mardi 14 janvier 2014

200th Base jump and travel !

As I told you on my last post I'm on a kind of long holidays and I leaving tomorrow for south-east asia. I tried to jump as much as I could before traveling around.

After partying well and having some time with my family for christmas I took two days to go to Lauterbrunnen. There I wanted to work on getting better on my exits with my V5. I spend the first day alone jumping from High Ultimate. The weather was crazy cold and we had less then two hours of sun in the bottom of the valley. Packing in those conditions was quite demotivating. I made 4 jumps and stop as the valley sank into darkness.

The view from exit point "High Ultimate"with Eiger and Jungfrau on my right side.
On the second day, my friends David Bugnion and Lukas Pauli joined me. We had a nice day doing some three ways jumps and working on our flights, especially David and me who have new wingsuits. 4 jumps again and I really found the way to make some good starts with the V5 and well... this suit can start to fly extremely quickly. Those two days were really helpful to work on my suit.

David jumping just before me.
The 6th of january after resting from the new year party and preparing some stuff for my trip, I went for a solo jump of the "Belvedere". I walked from the bottom of the valley, a nice 1 and half hour walk in a cold and snowy forest. The wind was a bit strong on the exit but I choose to jump to see how my suit would react. Just after the impulsion I felt the wind pushing me on the side but I stayed calm and as soon as I stretched my legs I flew normally.

A few days later, my mate Erwan Madoré called me and proposed me to go to Chamonix and jump the "Brévent". I always been quite impressed form what I heard from this jump and already passed my turn on this jump a few time during last season. Now, I was confident on my exit skills and ready to jump it. Chamonix is just an hour from where I live so I was quite enthusiastic about discovering this famous jump. My first impression stick to what I've heard about it, short and really technical start. There is a first 8m ledge at -50 m then a second of 28m at -144. If you think about jumping "Brévent"please be 100% sure of your impulsion and start of flight. After the start you discover a huge playground and many lines to work on. I made three sessions there over a few days. I could start do work on hard turn, diving and resourcing my V5. I also made my 200th base jump on one of these days. I made a really quiet flight with Erwan, enjoying the view.

Ready to go. 
Erwan's exit. 
Erwan chasing me. 

I also made there my last base jump for the 2 next month on sunday. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm, lots a friends around and an awesome sun set on the Mont Blanc massif to end it. I'm now packing my stuff for my travel in south-east asia. I will post a few pictures during my trip but won't talk that much about base jumping as it's not the goal of this trip and I won't jump during that time. You gonna have to wait until April and the beginning of next base season for some new jumps stories, pictures and also new episode of Veni, Vidi, Volavi.

Until then, enjoy life !