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.