Near-Death BASE Jumping Experience

I would think that the last thing you'd want to do while BASE jumping is run into problems with your gear, aka the parachute that keeps you from plummeting to your death. Especially while riding something called "The Death Swing." But that's what happens in the video below, which I present as Exhibit A in the Case For Why I'll Never Go BASE Jumping.

Thanks to the Goat for sharing!



BASE Jump Chute Failure, Miracle Save! from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

Christian Maurer wins Red Bull X-Alps 2011

While I've been mostly occupied with the Raid the North Extreme this week, another event was taking place in Europe that is definitely worth a mention as well. That's where the Red Bull X-Alps 2011 was taking place, which is a very unique race that is a demanding test of endurance, skill, and nerve as well.

For those who haven't heard of it before, and I'm one of them, the X-Alps is an event that pits endurance athletes on a non-stop race through the Alps, starting in Salzburg, Austria and ending in Monaco. Participants in the competition, and there were 31 of them, must travel either on foot or by paraglider. Yep, you read that right, foot or paraglider.  So, as a result, you have athletes running through the mountains, carrying their paragliding gear with them, while also scrambling to higher heights, so that they can launch themselves into the air and use their gliders to make progress.

The race got underway on Sunday, July 17th, and yesterday the first competitor crossed the finish line. That was Swiss athlete Christian Maurer who managed to glide the final 60km (37. miles) to the finish and land on a floating platform especially created for the event.

The rest of the competitors are expected to filter in between now and tomorrow, bringing a close to the race for 2011.

To find out more about the event, and see Maurer's winning ride, check out the video below.


Red Bull X-Alps: Day 12 from Planetmountain.com on Vimeo.

This Speed-Riding Video Will Have You Holding Your Breath!

Speed-Riding is an interesting activity that combines both skiing and paragliding into one exhilarating experience. Usually, speed-riders start off by skiing down the side of a mountain and as they pick-up speed, they also start to catch big air. Eventually they'll leave the mountain behind altogether and go soaring through the air, before eventually returning to Earth, hopefully on their skis once again.

The video below, which comes our way via the Adventure Journal, does a good job of showing off the sport. Caught on helmet cam, the video starts out with a typical skier out for a downhill run. But eventually that skier runs out of snow, which is when things start to get a bit interesting. I couldn't help but hold my breath as I waited for him to gain some altitude, and I can't be the only one to watch this video and fear for the safety of those skis.



Speed Riding Chamonix 3 juillet 2011 GoPro HD 960

Paragliding Mozambique

I caught this beautiful video this morning while catching up on the National Geographic Adventure Blog. It is a wonderfully serene scene from Mozambique, where adventurers Gavin McClurg and Jody MacDonald became the first people to paraglide above the deserts there.

The duo discovered this place while on their five year long Best Odyssey that has seen them sailing the world while looking for the absolute best places to kiteboard, surf, paraglide, and sail. Their journeys have taken them to the ends of the Earth, but they have found some amazing places to enjoy the activities they love.

What more can you ask for?



The Dune Discovery- paragliding where no one has before from Offshore Odysseys on Vimeo.

Himalaya 2011: Paragliding From The Summit Of Everest

As I mentioned in my earlier post, it was another busy weekend on the world's tallest mountain. By some accounts, there could have been upwards in the neighborhood of 200 summits, although we'll have to wait for the dust to settle before we know for sure. One summit, and more importantly, one descent, is worth nothing however, as Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tshering Sherpa flew a tandem paraglider off the top of the mountain, and had what must have been one amazing ride.

Many mountaineers will tell you that while the climb to the summit is a grueling slog, the descent can be just as challenging. On the way down you're exhausted from so many hours at altitude, and the adrenaline rush has long since worn off. But Babu and Lakpa avoided all of that by launching their paraglider from the summit, and gliding back down the Khumbu Valley in style.

The pair didn't descend back to Everest Base Camp however. Instead, they kept on flying, covering more than 20km (12.4 miles) in total, before landing in Namche Bazaar. That means they not only eliminated the tough descent back to EBC, they also took away a couple of days on the trail trekking back down the valley as well. I'm sure there are plenty of other exhausted climbers who would love to have been able to take this express flight as well.

I'm hoping that one of the two men on the glider remembered to bring a helmet cam for what has to be some amazing footage of their descent. Gliding above the highest mountains in the world, then slowly making a descent over the course of 20km, must have been amazing. Having made the trek just from Base Camp back to Namche myself, and covering that ground in two days, I can appreciate this method of travel. While their friends are still packing up and preparing to head down the Khumbu, Babu and Lakpa are kicking it in a Namche teahouse, enjoying good food, and shooting pool in the local billiards parlor. (I don't even want to think about how they got those pool tables up there!)

This is a very cool story, and hopefully we'll at least get some more photos in the days ahead.

Speed Flying In Utah

We've seen videos of speed flying before, but it seems like they are always taking place in the Alps near Chamonix or something. Today we have new one, courtesy of the Adventure Journal, that was filmed on Mt. Superior in Utah on a spectacularly beautiful day on the slopes.

For those who don't know, Speed Flying is a combination of skiing and paragliding. Basically, as you're hurdling down the mountain on your skis, you can use the paraglider to help avoid some of the obstacles in your way, like a 400-foot drop off a cliff or something. The video gives you better examples of course, and it all looks like amazing fun.



Superior, Speed Fly from Marshall Miller on Vimeo.

Helmet Cam Captures "Speedflying" in Chamonix

We've seen a few videos of "speedflying," as it is defined in this video, before. It's a combination of skiing and paragliding down mountains that looks like it would be a complete blast while also being completely insane at the same time. This video shows both aspects as the filmmakers glide down the beautiful mountains in Chamonix, France.

One of the more interesting aspects of the video is that it was completely shot with the GoPro Hero HD helmet cam, which just demonstrates how far these little gadgets have come in the past few years. The quality is excellent and the footage is captured very well.

Now who wants to go skiing in France?

Video Clearly Explains Why We All Need Jetpacks!

Yves Rossy, better known as Jetman, was up to his old tricks again a few days back when he leapt off a hot air balloon and ignited his jetpack, which sent him climbing up to 2400 meters (7874 ft) before retuning to circle around the balloon twice. He would eventually pull the ripcord on his parachute and drift gently to the ground, but not before he did his best superman imitation, flying through the air like a bird. A really, really fast, jet-powered bird. Check out the video below to see what I mean. Looks like a blast!

Wingsuits Over Canada

The lovely and talented Steph Davis posted this great video of her and Mario Richard having some fun in their wingsuits over Quebec, Canada. In the description for the video she describes it as capturing "A fine day in the sky where no one has any parachute malfunctions, and nothing bad happens to anyone." Which of course begs the question, how often do you have parachute malfunctions and what bad things occur on a regular basis? Those comments don't exactly inspire confidence in this sport.

Still, it makes for a lovely video on a Thursday morning.




Pas de Deux from steph davis on Vimeo.

Seven Summits, Seven Flights

We've all heard about a number of climbers attempting the Seven Summits, that is to say, scaling the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. But three explorers are hoping to take that premise one step further, and not only climb those seven mountains, but then paraglide off of them once they reach the summit.

The project is the brain child of Pierre Carter, Marianne Schwankhart, and Peter Friedmann, who have dubbed their adventure the Seven Summits, Seven Flights expedition. The team will be sharing their experience via their blog, Twitter account, and Facebook page. According to their latest updates, they have left for Russia where they'll be making their first climb, and flight, on Elbrus, the 18,510 foot tall mountain that is the tallest in Europe. They had hoped to start with Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, this past June, but permit issues prevented them from getting underway there. They'll now turn there focus elsewhere for now, with Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, and Carstenzs Pyramid being the most likely next climbs on their schedule.

The team is of course hoping to be come the first to achieve the feat of paragliding the Seven Summits, but they are also hoping to raise money for the Smile Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping impoverished and facially disfigured children in South Africa, the home country for the Seven Summits, Seven Flights team.

Seems like a very cool adventure. These three are thinking ahead. They'll be able to expend all of their energy on the climb, and take it easy on the descent thanks to a nice, relaxing flight back to the bottom. Good luck to Pierre, Marianne, and Peter, enjoy Russia!

Thanks to Alan Masterson for sending this my way!

Exploring The Himalaya By Paraglider

When most of us think about Himalayan adventures, our minds conjure up images of mountaineers in their down suits struggling to summit 8000 meter peaks or even intrepid trekkers exploring mountain passes. But the Himalayan Odyssey team wanted to explore those iconic mountains in a different way, and from a very unique perspective.

The expedition got underway a few weeks back, with Brad Sander, Antoine Laurens, and Mike Laengle, setting out to explore over 700 miles of Himalayan territory, stretched out through India, Nepal, and Sikkim, not on foot, but on paraglider instead. The journey is expected to take approximately six weeks to complete, and with much of it being filmed and photographed along the way. The team is also joined by guest pilots along the way, adding new faces to the expedition for some of the segments.

A typical day for the Himalayan Odyssey crew is to get up and check the thermal air currents to see how they'll impact their daily travel. If all is well there, they'll climb up above 2000 meters and launch out into the open skies, riding those thermals and traveling from one valley to the next along their route. As the day whittles away, they'll scout the ground below for a good place to camp, only coming in for a landing when they've found a a good site to pitch their tents.

While exploring the Himalaya from a paraglider probably is its own reward, the team has other goals in mind as well. Besides having an adventure of a lifetime, they're also exploring the amazing Himalayan culture, while also working to raise awareness of the plight of the Himalayan Condor, a bird that is dying out at an alarming rate.

You can track the progress of the expedition on the website, and follow along on their Twitter account as well.

Thanks to Alan for the tip on this one!

New Extreme Sport: Skyaking!

The crazy gang over at Get Outdoors Go Blog posted this video earlier today and I thought it was fun and worth sharing here too. It's a little clip of some "extreme athletes", and I use the term loosely, parachuting out of a plane in a kayak. The free fall is kind of fun, but the landing is the best part. :)

Amazing Speed Riding Video!

I've posted a couple of speed riding videos in the past. It's the crazy adventure sport that combines skiing and paragliding into one activity, and then sends the participants now impossibly steeps mountain slopes. The video below has that and more, with skier Antoine Montant hurling down a mountain, sometimes on his skies and sometimes floating through the air. The views are spectacular, and you have to watch until the end for a wipeout and tumble that look pretty scary. Fortunately, he was okay, but still...

Thanks for the video Lou-Phi!