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Matt Blank – Base Jumping around the world

Matt Blank – Base Jumping around the world

Matt Blank travels the world base jumping and exploring what makes this human experience unique for everyone.

Matt Blank grew up in Southern California skateboarding by day and racing BMX by night. Most mornings he spent at the beach surfing or bodyboarding before school, always with an eye on the weather in case he needed to skip out early to hit the coast.

After high school he worked own way through the University of California Irvine as a rock climbing instructor and while he was finishing his degree in psychology and social behavior with a minor in film he worked technical rope and cave search and rescue for the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department.

Max Blank

After college his attentions shifted to snowboarding, skydiving and B.A.S.E jumping. He instructed freestyle and all mountain snowboarding for Vail Corp. and still instruct skydiving from time to time at Perris Valley Skydiving Center. In the more recent years he jumped from one extreme community to the next pursuing his ultimate goal of collaborating with other like minded extreme athletes to create projects that can only be characterized as “mind grenades” . But what is past is prologue and therefore he’s always ready for the next adventure.

Starring: Matt Blank, Chris Carnahan, Cam Tracey, Lawrence Jones, Maria Steinmayr, Brian Mosbaugh.

Places:
Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia,
Tonsai – Thailand,
Moab – Utah.

Valery Rozov jumps from Cho Oyu and sets New World-Record

Valery Rozov jumps from Cho Oyu and sets New World-Record

Valery Rozov jumps from Cho Oyu

Legendary Red Bull athlete Valery Rozov, sets a new world-record with his jump from Cho Oyu in China as part of the FXTMbasejump project.
Following the 31-day expedition to the exit spot, on the 5th of October 2016, Valery BASE jumped 7700m above sea level, setting a new record for the highest BASE jump and proving what can be achieved through effective preparation and training, proper risk management and constantly having the inspiration to push the limits of possibilities higher.

Who is Valery Rozov?

Valery Rozov (born in Nizhny Novgorod, December 26, 1964) is a Russian BASE jumper, who previously on May 5, 2013, jumped off Changtse (the north peak of the Mount Everest massif) from a height of 7,220 metres. Using a specially-developed Red Bull wing suit, he glided down to the Rongbuk glacier more than 1,000 meters below, setting a new world record for highest base jump.

Cho Oyu Mountain

Cho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8,188 metres above sea level. Cho Oyu means “Turquoise Goddess” in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the Khumbu sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of Mount Everest. The mountain stands on the China-Nepal border.

Cho Oyu

Just a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is Nangpa La, a glaciated pass that serves as the main trading route between the Tibetans and the Khumbu’s Sherpas. This pass separates the Khumbu and Rolwaling Himalayas. Due to its proximity to this pass and the generally moderate slopes of the standard northwest ridge route, Cho Oyu is considered the easiest 8,000 metre peak to climb. It is a popular objective for professionally guided parties.

Mountain Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by Eric Shipton and included Edmund Hillary and Tom Bourdillon. A foray by Hillary and George Lowe was stopped due to technical difficulties and avalanche danger at an ice cliff above 6,650 m and a report of Chinese troops a short distance across the border influenced Shipton to retreat from the mountain rather than continue to attempt to summit.

The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954, via the north-west ridge by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an Austrian expedition. Cho Oyu was the fifth 8000 metre peak to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950, Mount Everest in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 and K2 in July 1954. Until the ascent of Mount Everest by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler in 1978, this was the highest peak climbed without supplemental oxygen.

Bridge Day 2016

Bridge Day 2016

Bridge Day 2016

Bridge Day is an annual one-day festival in Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The event is coordinated by the New River Gorge Bridge Day Commission, and is sponsored by numerous companies of both local and international significance. The event, held on the third Saturday every October, commemorates the 1977 completion of the New River Gorge Bridge. On this day, all four lanes of the bridge are closed to automobiles and opened to pedestrians. Estimates have 100,000 people attending the overall event.
The first Bridge Day was held in 1980 and drew a crowd of roughly 40,000. It has been held every year since except for 2001. It was canceled that year due to the recent events of 9/11 and the possibility of terrorist attacks.

Base jumping on Bridge Day

Bridge Day is the only day of the year people are allowed to BASE jump off the bridge into the New River Gorge 267 meters below, one of the few exceptions to a general ban on BASE jumping within the U.S. National Park System. People are also allowed to rappel from the span on Bridge Day. About four hundred BASE jumpers participate in each year’s festival. In 2015 the BASE jumping community boycotted the event.

bridge day 2016

There have been three deaths during Bridge Day due to accidents involving BASE jumpers:
In 1983, Michael Glenn Williams from Birmingham, Alabama, drowned when his gear was caught in the current after he made a successful jump. The one rescue boat that was in the river at the time was busy with other jumpers, and could not make it to him. In later years, more than one rescue boat was always used, and parachutists were not allowed to jump until it was confirmed that one of the rescue boats was available.
In 1987, Steven Gyrsting of Paoli, Pennsylvania, jumped using gear that was not BASE-specific gear and was killed after he was unable to open his reserve chute in time when his main chute failed to deploy.
During the 2006 festival, Brian Lee Schubert died when he failed to deploy his parachute in time. In 1966, he had been one of the first to BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Dachstein Base Jump shot

Dachstein Base Jump shot

Dachstein Base Jump

Wingsuit jump in difficult weather and strong up winds. Film we shot 5 years ago. First freefall from the Dachstein in Ramsau Austria. Shot and edited by Frederick von Sulle and Helmut Strasser.
Idea, direction Helmut Strasser. Wingsuit vertical drop Martin Frenzl and Martin Trdla. Helicopter pilots Georg Steiner and Felix Baumgartner. Martin Trdla sadly died in 2014, he was a leading Czech base jumper.

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