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Jeb Corliss crashes wingsuit at Table Mountain


nmonteith

19-Jan-2012
9:19:39 AM

On 19/01/2012 Sabu wrote:
>I read somewhere that he managed to pull his emergency chute or something?

I don't think base jumpers have emergency chutes.


ajfclark

19-Jan-2012
9:28:03 AM

There's a quote in here about him getting an 'emergency' chute out:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/9018176/Base-jumper-survives-after-he-crashes-into-face-of-Table-Mountain.html


Sabu

19-Jan-2012
9:36:44 AM

On 19/01/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>I don't think base jumpers have emergency chutes.

Yea that's what I thought. As above, he must've pulled something, emergency or main or whatever, otherwise he simply wouldn't be alive.

And this means he hasn't landed without a chute so the record is still up for grabs!

simey

19-Jan-2012
12:04:08 PM

I loved some of the replies that were written in response to the newspaper article listed above (they should probably go in quotable quotes)...

"He seemed unaware of the gravity of the situation."

"If you jump of Table Mountain and hurt yourself, can it really be called an accident?"

simey

19-Jan-2012
12:24:50 PM

On 19/01/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>I don't really understand whats going on with rockclimbers getting up on their tall ponies about all the risks other 'extreme folk' take. If you actually climb in between the web spraying, you also take unneccessary risks, so stop splitting hairs.

I don't think there is a problem with making a judgement call about an activity. Given that we make judgement calls all the time in climbing, then we can look at a particular activity and see whether the margin of risk is appealing or not.

I suspect that statistically there can't be too many activities that match it with base jumping for death or serious injury. Given the limited number of participants and the fact that you are only in the air for seconds at a time - it even makes free-soloing near your limit look safe.

singersmith

19-Jan-2012
2:11:41 PM

On 19/01/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>On 19/01/2012 Sabu wrote:
>>I read somewhere that he managed to pull his emergency chute or something?
>
>I don't think base jumpers have emergency chutes.

The way it was put to me is that BASE jumper use only an emergency [reserve] chute. When people skydive they have a chute that is fast and fun to fly, but slightly marginal as far as deployment, then also carry a reserve, that almost can't fail, as a backup. When people BASE jump they use only the latter. Again, this is just how it was explained to me.


shortman

19-Jan-2012
2:16:29 PM

On 19/01/2012 singersmith wrote:
>On 19/01/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>On 19/01/2012 Sabu wrote:
>>>I read somewhere that he managed to pull his emergency chute or something?
>>
>>I don't think base jumpers have emergency chutes.
>
>The way it was put to me is that BASE jumper use only an emergency [reserve]
>chute. When people skydive they have a chute that is fast and fun to fly,
>but slightly marginal as far as deployment, then also carry a reserve,
>that almost can't fail, as a backup. When people BASE jump they use only
>the latter. Again, this is just how it was explained to me.

X2

I've heard this too.

JC?

singersmith

19-Jan-2012
5:16:29 PM

On 19/01/2012 shortman wrote:
>On 19/01/2012 singersmith wrote:
>>On 19/01/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>>On 19/01/2012 Sabu wrote:
>>>>I read somewhere that he managed to pull his emergency chute or something?
>>>
>>>I don't think base jumpers have emergency chutes.
>>
>>The way it was put to me is that BASE jumper use only an emergency [reserve]
>>chute. When people skydive they have a chute that is fast and fun to
>fly,
>>but slightly marginal as far as deployment, then also carry a reserve,
>>that almost can't fail, as a backup. When people BASE jump they use only
>>the latter. Again, this is just how it was explained to me.
>
>X2
>
>I've heard this too.
>
>JC?

Somewhat comically, the context in which I was told this was that my friends were convinced that a particular cliff was so steep that it was effectively a skydive and they thought that if they jumped with one person on either side of me hanging on the the leg and shoulder straps that we could track far enough from the wall to make it a perfectly safe first jump of any kind for me. My main concern was flying the thing to the ground after they pulled the chute and released me. "Flying these things is casual [because they are reserves]. There's some things to know but just aim for the river if it feels sketchy."

J.C.

20-Jan-2012
10:22:46 AM

Was that cliff mt Brento?

You've got the canopy situation pretty spot on, skydiving rigs have a main and a reserve... The reserve is a docile square 7cell canopy that is packed differently as to eliminate potential hazards, open faster and more reliably on heading etc. we can then use whatever we want for a main, which is often (once the pilot is sufficiently experienced) a high performance elliptical 9 cell designed for very fast speeds and intense turns. This canopies are also a lot less reliable at opening nicely and it is not uncommon to have to chop one to get out of a violent spinning malfunction.. Base canopies started out as just skydiving reserves and have evolved in their own rIght from there. Base rigs only use one canopy and are pared down to absolute bare minimum, time and experience has shown that simple = less shit to go wrong. Due to the nature of the beast we are also opening at 100ft give or take (sometimes higher often lower) as opposed to 3000ft while skydiving so there would rarely be time to operate a reserve if we did have one.

singersmith

22-Jan-2012
7:00:17 PM

On 20/01/2012 J.C. wrote:
>Was that cliff mt Brento?
>
Thor. I lacked the cajones and don't swim well anyway.

J.C.

23-Jan-2012
2:01:26 PM

Sweet! Were you there with Douggs et al?


nmonteith

23-Jan-2012
2:26:29 PM

On 22/01/2012 singersmith wrote:
>Thor. I lacked the cajones and don't swim well anyway.

House sized boulders, freezing water and nearest helicopter rescue being about 2000km away could have posed some risks.... :-)

singersmith

25-Jan-2012
1:22:26 PM

No, this trip was with Leo and Stanley.

>House sized boulders, freezing water and nearest helicopter rescue being
>about 2000km away could have posed some risks.... :-)

Yeah no doubt. However, Sean Villanueava swam the river -twice- where the bridge washed out to get a rope across and later because he didn't want to leave an anchor. It was one of the most bad ass things I've ever seen.


nmonteith

25-Jan-2012
1:50:51 PM

It was only waist high when I waded across that stream - but within a week it was a torrent of death! I've never seen an environment change so quickly from frozen solid river to raging river.

The story of the poor Japanese team haunted me. One fell off on lead on Thor and died, his partner rapped to the ground and drowned trying to cross the river to get help. Epic.


ado_m

25-Jan-2012
1:53:30 PM

Has anyone seen the footage for the trailing flyer?

Singersmith

25-Jan-2012
10:41:27 PM

Yeah, Neil you should see when that process reverses at the end of summer. It's pretty miserable to get beached there then. Don't know if you heard but there was a "climatic event" a few years ago that caused Summit Lake to blow out and rinse the whole valley. Took out the bridge and the lake level is down eight meters; the damage is impressive. And Sean did indeed swim it when it was the death torrent. Eagerly dove in like a chocolate lab fishing for ducks. A moment of panic right at the end when he got pulled back out a bit. Balls.

dalai

23-Feb-2012
12:17:11 PM

More footage...

uwhp510

23-Feb-2012
1:19:37 PM

Oww...


benjenga

23-Feb-2012
4:29:32 PM

Holy sheet. The fact that he is alive at all is very surprising.
Does anyone know how he doing??


pezz

23-Feb-2012
5:39:34 PM

http://jebcorliss.net/

I took my first steps today with crutches :) It was awesome :) It's amazing how weak you get laying in bed for 5 weeks :)

updated 8 hours ago

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