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Base-jumping is sport that evolved form skydiving in the 1960’s. The sport consists of jumping off man-made and natural objects while wearing a parachute. The letters B-A-S-E is an abbreviation for Buildings, Antennas, Spans (Bridges), and Earth (Cliffs), the objects that are commonly used to jump from.
Base-jumping is an advance form of skydiving where the parachutists must open their canopy in a relatively short period of time. The elevation difference from the jump off point and the landing zone is considerably less than skydiving. Often is the case that the vertical difference in launch and landing area is less than 200' (60 meters). Because of the short time periods involved, there is less opportunity for the jumper to deploy a reserve chute if the main chute fails to function properly. For this reason, many base-jumpers opt to not carry a reserve chute.
Base-jumping is often considered to be the outlaw sport of extreme sports. While hang glider pilots have their airparks and skate boarders have skate parks, the base jumper is without a legal place to jump for the most part. Base-jumping usually involves the trespassing upon private property such as building rooftops and antennas. Public places such as bridges and national parks most often have ordinances against the activity.
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 El Capitan Photo Credit: NASA
After hearing the story of these jumpers, Carl Boenish began what became known as modern base jumping. His innovations in the sport including the use of ram air parachutes and the utilization of tracking, a modern freefall technique. Carl was responsible for coining the term ‘base-jumping’. Carl made the sport popular by filming a group of four jumpers on El Capitan on August 8, 1978. The group consisted of Kent Lane, Tom Start, Mike Sherrin, and Ken Gosselin.
The short film by Carl inspired others to visit El Capitan and try base-jumping. It was not long until park rangers started arresting the jumpers because they were in violation of park rules. For the base-jumpers, getting arrested was a risk worth taking to experience the new found sport of base-jumping.
By the end of 1979 over 50 illegal jumps had been made from the face of El Capitan. A sympathetic park ranger, seeing that their was no stopping the activity, helped organize the jumpers so they could do it legally. On July 1, 1980 the park issued its first ever base-jumping permits. Over the next few weeks more than 300 jumpers took the leap from El Capitan.
The freedom enjoyed by the base-jumpers was short lived. Due to the disorganization of the jumpers, disregard for the rules, and damages caused by the jumpers, the park stopped issuing permits on September 9, 1980.
Although it is still illegal, there are still numerous base-jumpers at El Capitan each year who are willing to surrender their chute to authorities and pay large fines if they are caught.
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Angel Falls
Eiffel Tower
El Capitan
Great Trango
Perrine Bridge
Troll Wall Cliff
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