who shared some jumps with me last year.

I'm really hoping for a better weather next week-end. We planned some nice jumps. I'm already looking forward to write about them. 

150th

This spring the weather in center Europe is really bad. The last five weeks looked all the same. A few sunny days during the week and rain if not snow during the week-end. There is still a hug amount of snow in the mountains. It's bad for us as it's impossible to get to the nice high jumps. We are around the 20th of May and they are still announcing snow at 800 to 1000 meters ...

To be sure to jump, last week-end I decided to make a little trip to the Lautebrunnen valley with my girlfriend. For the one who don't know Lauterbrunnen is one of the world mecca of Base jumping. The valley is well known because there is a huge selection of jumps of all difficulties situated in the same area. It's also in my opinion one of the most beautiful place in Switzerland. Everything looks like Heidi's home. Even if you are not a base jumper you should definitely go there once. If you are interested in base jumping it's the best place to see some people jumping and maybe meet some Base jumpers.

Stechelberg view from Mürren

We arrived in the valley on sunday late afternoon. The weather on the way wasn't really good. On the spot we had a nice sunny hole of blue sky. I could manage a jump and repack before the rain came back. I jumped from an exit called High Ultimate. It is situated under the village of Mürren. The good point of this jump is his access, crazy fast and easy. You take the cable car in Stechelberg, ride up to Mürren and walk 5 mins to the exit of an 700+m jump. The bad side of this jump is the exit. Very underhung, you have to be sure of your push. It's not a jump for beginner. In winter a ramp is built on the exit that helps to get a good position. Even if it's not recommended I like to wingsuit this jump with the ramp.  In summer, I let this jump to trackers as it's impossible to make a proper push with a wingsuit on it. 

Standing on High Ultimate ramp.

Exit High Ultimate

After this nice jump we went to a my friend Fabien's house. Fabian is one of the person who helped me the most when I wanted to start Base jumping. He showed me how to pack my rig and was always there if I had any questions. He is also an hell of a jumper. Living close to the valley he has now a huge amount of jump. 

Fabien and myself on the exit ramp.

Next day, we headed to Stechelberg again to keep on jumping High Ultimate. The first jump was my 150th Base jump. I made nothing special out of this one. I flew a nice line on the left of the jump and went back normally to the center of the valley to open my parachute. 

For the second one Fabien told me about a nice line to fly on the right side of the jump. He played the "guide" for me on this jump as I'm always flying some lines on the left. We exited two way, pushing directly on the right side of the exit. The visual of the underhung part was really intense. It is already pretty bad ass when you push straight out. Pushing a bit on the side gives you a fucked up view on the ledge coming "straight" to your face. After the exit we flew a nice line under the jump called Via Ferreta. We had a nice view on the waterfall next to it. To finish the jump nicely I made a little proxy on the wall after it. 90° left, I flew away from the wall to open safely. 

Two way off High Hultimate

After this nice jump we repacked our parachute but the wind raised and we had to give up our plans for more jumps. Next time I'm in the valley I definitely have to work on this new right line at High Ultimate. That was everything for this week-end. I hope the weather will get better soon. I'm looking forward to make some high mountains jumps.

PS: Thanks to my girlfriend for taking all those nice pictures !

First words !

Welcome to my blog.

I opened this blog without really knowing why but with the strong desire to share my passion with anyone interested in it. I will keep it updated and filled with stories about my jumps. Photos and videos will be added to it. I hope it will bring you closer to the feeling I have every time I jump and fly. Some more technicals articles will be added too. For the ones who want to learn more about this sport.

Now let me introduce myself.

I'm 26 years old, living near Geneva Switzerland. I'm working as a chef in a restaurant and spending the rest of my time for my passion. I discovered skydiving when I was a kid. Made my first tandem jump at 15 years old. Since then my mind got stuck in the sky. I remember spending so much time on the internet trying to find new skydiving and Base jumping videos. Trying to imagine how it would be awesome to jump alone. 

I waited three years and signed up for an AFF.  The start of this AFF week, was really windy. We were grounded and had to kill some time. I decided to watch one Base Jumping dvd that was in my instructor office, 2nd Base, a now classical Base movie. Seeing those dudes throwing their self of different objects, like I've never seen it before was incredible. I knew that one day it would be my turn but first I had a long journey to get there.

           

2nd Base

After a few days the wind calmed down and we could take off. That was finally it ! I was standing alone in a plane ready to jump all by myself.

It was the beginning of my new passion.