BASE Jumping The Passage To Heaven, Through A Mountain

[ricki]

An intense chest mount GoPro shot


Jeb Corliss has been BASE jumping for a long time. He keeps trying to one up himself. This time he "threaded the needle" by flying through a unique geologic formation in China, Tianmendong in Zhangjiajie prefecture of China. Now called Tianmenshan, this mountain has been at the center of local mythology and stories for thousands of years. It was appropriately termed the "Passage To Heaven" in times past. The opening is 430 ft. tall and 190 ft. wide, you could fit a 40 story building into it. Sounds big, well dropping from a mere 6000 ft. to thread the opening at just under 5000 ft. happens in about 7 seconds. Add to that he was likely moving at around 125 mph or 183 feet per second. Lots of time to setup, right? If a hand moves out, something rips, the "unexpected strikes" you could explode in a fine red mist lost to the winds in a heartbeat.


Here is the GoPro video of the jump.
"An American professional wingsuit flier on Saturday successfully performed a jump and dive through the Tianmen Hole - an actual hole through a mountain - in Hunan province, central China. The 35 year old American Jeb Corliss jumped from a helicopter 6,000 feet (1,830 metres) above the Tianmen cave, flying towards it, and went right through it. The professional wingsuit flier failed at his first attempt, but succeeded the second time round. "That was one of the greatest wingsuit flights of my entire life. Thank you China, that was amazing," he said after he landed safely. According to Corliss, the first attempt failed due to smoke brackets on his feet that did not work properly and forced him to take a detour. He has become the first wingsuit stuntman to fly in China."



http://www.travel-china.net/photo-zh...-mountain.html


BASE jumping is a lot harder than it looks, dangerous too. There are 176 people on the following list who would likely agree if they could. Trouble is they all killed themselves BASE jumping. Anyone who does this should assume they could blot themselves out on any given jump.
http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/w..._Fatality_List

and a CNC report on the stunt:

"How to fly through a mountain
CNC report from Zhangjiajie

A wingsuit pilot has taken the sport of sky diving to new heights on Saturday after hurtling through the Tianmen Hole, a geological formation resembling a ring that is carved into the side of Tianmen Mountain. It is 60 meters deep and 57 meters in diameter.

The 35-year-old American professional wingsuit flier jumped from a helicopter a good 6,000 feet above the ground, heading toward the hole. And then he flew right through it.



http://picasaweb.google.com/10992784...45868583858498


SOUNDBITE: JEB CORLISS, WINGSUIT STUNTMAN
"I felt very good. I mean I felt totally controlled. I knew exactly what I was. The first flying, unfortunately, I knew I was not gonna make it. I am like too far away, gotta open, so I had to pulled early landed up there. I knew I need to go again, so I went as fast as I could to get the helicopter the second time. At the second time, I said okay, I was gonna get out way closer, so I got out closer altitude and took a nice turn, and came back in, flew through.""

"The arch measures less than 100 feet across and leaves the daredevil little room for error.

Landing safely, Corliss said it was "one of the greatest wing suit flights" in his entire life.



A look at the backside of the portal
http://www.travel-china.net/photo-zh...-mountain.html

SOUNDBITE: JEB CORLISS, U.S. WINGSUIT STUNTMAN
"I have never seen anything like it. It is basically the most incredible wingsuit fly I've ever done. And it is gonna be really hard to top it, because, to come into a mountain, it is amazing. And it was really fun, it is very exciting, it was a dream I had for over two years.""


http://english.zhangjiajie.gov.cn/?a.../itemid/4.html

"Corliss, who has jumped from the Eiffel Tower and flown through a waterfall in the Swiss Alps, is the first wingsuit stuntman to fly in China.

Jeb Corliss is not the only person who dares to challenge the sky.

Seven other stuntmen from 6 countries including Finland and Australia also amazed the audience with their thrilling performance.


The fliers, all dressed in tailor-made wingsuits, jumped from the peaks and shuttled among mountains, lining out a para-curve in front of tourists from all over the world."



"SOUNDBITE: LIU HUAN, TOURIST
"That was amazing. I couldn't even believe it."

After the performance, Jeb Corliss explained the man-made miracle."


""SOUNDBITE: HEB CORLISS, U.S. WINGSUIT STUNTMAN
"The wingsuit basically works by having wings going arms and legs, with shaped rips made of nylon, and as air get punched into these rips, they become rigged, which gives the wingsuit shape, the shape is why generates lift, lift is how you fly, and it based on how your move your body, it based on how you go left, right, up and down, and that is how you control it."

Wingsuit can expand the surface area of human body, which enables a significant increase in lift. The challengers flew at an average forward velocity of 200 km per hour and a falling speed of 50 km per hour.

Wingsuit flying was first seen in the 1990s, and has been taken as an extreme sport with highest risk. Less than 600 people in the world have attempted it."
http://cncworld.tv/news/v_show/18495...mountain.shtml


It isn't all fun and glory though, sometimes you get arrested. BASE jumping is illegal in the USA after all.



"Daredevil Jeb Corliss Banned From ESB For Life!

It's been over four years since daredevil Jeb Corliss attempted to parachute off the Empire State Building. Last year he was sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service, and yesterday a ruling was made public that has banned him from the landmark for life!

According to the Daily News, Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon and ESB's management both agreed Corliss fully intended on jumping from the building that day when he showed up in "a phony Fu Manchu mustache, a fat suit and a mask" to buy his ticket to the observation deck. The Post reports that Corliss said, "the same city in a different time, it would have have been a totally different story"—and made mention of George Willig, who in 1977 climbed the WTC's south tower. Willig was fined $1.10 for each floor he scaled by mayor Abe Beame, who posed for photos with him at a press conference later. (And who didn't love Philippe Petit in Man On Wire?)

This means Corliss will never be able to fulfill a lifelong dream of parachuting from the building—in fact, his attorney says he has no plans to jump from any New York landmarks without securing a permit first, however, he is "going to jump out of a plane and land without a parachute while wearing a squirrel suit." Location TBD? In the meantime, the judge is also allowing the ESB to continue their civil suit against Corliss, so his nightmare isn't over just yet..."
http://gothamist.com/2010/06/16/dare...ned_from_e.php



Rotating into cliff launch, haven't seen anyone try this with a hang glider, yet.



"We've seen other wingsuit flights here on Geekologie, but this is by far my favorite. The real-life batman's name is Jeb Corliss (and possibly soon to be Lifeliss), and he hits a staggering 122MPH in the video plus pops some f***ing balloons like 10-feet off the ground. The video's called 'Grinding the Crack', because of the Swiss gorge he flies through. And speaking of grinding crack -- been there, done that, dude was all, "chill bro, I ain't gay"."
http://www.geekologie.com/mt/mt-sear...fast&blog_id=1




And the video from which the above stills were taken


Here's a big thanks to GoPro for providing the means of taking us along on Jeb's BASE jump! Their cameras are good for so many action sports, even just shooting around.


http://gopro.com/

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[ricki]

Some more insight into Jeb and fellow BASE jumper Roberta Mancino along with some excellent inflight video and interview commentary.