+ All Categories
Home > Documents > Moab story

Moab story

Date post: 10-Mar-2016
Category:
Upload: matt-minich
View: 219 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend
Description:
A story from moab
Popular Tags:
4
Moab’s leap of faith For the first time in history, one Utah outfitter is offering a tandem B.A.S.E jump experience By Matt Minich
Transcript
Page 1: Moab story

Moab’s leap of faith

For the first time in history, one Utah outfitter is offering a tandem B.A.S.E jump experience

By Matt Minich

Page 2: Moab story

I didn’t look down. I kept my eyes fixed on the horizon as instructed - on the salmon pillar of Castleton Tower and the desert beyond. I ground my heels into the cliff’s edge and struggled to take measured breaths.

I was safe. Relatively safe. One of the world’s most experienced parachutists was strapped to my back, and our pilot chute was al-ready hanging open between my feet. After just a few seconds of free fall, we would both fly under the safety of a canopy parachute.

Somewhere in the back of my skull, I could feel my better judgement probing for a way out.

“Are you ready to do this, Matt?” asked Mario Richard, his French Canadian accent unwavered by the thousand-foot void in front of us. I wrestled my hand into a passable thumbs-up, and the countdown began.

I looked down.

Just hours earlier, Richard and I were face-to-face in a Moab coffee shop. I had driven ft to meet him and his wife - profes-sional climber Steph Davis - for an interview about their ad-venture outfit, Moab B.A.S.E. Adventures.

I also came to sample their wares.

When Davis and Richard opened for business in January of 2012, they became the first company on earth to offer tandem cliff B.A.S.E. jumps. For amateur thrill-seek-ers like myself, this opened the door to a world previously reserved for veteran skydivers.

The business model is simple. For $500, Richard will jump off a desert cliff with you strapped to his chest. No para-chute experience is necessary, and jumpers need only the fit-ness required to reach the jump site and the mental fortitude to actually leave the ground.

Page 3: Moab story

For safety reasons, Richard does insist jumpers not exceed his weight of 185 pounds.

It sounds risky - and it is. All customers sign a “death waiver” before their jump, which clarifies in bold, half-inch typeface that “you can be seriously injured or killed.”

But Richard is no cowboy. An active skydiver and B.A.S.E. jumper for more than 20 years, he has yet to have a major accident or suffer a serious injury.

In one of the world’s most dan-gerous sports, a record like that is all but unheard of.

“Most experienced B.A.S.E. jumpers would probably rather be under his parachute than their own,” Davis says with a laugh.

A seasoned jumper herself, Davis was the first passenger un-der the company’s tandem rig: a custom design Richard compares to a family-sized station wagon.

The moments before that para-chute opens are indescribable. I feel bodyless in midair - diffused into the grey skies and sanstone towers of Castleton Valley.

The adrenaline rush brought on by free fall creates a sort of hy-perawareness, making a period of about three seconds feel im-possibly long.

When I ask Richard and Davis later about this sensation, they will describe is simply as “the Now.” Discussing the experi-ence on the valley floor, Richard will jokingly compare it to an initiation ceremony or a reli-gious conversion.

And he’ll be right. I’ll never know whether to think of Rich-ard a pusher or a priest, but I’ll spend the rest of my life with a monkey on my back - knowing “the Now” is still out there in the Utah desert, waiting for a visit.Matt Minich is a freelance outdoor adventure writer from Fort Collins, Colorado

Page 4: Moab story

Photos courtesy Chris Hunter, Hunter Imagery www.hunterimagery.com


Recommended