I'm back in Switzerland after an amazing trip around south east asia with my girlfriend.
We started by discovering Cambodia. A beautiful country with some of the most gentle people I ever meet. Cambodia history is crazy, they were an incredible strong place for centuries under the Khmer reign. We could visit the ruins of Angkor and all the temples around. Later in history, Cambodia became much darker. The Khmer Rouge destroyed and starved the country in their madness. The most incredible thing is that today Cambodian people are the friendliest people you can find, always smiling and ready to help you. After Angkor's ruins we went in the north, to the Mondolkiri province. We had the chance to make a two days trek in the jungle to learn more about elephants life and the jungle around. If you are interested, check out The Mondulkiri Project.
Beng Mealea temple, Cambodia.
Beng Mealea temple, Cambodia.
Part of Angkor Vat temple, Cambodia.
Sculptures in a temple, Cambodia.
Kids fishing, Cambodia.
Elephant in the jungle, Cambodia.
Laos was our second stop. We spend a few days in Pakse and drove around the local coffee farm with a motorbike. Then as we heard about a climbing place more north we took the bus to Thakek. We discovered Green Climbers Home, a climber paradise. After climbing for a week we moved to Luang Prapang and then Thailand where we spend a couple day in Chiang Mai before moving to Ton Sai.
Climbing in Thakek, Laos
Monks in Laos
Ton Sai is another great place to climb but also a good place to chill on the beach and do some .... base jumping. I traveled without my rig as we were backpacking but I meet some crazy russian lads that generously lend me a rig. Thanks to Stanislav, check out his work with the Sinner Team crashing the boundaries between body modification, suspension, climbing, rope jumping and base jumping !
Jumping in Ton Sai, Thailand.
Jumping in Ton Sai Thailand.
After Ton Sai we moved to Malaysia where we had some nice snorkeling time. We also went to Kuala Lumpur wind tunnel. My girlfriend had only a tandem skydive and she always wanted to try this. I'm not a big tunnel guy, I spend about 20 mins in a tunnel a few years ago in Eloy (USA). As it's one of the cheapest tunnel in the world we took half an hour each and we had a really great time ! I had fun flying on my belly and also worked on my back flying. My girlfriend could fly alone on her belly, make 360° and up and down after 30 mins. She kicked asses and even tried back flying ! I'm going to edit a small video of our trip. I will post it later.
Snorkeling with a turtle in Malaysia.
Batu Caves, Malaysia.
My girlfriend trying backflying in Genting Windtunnel.
Our coach and myself in Genting Windtunnel.
Now we are back home for a week. Even if traveling was great I'm happy to be back in the mountains. I already made some good wingsuit base form the Belvèdere and Brevent. A couple of really nice two way and three way with some mates. Unfortunately there too much snow in the mountain to go somewhere else.
Three way exit off Brevent with Erwan Madoré and David Bugnion.
I have one more week before flying to the USA. I'm going to spend 2 weeks in Skydive Perris Valley to train and get ready for the base jumping season.
Thanks for reading and by the way I started an account on Instagram now. You can follow me at this address : http://instagram.com/base_life
As I told you on my last post I'm on a kind of long holidays and I leaving tomorrow for south-east asia. I tried to jump as much as I could before traveling around.
After partying well and having some time with my family for christmas I took two days to go to Lauterbrunnen. There I wanted to work on getting better on my exits with my V5. I spend the first day alone jumping from High Ultimate. The weather was crazy cold and we had less then two hours of sun in the bottom of the valley. Packing in those conditions was quite demotivating. I made 4 jumps and stop as the valley sank into darkness.
The view from exit point "High Ultimate"with Eiger and Jungfrau on my right side.
On the second day, my friends David Bugnion and Lukas Pauli joined me. We had a nice day doing some three ways jumps and working on our flights, especially David and me who have new wingsuits. 4 jumps again and I really found the way to make some good starts with the V5 and well... this suit can start to fly extremely quickly. Those two days were really helpful to work on my suit.
David jumping just before me.
The 6th of january after resting from the new year party and preparing some stuff for my trip, I went for a solo jump of the "Belvedere". I walked from the bottom of the valley, a nice 1 and half hour walk in a cold and snowy forest. The wind was a bit strong on the exit but I choose to jump to see how my suit would react. Just after the impulsion I felt the wind pushing me on the side but I stayed calm and as soon as I stretched my legs I flew normally.
A few days later, my mate Erwan Madoré called me and proposed me to go to Chamonix and jump the "Brévent". I always been quite impressed form what I heard from this jump and already passed my turn on this jump a few time during last season. Now, I was confident on my exit skills and ready to jump it. Chamonix is just an hour from where I live so I was quite enthusiastic about discovering this famous jump. My first impression stick to what I've heard about it, short and really technical start. There is a first 8m ledge at -50 m then a second of 28m at -144. If you think about jumping "Brévent"please be 100% sure of your impulsion and start of flight. After the start you discover a huge playground and many lines to work on. I made three sessions there over a few days. I could start do work on hard turn, diving and resourcing my V5. I also made my 200th base jump on one of these days. I made a really quiet flight with Erwan, enjoying the view.
Ready to go.
Erwan's exit.
Erwan chasing me.
I also made there my last base jump for the 2 next month on sunday. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm, lots a friends around and an awesome sun set on the Mont Blanc massif to end it. I'm now packing my stuff for my travel in south-east asia. I will post a few pictures during my trip but won't talk that much about base jumping as it's not the goal of this trip and I won't jump during that time. You gonna have to wait until April and the beginning of next base season for some new jumps stories, pictures and also new episode of Veni, Vidi, Volavi.
I'm sorry for this long time without any news. I was quite busy at work those last months and I had quite a lot of stuff to prepare for my incoming long holidays. I going on a trip with my girlfriend in a few week. Two and a half months around Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. No base jump planned but climbing, diving and enjoying the culture change.
Speaking of base jumping I could start to base jump my new wingsuit some weeks ago. I have now a bit more than 10 base jumps on it and I can say that I start to feel it good. After a good session of skydives I was feeling comfortable in the air but good performances were hard to reach. The suit was kind of drifting me sometimes and a bit unstable but nothing scary. I realized when jumping with other people that I was flying it too slow. It's kind of unusual on the Vampire series. On the last jump I made I had a bit of an head low exit and then tried to keep the speed and I realized all the potential that this suit has. I'm already looking forward to keep working on it ! I'm planning a few days in Lauterbrunnen just before new year.
Skydiving over Epagny, Switzerland.
Working on that new wingsuit. (Screen shot by Bras Noir)
I also want to wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year. Thanks for reading and flowing me. I can tell you that next year will be full of good flights and awesome moments.
Here is a little christmas video we made a few years ago with my mate David Bugnion, enjoy !
We filmed this one in Switzerland, in the exceptional area of the Diablerets' glacier. We had a perfect day and I could fly a nice proximity line that I worked some times before. We even had the visit of the beard vulture before the jump.
Almost a month since the last post. Sorry for this long time.
I could jump nearly every week-end this last weeks. I don't remember exactly in wich order but I went back to Varan, jumped Sans Bet and also the Pointe de Sâles. We had some nice weather last few weeks but now it seems to get pretty bad. It's colder and much more rainy.
During the flight from Pointe de Sâles
I hope to get a least a few more nice week-end as I just received my brand new wingsuit. A nice red Vampire 5 by Phoenix-fly. I already tested it skydiving last week-end. It's quite a big change from my old Ghost 2. The suit is much bigger and fly much faster. It's crazy the feeling of speed you get already in skydiving, I can't imagine on base jump. The suit is also much more "nervous" than my old suit. Just a little shoulder push and you are already in a steep turn. The first skydive was kind of "shaky" as I had to tame the suit after the second and third jump were just pleasure. I still have to put some more skydive on it before taking it on a cliff. I wouldn't feel comfortable to base jump it now even if I feel the urge to do it.
New wingsuit !
Urge and base jumping are two things that don't go well together. We had a sad series of accidents this summer. Some of them were clearly people who wanted to go too fast. If some of you ever want to start base jumping one day just give it the time it takes. We all want to go too fast, me included. I made some mistakes and I will make some others. The important thing in my mind is learning from them and not repeat them. Also try to learn from other's mistakes.
This last week-end the weather was really bad so it was perfect conditions to go to the Reels Snowboarding Film Festival in Annecy. My mates Julien and Marc who are filming the series "Veni, Vidi, Volavi. A Pure Celebration Of Gravity" with me were presenting their last movie "Incoming". This movie is a blast check out the trailer :
Talking about "Veni, Vidi, Volavi" the second episode should be out soon. We had some delay with the editing but now everything is done and the episode is ready. Stay tuned on EpicTV . Here is a little screenshot from it.
We are getting closer to autumn and winter the weather start to sucks. Last week-end was so shitty that I couldn't jump at all. So I decided to start this new kind of post, the "S**t week-end". As I have no jump to talk about I will post some videos and maybe website that I think you should check. They will be about base jumping, skydiving, climbing and maybe some other off topic stuff.
To start, I discovered this nice and funny video of the Petzl Argentinian RocTrip 2012. The music and the editing are really well made. I started to climb seriously last spring and I really enjoy it. It's incredible to see those guys climbing level. It brings me also some nice memories because 5 years ago I spent nearly 6 months in Argentina studying, traveling and skydiving.
You should also check the "best of" video of my friend Erwan Madoré. Nice jumps and good vibes ! Already looking forward to jump with him again !
