Last time I wrote about El Caminito del Ray - The King’s Pathway and I embedded a video which shows how scary it is to walk El Caminito del Ray. Later that day I found myself watching base jump videos in YouTube. Few years ago I was riding bike with my friend in Wengen, Switzerland and we rode to the “take off”-place of base jumpers above Lauterbrunnen. I wanted to see videos in which they jump from that particular cliff above the beautiful Lauterbrunnen village.

I have been interested in base jumping although I don’t do it. Years ago I did skydive but I decided to quit because I wanted to focus on my studies and career. Skydiving can take incredible amounts of time, so I just could not spend my days in the airport anymore.

As I enjoy watching base jumping, I continued searching really cool base jumping videos. I found this very interesting document of Jeb Corliss, one of the icons of the sport. Jeb is known as a heavy duty skydiver who takes it to the limit. Jeb is connected (as shown in the video) to Dwain Weston who died 2003 when performing a challenging jump with Jeb Corliss. Dwain was known as “next to God” in base jumping and Jeb probably learned very much from him during many years.

Jeb Corliss is an interesting person. First of all he openly talks about his problematic childhood and very suicidal thoughts. Eh, I must say this all sounds a bit sugar coated for me. I believe he used to be suicidal, but when speaking about it, Jeb really makes it a big story. Anyhow, Jeb seems to be an interesting person with whom I could talk hours about skydiving, climbing, skiing, mountain biking and traveling across the world. Jeb is just like many of my friends. He enjoys his life 110%. I appreciate that.

See the first jump in this second part of the document. It is from Lauterbrunnen. I’ve been on that spot. It’s a nasty place, scary. We left our bikes few meters above and walked to the edge of the cliff. It is located about 400 meters above the ground and it is surrounded with one of the highest mountain peaks of Switzerland and beautiful and very long waterfalls. It is a beautiful place. And scary..

My friend was working in a restaurant close to the landing area of base jumpers. He told me that only few days before I arrived they saw someone hitting the ground. In fact he did not see it happen, but as he heard a helicopter landing he realized what was going on. Later that day he heard the news that a base jumper had hit the wall and fallen down.

It is interesting to hear how he describes the feeling after his first jump. For sure I have never felt like that, but I associate with that feeling a little bit because for myself the most staggering feeling in my life has been my very first jump out of an airplane. It was not as stunning as Jeb describes, but for sure it was really shaking and mind-blowing. In fact, the second jump was even worse because during the first jump you don’t know what is coming, but in the second jump you know exactly what is waiting for you.. Oh, just do the second jump straight after the first one or you will never jump again. It can really make you so scared that you won’t come back to the airport anymore.

In this third video you can hear Dwain Weston talking few times. Notice his black humor as he says “Yeah, it’s a good day to die, blah, blah, blah..”. Man, he was so relaxed with the sport.

Yeah, it’s a sad story. Seeing Dwain hitting the bridge makes me feel bad. It is sad to see people dying, but in this case it is even worse because you how much he loved the sport and his life, and how much he was loved by his friends. RIP Dwain Weston.

That’s it folks! Wasn’t that an interesting document? I find it interesting and I must say I appreciate the attitude of these guys. I could never do the same, but in fact I wouldn’t even want to. I am happy with my pretty stable life nowadays just because I have three kids and one more on his way. I used to love taking skiing to the extreme but that was some years ago. Anyhow, I keep on following the extreme sides of these sports. I love to see people enjoying their lives 110%.

If you’re into skydiving or base jumping, check out these interesting blogs.
My Skydive Blog
Skydiving Blog
Base Jumping Movies

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If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed or Email Newsletter. This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and it’s original location is in HomeboySki.Com skiing blog. For more great skiing articles, please visit HomeboySki.Com!

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