This whole

event was created as a Make a Wish Foundation fundraiser along with a Warren

Miller ski movie premiere. I cruised out to Reno a few days early to check out the

building we would be jumping and drop in ramp we would be skiing off. The

weather on the day before the jump was calm in the morning and as the day went

on the wind picked up to about 15 mph before sunset.

Shane, JT,

Miles and I were all scheduled to jump in the afternoon right when the wind had

picked up the previous day.

Wind in a

city is not the best thing for BASE jumping, the buildings push the wind in

different directions and it creates a lot of turbulence making it difficult to

land safely.

The ramp was 30 feet tall and 30 feet long with a two foot wide strip of

silicone sprayed plastic for the first ten feet then packed down shaved ice for

the rest. This change of surfaces also meant for a change in speed, during the

2 seconds or less that we were actually on the ramp skiing, we went from slow

on the plastic to very fast on the shaved ice.

The building is 360 feet to the landing area in the parking lot and 300 feet to

the pool deck directly below the ramp. With a normal one to two sec delay

before opening your parachute you would have about a ten sec flight to a soft

asphalt land. This is not much time when you need to negotiate the strong cross

wind and light polls in the landing area.

All said this was a very demanding BASE jump with a lot of different variables

coming into play. With over 1000 people watching from the streets below and a

roof top full of media it was time to make our first jumps and the pressure was

on. Round one went smooth, we all made it off the ramp fine, I launched out

over the street with nice big back flip to a clean opening with soft landing.

Once we were all on the ground we talked more about the wind speed and decided

to pack up our parachutes and see if the wind would calm down any for a second

jump.

Back on top again and the wind is not claming down at all, but hey when to get

the chance to ski off a building much less jump a building legally. So we go

for round two, JT lights the fire with a smooth front flip and Shane does the

same. I had been thinking about a double back flip days before but decided the

building was too small, now the thoughts were back in my head, I could pull it

off if I rotated fast.

And rotate

fast was what I did, before I knew it I had done the two flips opened out of my

tuck and pulled my chute. Normally on my double backs opening out of the tuck

would slow the rotation and give my chute time to open cleanly. This time my

rotation was so fast that when I opened up my tuck I just kept on going. My

feet rotated up into my lines and when the canopy cracked open only one of my

feet swung down.

I looked up to find my binding hooked on a line, blood rushed through my body

as I reached up to try and pull it out. Pulling on that side of the parachute

dove me back toward the building, with my right hand and turn it back away from

the wall of windows and concrete. I reached up again to try and get my leg free,

once again having to turn away from the building. At that moment I looked

forward and saw that I was about to fly right into another building at about 60

feet off the ground, at the last second I turned my parachute around barely

missing a traffic light and slammed into the street on one leg. My whole flight

lasted only 7 sec.

The high

speed impact surprisingly didn't shatter my leg into pieces, I some how limped

away with only some ligament damage in my knee and a little road rash on my

hand.

The event raised 30,000 dollars for the Make a Wish Foundation and the Warren

Miller premiere was sold out at 4,000 people that night. I am off the crutches

and working on getting all my strength and luck back so I can get back in the

action.

http://view.break.com/403230 - Watch more free videos

Go big or stay in bed!

Jesse Hall

From Jesse

Weyl: 

Thanks

Jesse for a much needed update!  We’ve

been so busy down here this year that we haven’t had much time for updates

(yet!), but we’re gearing up for some awesome stuff for the rest of the winter!  We’ve got a whole crew following and

competing in all of the major ski competitions this year from the IFSA world

and national tour to the X-Games, US Open, and everything else in between…

It’s also that time of year for stuff to go on sale, so give

us a ring at the shop 970.349.6664 and ask for the NS Discount when placing a

phone order, we’ll hook it up on all new gear from this year!