Lost Brother in Yosemite
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
But Yosemite Village is a lot like a city today. Unless you get more than a day's hike away from the valley floor, there's no hope of finding solitude or serenity. The Merced, with all its plastic rafts and floaties, looks more like a waterpark than a river. And the campgrounds have more RVs than tents, jammed so close together you can't breathe.
When a guy in a wingsuit is whipping through the valley at 100mph, whooping and hollering, it really is incongruous with the park's mission. As is drone flying, mountain biking, snowmobiling, graffiti-art, and lots of other things that disturb nature.
What would John Muir have thought about BASE jumping?
My feeling is that the restriction should be lifted, probably because it's doing more harm than good, but I think both sides of the argument are convincing, and it's unfair to point the finger at the NPS without trying to honestly understand their motivations. There are a lot of news headlines that read something like, "Rules to Blame in Yosemite Accident", and then leave out the relevant counterpoints.
Controlled areas such as Kjerag in Norway and Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland have shown that it can work.
A heavy, shod horse tromping around and pooping all over the place is going to do far more trail damage than mountain bikes.
Also, remember that horses are not an indigenous species in recorded history in North America.
I don't think one should consider nativity very much when deciding if something is good or not in a given context. More what the impact is, irrespective of nativity.
Never the less, bikes are even less native than horses... At least horses are organic.
Horse riders can always look back to a time when what they now do for sport used to be the only form of transit.
I come from a family of horse riders, and am a mountain biker. Really, it is completely possible to get along and share the trails. Obviously, some trails are only going to work for mountain bikes, and some are much nicer for horses (and boring for bikers).
I'd love to see horse riders required to clean up after their horses, just like dog owners clean up after their dogs. It's your pet, clean up.
On a more serious note, a major problem with animal feces on trails that are shared with bikers is the risk it poses when you run it over, and it splatters all over the place. If it gets in your mouth, or on the nozzle of your water bottle or camelback, you can get sick.
A ref: https://www.imba.com/resources/research/trail-science/enviro...
Maybe he would have been a BASE jumper. I don't know. What's clear is he loved nature more than anything, and I don't think he'd be too happy at the sight of Curry Village today.
From the fine article:
" “The reason we would like to discourage it is not so much because of the danger of it, but the spectacle of it,” O’Neal said during an interview at the park’s Emergency Operations Centre."
edit: here is an example of how much base jumpers care about the environment and preserving it http://www.kmvt.com/news/latest/Perrine-Bridge-Canyon-Clean-... Chuma has been leading these clean ups for the past few years along with many other local jumpers.
I've read John Muir's books about Yosemite. I remember they way he climbed up the unstable ice cone that forms in the winter around Horsetail fall just to stick his own head into the vortex. I remember all the unclimbed and unclimbable-looking rock faces he scrambled up without modern protection.
If John Muir knew about BASE jumping and wingsuits, he would have thought, "I need to do that right now today!"
But he would also know that it isn't compatible with what's left of the wilderness experience in Yosemite.
Last month a 73 year old guy died when his second parachute didn't deploy correctly. He needed the second parachute BECAUSE HE LIT THE FIRST ON FIRE!
http://magicvalley.com/news/local/video-shows-base-jumper-on...
I don't mourn people who die doing crazy things, so long as they are smart enough to know better. For some people, this is how they celebrate life.
That incident is as relevant to everyday BASE jumping as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouicSLOc_K8 is to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfipAgNRDx0
http://senderfilms.com/productions/details/809/Valley-Uprisi...
Part of the reason it's so dangerous is because it's illegal. I used to assume people flew at night because it was a beautiful time to fly; I had no idea the legal status had such an influence on when they chose to jump.
One of the inconsistencies that's not mentioned in the article is the way the park service harasses these climbers/ jumpers, but then calls on those same elite climbers to rescue ordinary citizens who get in trouble in the park.
Part of the reason it's illegal is because it's so dangerous. The argument goes that park services have limited resources for search and rescue. Engaging in such an inherently dangerous activity inevitably causes a lot of incidents draining those resources.
I like BASE and fully support those who choose to participate. But maybe banning BASE in the parks isn't the worse idea. Some famous BASE spots in Europe have outlawed jumping after numerous deaths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_Wall#BASE_Jumping
It's not like this is a sport that thrives on legality anyway.
From the Wikipedia article. It's not like BASE is illegal overall here in the US either, we still have Bridge Day and such.
You hit the crux of the argument though, some parks don't want jumpers because they represent an inordinate drain on their resources and risk to their personnel.
What I was trying to say was: In Norway they say, don't jump here please, jump over there.
The reasons in the wikipedia article are no longer valid apart from the instability of the wall and talus.
It's a lot like illegal drugs. It's a fun activity that's bad for the participants and exposes external costs on society. Seems like the standard solution of "legalize, tax, and regulate" would also apply here. Rather than simply ban these activities, maybe they should be made to bear the costs of rescue, either by putting liability on to them after the fact, or charging a fee up front.
I've done rescue work in Alaska for most of the last ten years, and I've followed rescue-related issues fairly well for a long time. Elite athletes like Dean and Graham do not drain rescue resources. The bulk of rescue work centers around ordinary people who get into situations where they find themselves over their heads.
By the time people like Dean and Graham need help, they've typically already helped a good number of people because they have the skills to do so. Their contribution to the pool of rescue resources is a net positive.
Edit for substance: I like it because it portrays them as constructive members of a resilient community instead of as drains on a public fund. People are more important than numbers and it wasn't my intention to argue otherwise.
While a National Park is owned by the government, in limiting allowed activities in the park, the Park Service is actually exercising the same rights that a private property owner has - you are the Park Services guests, the Park Service can request that you reframe from engaging in a variety of activities and naturally has a variety of reasons.
That's the way, uh, capitalism worked the last time I checked. In "the World", I would suppose that private property owners who like BASE jumping would be able to sponsor it on their land. Then if the state steps in with restrictions, we can complain about nanny states and such.
National Recreation Areas are playgrounds. National Forests are mildly limited playgrounds. National Wildlife Refuges are strongly regulated playgrounds. Using a National Park as a playground is immature self-entitlement.
I think the jumpers are not impairing them for future generations, but some others are.
More than 60 people have died on Half Dome and very few of them are BASE jumpers. The cable path up there doesn't seem to "maximise preservation".
http://www.yosemitehikes.com/yosemite-valley/half-dome/half-...
Choosing to allow some things while disallowing others is not hypocrisy. It's thoughtful decision-making.
How is this particular to BASE as opposed to any of the myriad of other things that people are allowed to do in national parks? It seems to me that a horse blocking my view would interfere with scenery, or seeing a line of people walking up the cables, or climbers dotting the peak, or any number of other things would interfere just as much, if not more. A BASE jump is over in minutes. It can take days to climb some of the bigger faces.
The cables today were put up in 1919, but follow closely both the style and path of the first ascent of Half Dome, which took place in 1875, 15 years _before_ Yosemite became a National Park. The first ascentionist basically drilled a bunch of holes up the side of the dome and used sticks or poles or something stuck in them to pull his way up like a ladder. In a sense the Cable Route thus really does "provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner" as Yosemite was before it was a park :)
In any case, and I say this as someone who spends a lot of time in Yosemite, it's best to think of the ditch as a big piece of land that we are sacrificing so that people can have some appreciation of what real wilderness is like and (hopefully) want to protect it. Most certainly nothing going on there is about keeping it preserved in it's original state.
BASE is dangerous. Wingsuit proximity flying is super dangerous, whether from a helicopter or from an object.
However, humans have spirit and some much more than others. These people are generally awesome. I know a few of them. We should celebrate them, and mourn them. Maybe they aren't the Wright brothers or Chuck Yeager, but there are still frontiers out there and these guys are pushing them back.
If Dean had sat on his couch and ate himself into a 240kg shut-in, it would be legal, no-one would be commenting and objecting to the cost to society. I would like more Deans and less of the shut-ins. I think it's good for humanity. I think it's a shame when we denounce one and accept the other.
Except people do object to that cost to society. Indeed, I'd say there's a much large, more organized and effective political movement to end social security and welfare programs for the disabled than there are people who oppose BASE jumping in the national parks.
I actively do wingsuit base jumping in Yosemite National Park. I will clear up several misconceptions.
(1) The amount of work it takes to carry all the appropriate gear up to Half Dome or El Cap will keep away anyone but the most serious jumpers. Removing the reference of parachutes/BASE jumping from the National Parks Aerial delivery law will not lead to a huge increase in jumpers. One of the problems that plagues the BASE jumping death statistics is, that unlike rock climbing, there is no physical barrier to taking on jumps that are beyond your skill level. Thankfully there are no gondolas in yosemite as there are in the alps.
(2) Even then, El Cap and Half Dome are two of the safest jumps in the world. Half Dome has at its best exit points a 16s rock drop; El cap: 22 s. For reference, many of the deaths you read about in Europe are at places like Chamonix where a 2-4s start is mandatory for surviving the jump. You can literally slip/trip and do 3-4 somersaults off half dome or el cap and be out of harms way.
(3) Proximity flying is not dangerous when done with reserve. Nearly all of the youtube footage you see of people flying 10-15ft off the ground is that person in a steep dive, at any moment they can flatten out their wings and they will disconnect from the terrain. The latest versions of every manufacturer's larger suits have all been documented flying up 50-150ft in flares. You are putting yourself in the suicide zone if you are flying terrain that requires you to have near your peak glide ratio for the full duration of the flight.
It sounds like Graham and Dean's logic for talking themselves into flying the line is "there is a point 15s before the terrain, where we can abort flying the line." And that is why quite a few base jumpers will attribute lighting and the fact that BASE is illegal to Dean and Graham's death. Flying in low light will affect your ability to make judgment calls about glide ratio and trajectory.
(4) The other risk I've experienced first hand is flying in cold temperatures. Many jumpers will jump with bare minimum daylight in the early morning and late evening. I've done this several times, and your arm wings are noticeably more rigid as well as your body. I have enough $$ for the fine to not ruin me financially, so I go later in the morning, but not everyone feels they have this luxury.
(5) None of my friends nor myself do this for an adrenaline rush. I dislike the feeling of fear or gambling. I enjoy charting out worst case and best case scenarios and planning jumps that give me the requisite range of error. In some ways it is remarkably similar to test driven software development. Check out this National Geographic feature on the work that goes into planning a Wingsuit base jump http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150526-wingsuit-b...
(6) Those who are chasing YouTube glory are in the minority. Most of the jumpers I have met so far are highly intelligent individuals somewhere on the autism spectrum (Matt G, Zach T, Adrian W). There are guys like Pat Walker who no one has heard of that are extraordinary pilots. You will never hear of or see some of the best stuff going on in the sport, because most folks are just doing it for themselves. Even if the sport were legal, you wouldn't see or hear of these guys. I have never heard a wingsuit pilot hoot or holler while in a national park. It's uncharacteristic.
(7) We are in the early days of wingsuit base jumping, I'd say it is akin to the early days of Formula One. As the sport becomes more mainstream the death rate will go down. The sorts of risks and stunts are more reflective of the sport's early adopters rather than the inherent danger of the sport. Flying a wingsuit off half dome and pitching in the middle of the valley is safer than skydiving, driving a car, or taking a hike for any qualified individual.
(8) Emergency Services are budgeted ahead of time. The taxpayer is not getting an extra bill from Dean and Graham's accident. Dean volunteered within park as a rescuer for years. Show some respect and gratitude. Also, many individuals are wealthy in the sport and will not be collecting their social security check, so show some gratitude for that too. Most of our major Obamacare+medicare costs come form overweight people and old people. There are no fat wingsuit base jumpers. And when we die, you avoid us soaking up those funds, so again off with your government $$ complaints.
(9) The time under canopy for most jumpers I know is less than 30 seconds on average. Wingsuits are so small that it is hard to see or notice them until the parachute opens. There are an approximate 300-400 wingsuit base jumpers in the world. And no more than 2000 base jumpers world wide; you'll hardly notice them in the park.
(10) For those with a regulatory hard-on, there is a licensing system in skydiving that could be used to ensure that the wrong people are not jumping. Requiring any jumper to obtain a permit verifying they have a D-license would keep out the inexperienced.
I could keep going addressing the amount of penis envy present in this thread and the comments of the NYTimes, but I'll just link to the SBA http://www.swissbaseassociation.ch/ It's only in the US that this is not considered a boring mountaineering related mid life crisis sport. Legit everywhere else.
Great post.
Re: Hooting and hollering, there is a joke in a popular first jump course about a hoot and holler being met with a throat punch. That's where one super sketchy cliff got its name in Twin.
I still rank getting getting buzzed by some dude jumping the Captain while climbing the last few pitches of the East Buttress as one of the more exciting things that's ever happened to me. Maybe it was you, probably not though :)
Furthermore, the US has made laws putting the Japanese in internment camps, mandating race segregation, regulating the trade of slaves, etc etc. U.S Law is not a great moral compass for how you should feel about a given activity.
For next time, the default when someone dies is sadness--FYI. It's something in humanity that makes it so.