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I wanted to share information on several new exitpoints that Tom A. and I opened in Engleberg last week. First a word of information about Lauterbrunnen.
While landing from the standard Gimmelwald exit, it is approved (as I understand it) to overfly the river and land in the open field next to the visitors center. However, if a jumper goes too deep or has any problems, this might not be possible. I was told that if this happens to land to jumper's left next to the telephone wires and next to the path that crosses through the farmer's field.
I was forced to take this landing option on one Gimmelwald jump. I landed directly next to the path, and immediately jumped over the low fence onto the path and packed up my canopy. When walking out the path, a very nice Swiss boy came out to open the gate for me. He explained to me (I think, as my German is awful and he spoke no French or English) that jumpers landing in (I am assuming) his father's field must pay 5 Swiss francs to land there. This seemed fair, and I paid him the 5 plus 5 francs as a tip for 10 total. He was very happy and seemed ok with the whole thing. Because I could not understand the rest of his German, I don't know if this is ok, or if I was told not to land there but if I did that the 5 franc fee was required. I'd assume the former, as he was not unhappy and was all smiles throughout our talk - though he IS living in friggin' Lauterbrunnen so who wouldn't be smiling! Just a tip for jumpers at Gimmelwald - bring a 5 franc coin in case you land this side of the river, so you can pay for the landing (and perhaps a tip) and hopefully keep that farmer not only tolerant of landings there, but maybe even happy as he has a new source of revenue!
Now, on to the new exits:
1. Teddyland - now renamed "Cold Steel" in honor of Lukas Knutsson
This is the far better of the two exits we opened, and is I think comparable to the best jumps in Lauterbrunnen of this height. Laser measurement to impact was 267 meters (rock drop is not possible as there is a Via Ferrata route below, which would be in the line of fire of rock drop so DON'T drop rocks please from exitpoint!). Rock is severly overhanging for first 150 meters or so, slowly chasing out to vertical after that. Over 1500 foot canopy ride down to landing - landing area is big public field with windsock (used for paragliders) and even a big arrow pointing the direction of suggested landing.
I took a delay of 5.5 or so, with plenty of room on opening for off-heading correction. I believe safe delays up to 7 with correction still possible, with delays longer than that risking wallstrike on 180. I know this exit has been wingsuit jumped since we opened it, but don't have beta on the details.
Exitpoint is 10 minute hike down from the Fuhrenalp tram, and exit is marked with a big teddybear hanging in a tree (thanks to my Swedish friends). We jumped with a S wind in the valley which was quite strong, but exitpoint down to deployment altitude was shielded from the wind almost entirely even with strong winds. Beware the tram operator - if she thinks the winds are too strong she will deny you the tramride! She thinks we are paragliders and warns of strong winds at the paraglider exitpoint - my German sucks so I could not explain BASE to her. She is very nice but very strident about winds at this point so don't get grounded if your German is bad and winds are a little strong!
2. Blank Check
This is a very serious exit which I do not recommend to anyone without strong alpine climbing skills, snow condition assessment experience, and very strong jumping skills under pressure. Rock drop testing is useless as there are snowy ledges under exit that make no noise when rocks hit, and laser analysis of fall line is not possible (without ropes and several deadman or snow picket anchors and the knowledge to safely use them) due to underhung first 10 meters of jump. I believe distance to impact with a reasonably aggressive rock drop is no more than 175 meters.
We jumped this slider up, though I would highly recommend jumpers consider slider down as the preferred setup for this jump. I took 5 seconds and opened scraping the snow ledge - I am about 20% confident that with a VERY strong exit and a very good transition to track, this ledge could be out-tracked and possibly an additional 3000+ foot of freefall gained. However, this would be a completely do-or-die choice as with my delay I was very close to impact and any more delay would have meant either out-track the ledges, or impact.
I do not think this is a good exit for wingsuits, as it is mandatory to get a good run and without a strong exit time to impact is probably less than 4 seconds. There are major buttresses both left and right of fall line, less than 15 yards away on either side. Slider up or slider down, don't plan on anything more than 45 degree off-heading on this exit.
Exit altitude is approximately 3000 meters above sea level. Access to exit is via the top of the Titlis tram. It took us about 2 hours to hike to exit from there, though we had trouble getting lost and checked many bad exits along the way. The route to exit has substantial crevasses, and traverses a severely corniced snow ridge that is unstable in many places. The exit itself was created by me out of snow, which took 25 minutes or so of grooming and is very dangerous as the snow ledge is actually a cornice overhanging the 4000 foot North face of Titlis. I had success exiting from a run (three steps), but when Tom followed the snow ledge collapsed and his exit was sub-optimal as a result (though I am sure his visuals were better than mine).
This is by far the most serious exit I have ever jumped, and Tom remarked that this exit was "the closest he has ever come to dying and still walked away." If you are interested in jumping this exit, please contact me directly and I can give you more details about the exitpoint and suggested alpine gear for the approach.
Engleberg has many, many possible new exits - including one spectacular exit opened by a Norwegian that we were unable to jump in the time we had. Many of the new exits will require some alpine skills, though Teddyland requires no alpine skills and is easier to access than any exit I jumped in Lauterbrunnen (even Gimmelwald).
Other highlights of our European trip include:
Highest exitpoint: Aiguille du Midi, at 3842m with a 9,000 foot canopy ride - jumped in sub-optimal conditions (15-20 mph winds at exitpoint)
Lowest exitpoint: landing 50 meters below sea level in Antwerp
Shortest object: Amsterdam building, 220 foot freefall (go and throw)
Tallest object: La Mousse, Lauterbrunnen (approx. 12 second delay)
Nice people met: too many to count!
Countries visited in nine days of travel: seven
National borders crossed in nine days of travel: fifteen
Distance driven in nine days of travel: 4,500 km
Objects jumped: 14 (two new, one new freefall)
Hours of sleep: not nearly enough :/
Mascots: Luxembourg witch, and happy Swiss dog.
Many, many thanks to all the great friends who hosted us when we arrived in the middle of the night in your home cities, unpacked but looking to jump. We had so many fun times, so many absolutely bizarre situations, so many laughs and smiles, and (with Lukas' passing) unfortunately much sorrow.
All of you are welcome anytime in our hometown of Portland, Oregon. We don't have 1000+ foot alpine walls, but we do have lots of low, dodgy objects to share with you! Come over and visit!
Thanks much to Tom A. for putting up with the Dog for nine long days. Hey we had "fun fun," even doing many "verboden" things, right?
Peace,
D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
www.wrinko.com
Also a HUGE thanks to Basic Research for the Fox 285 they provided before the trip. That canopy surely saved this Dog's life several times on the trip, and performed well from the super-low Antwerp exits all the way up to do-or-die static line exits from over 13,000 feet elevation. Others may disagree, but when my life is on the line a vented Fox is far and away the canopy I trust the most, paws-down. Can't say enough good things about both the design and the workmanship. Thanks 1 x 10 (6), BR!
