Australian BASEjumper, Nathan freefalling at 'Monkees'

"The Norwegian Route"
viewed from the Dunge
Glacier.

Heather and Marta on the trek in. To avoid potential problems
even Western women
need to wear the traditional
Pakistani dress

Glenn, Heather & Marta
crossing one of the many
rope bridges on the trek
into the Baltoro.

Sydney Skydivers Christmas Boogie
Dec 26th - Jan 2nd

The 2005 Sydney Skydiver's Christmas Boogie was host, for the first time, to the Australian Wingsuit Boogie. Organised by BMI Rod Millner, this was the biggest Wingsuit Boogie ever held in Australia. Most of Australia's most experienced wingsuit pilots were there including Birdman Chief Instructors Neil Fergie and Greg Cox, PFI and BMI Jimmy Freeman and BMIs Eliane Cox, Heather Swan and Glenn Singleman. Also, all the way from Italy was Phoenix Fly Chief Instrutor James Boole who contributed greatly to the event with load organising, advanced instruction and first flight courses.

Glenn and Heather took part in lots of the flocking, which was enormous fun. The largest formation held was an 11-way. An 18-way attempted toward the end of the Boogie didn't quite get there.

Exiting from Sydney Skydivers' Skyvan made life easier for all the wingsuit pilots. One load was exclusively wingsuits - another Australian first.

The temparature made things challenging. On New Years Day it climbed to 47 degrees celcius! Jumping was suspended and sensibly, most people went to the beach. Glenn, Heather and Jimmy Freeman took James and his partner 'Tiff" canyoning in the Blue Mountains. They loved the canyoning part of the adventure, but were not impressed by the long, steep hike out (understandable in the scorching temperatures).

The boogie was a great learning and social event, really highlighting the growth and potential of wingsuiting in Australia. Glenn and Heather look forward to many more to come.

Byron Bay Wingsuit Boogie
26 - 30 November 2005

Byron Bay is one of the most beautiful coastal areas of Australia and the drop zone is ideally located right on the coast.

A Cessna Caravan provides a pleasant ride to altitude. The DZ has accommodation and a nice camping area and good cafe.

BMCI Neil (fergs) Fergie co-ordinated First Flight Courses each day and we did got our BMI ratings - BMI Oz 008 and 009!

Go Fast Games 8 - 10th October 2005We went to Canon City Colorado to catch up with Marta and Jimmy Pouchert and to attend the 'Go Fast Games'. This is an annual 'extreme' sport festival that features BASEjumping as the main event. 81 jumpers from around the world attended. Of the 81 five were women.The event is held at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park which is about 15 minutes drive from Canon City. The Games also featured rock climbing on the 100ft walls on the canyon. The suspension bridge is the highest in the world at 1053ft. It spans 1260ft of intimidating canyon above the fast moving Arkansas River. The river is a popular destination for white water rafting (so it's not the best place to land a canopy!) The canyon narrows to about 100ft wide at the bottom so the designated landing area is small and challenging. We jumped without incident. We were flying our new rigs - the Apex BASE DP Container and FOX canopies. The FOX is significantly different to the Dagger we're used to so the jumps were somewhat stressful!Glenn and I were proud to have been invited and I felt especially privileged to be one of only five women at the event. The people at GO FAST have a strong commitment to BASEjumping and that was evident in every element of the event.We felt like we were in a parallel universe where BASEjumping is not only legal - it's celebrated - this was especially true given the media barrage BASE had received in Australia just before we left (a response to an accident and rescue in the Blue Mountains of NSW). Ironically where BASE jumping is legal and therefore regulated accidents can be dealt with quickly and efficiently with a minimum of risk to all concerned. The rescue teams at GO FAST were professional climbers and they seemed to savour the challenge represented by mounting a resuce from the canyon walls - fortunately they didn't get to put their expertise into action this year.

Australian Story March 28th & April 5th 05.
We had a ball filming with the team from ABC's Australian Story programme over January, February and March. We love this programme so we were honoured when they approached us to appear.Producer Ben Cheshire and cameraman Julien Mather formed the core crew for the ABC. Working with Julien was just like old times, as he was part of the camera crew for BASEClimb and BASEClimb 2.They filmed our first 'wingsuit' jumps, and my embarrassing butt landing (I wasn't used to having my feet restricted and fell over myself when I landed and of course they filmed it, and included it in the final programme). We climbed for them on a stunning route in the Blue Mountains of NSW. Adam Darragh another original BASEClimb 2 team member was our safety officer and rigger. The route is an airy arete that looks back on 'Hanging Rock' one of the most famous rock formations in Australia. Because it is a World Heritage Listed area we had National Parks Rangers with us the whole time, but they seemed to enjoy it. Glenn and I had fun climbing, while Julien did an amazing job hanging on a rope filming with the huge digital BETAcam camera. Because of problems with the camera we ended up having to repeat the shoot all over again, but I didn't mind because the weather was superb and the climbing is magnificent. Also when you're working with great team nothing is a problem. We travelled to Lismore to jump our 'wingsuits' from Chris Dewhirst's hot air balloon. Balloons enable you to simulate a BASEjump because you're jumping into still air. Again this was like 'old times' because Chris flew for us while we making BASEClimb 2 and we had our long time stills photographer Ray Jones with us again as well. Jimmy Freeman was our aerial cameraman. Jimmy is always fun to be around and this time was no exception. He decided he'd get better footage by wearing his wingsuit back the front and putting his rig on his stomach! Needless to say it didn't go quite the way he had hoped but it was fun to watch. After jumping from the balloon in the morning we went to look at a possible new jump site. After hours of looking and waiting, it proved to be too windy, but Glenn and I went back the next morning and had a wonderful jump. Chris Dewhirst, his wife Heather Martin and Ray Jones took stills. They filmed Glenn at the hospital, taking a whole day to capture the drama they wanted. Our 3 husky dogs enjoyed the attention when a film crew followed us on one of our bush runs. The dogs seemed disappointed when their segment didn't make the final show! We were honoured Valerie Taylor agreed to introduce the programme. Val and her husband Ron are adventure 'legends' in Australia and internationally for their work with sharks. They are a continuing inspiration to us. In the end nearly two months of filming was distilled down to a 26 minute programme that aired on the ABC at 8pm on March 28th and again at 12.30pm on Saturday April 5th. Over a million people watched the first screening. Both the ABC and us had very good feedback about the show, which was certainly entertaining. The 26 minutes just evaporated.US Trip - old friend, new friends, old and new BASEjumps. Dec 04 We travelled to the US in December to give a speaking presentation in New York and then to meet up with friends to climb, BASEjump and ski.Climbing in Joshua Tree was great fun. Just three hours drive from LA the NPWS report that "Joshua Tree National Park is one of the most popular rock climbing areas in the world. More than 4,500 established routes offering a wide range of difficulty are concentrated within about 100,000 acres of park land". We spent a wonderful day boldering and climbing single pitch routes with friends Eric, Gene and Nick.We travelled from LA to Moab where we caught up with Marta Empinotti and Jimmy Pouchert. Their company and sponsor of BASEClimb 2 - Vertigo BASE Outfitters has merged with Basic Research to form APEX BASE so it's a busy, but exciting time for Marta and Jimmy.

We jumped some now familiar cliffs and Glenn and Steve Orr climbed 'Tombstone'. While they were on the wall Eric and I hiked to the top and I jumped, giving Glenn and Steve an awesome visual from below.We headed back to Salt Lake and accompanied JT Holmes for his 'ski BASEjump'. It was extremely cold, but JT was able to make his jump from a 300ft cliff at the Alta Ski Resort successfully. It was very spectacular to watch. JT got at least 60ft of clearance before opening his canopy.We enjoyed 2 days skiing at Alta, topped by BASEjumping 'The G Spot' at Provo. Discovered by Australian jumper Jimmy Freeman this 500ft cliff is located in the 'backyard' of jumper Dan Millman and his wife Liz. It's a strenuous hike to the top of the cliff which is 1500ft above the landing area behind Dan's house. The top provides an incredible view of Provo and surrounding districts. The days we jumped it, it was covered in snow which added to both the challenge and the beauty of the jump. It was very pleasant to make such a beautiful jump, land and have hot tea waiting (thanks to Liz). Back home we've started skydiving wingsuits with our coach Jimmy Freeman, and we've jumped a couple of new (for us) sites. Grand Canyon at Medlow Bath is a 720ft cliff and beautiful jump. 'Monkee's' is a 600ft cilff in the Walgen Valley. Monkee's is reached via a difficult (very strenuous) hike and climb to the top, but it's well worth it. The view over the valley is stunning and the jump over dense trees is magnificent. The landing area is a farmer's field - soft green grass - not a rock or big tree to be seen - an absolute luxury for Australian BASEjumping. Thanks to Jimmy Freeman, Dan, Nathan, Paul and Jasmine for a great jump. Saying goodbye Oct 2004

The loss of Roland 'Slim' Simpson and Jason Fitz-Herbert has hit the Australian BASEjumping community hard. Sadness over the loss has been compounded by the mostly unbalanced media frenzy portraying BASEjumpers as irresponsible outlaws with a death wish. It's even more frustrating given nothing could be further from the truth. Slim's funeral, although unspeakably sad, clearly demonstrated his uncommon love for life. The funeral was held in Canberra on Friday October 29th. Walking into the church, I was immediately struck by the photo of Slim on his coffin. The huge smile that lit his face as he launched off for what must have been one of his earlier BASE jumps. Slim's smile was rare and unforgettable. The church was crowded with people from all walks of life, from BASEjumpers on crutches to elderly people in suits. But we all had one thing in common - Slim. He obviously touched so many people. I was also impressed by his family. Their composure and warmth was remarkable. So hard to loose someone so 'huge' in your life, yet they showed only love and understanding without a hint of bitterness or recrimination. At the grave site Slim's mother recounted the story of Slim as a baby, still in a cot, and how he'd manage to open a window, pull himself onto the window sill and practice walking over a multi-storey drop (to the horror of the assembled crowd below). Even as a baby Slim was clearly living his destiny. She held up his precious wingsuit, the same one he was injured in, and tenderly placed it with Slim in his grave. Slim's family released balloons into the blue, blue sky and it was over. Farewell Slim. That morning Jason Fitz-Herbert had been taking part in a memorial jump for Slim at Bungonia Gorge. Sadly he was killed instantly when his head struck the cliff. Slim and Jason's deaths accounted for two of three serious incidents for Australian BASE in a month (on October 12th another jumper was seriously injured attempting a technical jump at North Head in Sydney). The media frenzy was swift, unrelenting and largely cliched. No amount of discussion about BASE jumping the sport, could deter the sensationalist headlines. Glenn and I were disappointed when even journalists with whom we spent hours explaining the complexity and beauty of the sport, still fell victim to the quick, gruesome one liners. Glenn has been so incensed by the lack of balance that he has decided to make a documentary to counter the bias. We hope these tragedies will be a catalyst to reopen discussions with NPWS about legalising some sites in Australia. BASEClimb 2 - the Documentary FilmBASEClimb 2 Defying Gravity is currently screening around the world on free to air and National Geographic Cable to overwhelming audience acclaim."I have just watched one of your documentaries on SABC TV in South Africa and I wanted to thank you so much for giving us such a magnificent gift! I started out watching and thought, "ah, I know nothing about mountain climbing" and reached for the remote to switch it off. But the voice-over's words seemed to stretch beyond the film into a common place we can all understand as humans. I wept as the team struggled over and over to get to the jump pinnacle in Pakistan and suddenly I could articulate something
about life I hadn't consciously thought of before..."
Wendy Strauss Sth Africa 13 April 2003Wendy's comments are typical of the feedback BASEClimb 2 evokes from people all over the world. We are awed and humbled by the response to the film.For the BASEClimb 2 Team, the completion of the film was the culmination of over two years hard work, struggle, joy and achievement beyond our wildest dreams. To share our experiences with a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions is an amazing privilege and we are grateful to everyone who helped make that possible. We are also extremely grateful to the many people from all over the world who have emailed their appreciation of the film.DEFYING GRAVITY, DEFYING FEARHeather's book Defying Gravity, Defying Fear has also been embraced by readers as much more than an adventure story. "I was in the ABC Shop in Melbourne a few days ago; saw your book, picked it up and read the back of it. Before I even paid the person at the counter I knew this was going to be a phenomenal read.

I would just like to say, Heather without sounding like a broken record you are an amazing person. It took all of a day to read about the fantastic epic of sheer will and determination you showed, to overcome your fears. I laughed and even cried as you took me through nearly every step to realising your goal to BASE jump the Great Trango Tower. You made me realise that I can pretty much do about anything and I am grateful for that. I realise that I had it in me all this time but you certainly showed me that anyone can overcome their fears".
Sean Lenihan, Melbourne Australia 27 Feb 2003