Hi from El Cap 2

[MikePelkey]

Hi. My name is Mike Pelkey. I and Brian Schubert (El Cap 1) made the very first "BASE" jump from El Capitan on July 24,1966. We lost contact a year or so later and have recently reunited, thanks to the diligence of his lovely daughter Tina. We were interviewed and filmed just last month for the upcoming movie "Gravity" by the filmmaker Marah Amberlyn Strauch. I never saw the myriad posts crediting us with "initiating" the El Capitan on the web through the years because they misspelled my last name. I did notice that most of the historical record concerning our jump was quite inaccurate. To read the documented history of it we were just a couple of nuts who flung themselves off the top of the world's tallest monolith because we were too dumb to know any better. I assure you such was not the case. Both Brian and I were licensed jumpmasters at the time. The El Capitan was my 184th logged jump. And we DID know how to track. I seriously doubt that the El Capitan could be conquered successfully by anyone who wasn't highly skilled in the art of freefall. Just wanted to set the record straight with today's BASE jumping community.

[Nick_D]

Hi Mike,

Marah told me she interviewed you and that will be a great addition to her film. I've also had a few e-mails from Tina so I knew you were around somewhere.

Don't be too hard on us for not getting the story right. All I ever knew is what Carl Boenish told me, and from the newspaper clippings a BASE-friendly Park Ranger sent me many years ago. Since you weren't around we had little to go on.

On the other hand if not for the few of us trying to get the history of cliff jumping down no one jumping now would have ever heard of you guys.

There is a bigger bunch of BASE jumpers, at the moment, over at dropzone.com who would love to hear your story. Look in the forums section for the BASE Zone and post a note.

It's great to hear from you . . .

NickD
BASE 194