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 !