jeudi 18 juillet 2013

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 !

mardi 9 juillet 2013

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. 

mardi 2 juillet 2013

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 !