Learning to Fly
- October 2012
- Simple Living Climb Fly Travel
Lots of people are asking me when my second book is coming out. The day after April Fool’s Day, 2013! 🙂
It’s up on Amazon, so you can pre-order it, but they won’t give it to you until April.
Having read it about 85 times now, I have to say I’ve gone through all sorts of different emotions and feelings about this story. I am very excited for it to finally be out there in the real world, as a real book!
This book is as much about places as it is about people and adventures–Moab, the Longs Peak Diamond, Yosemite, Boulder, Italy, Lauterbrunnen, Arizona, the Eiger, Castleton Tower, Twin Falls…and Fletch, of course, the best dog I ever knew.
For those of you who want to know about free soloing, and everything you’ve ever wanted to know about skydiving, base jumping, wingsuit flying, and how you get into them, just be patient a little longer !
YES!
Ohh, can’t wait for this book, loved the last one! Did this women make the cover? http://www.etsy.com/shop/acocc
I passed this information to the publisher after stumbling across her work on the internet, so I think it was Yulia Brodskaya: http://www.artyulia.com/
the bottom section of the cover (the orange shape) is supposed to be the Diamond 🙂
What to do with the fools flooding into Moab, costing Grand County S&R literally millions in rescue costs when, having no clue of wind currents, they hang their BASE chutes on or fly their wingsuits into cliff faces, ride their mountain bikes past the point of no return with their dainty little water bottles and die of dehydration — killing these sports for the intelligent? Next book, perhaps — with accompanying DVD on how *not* to BASE jump, featuring Skandy’s video in which he literally has to kick the cliff face after opening his chute, to keep clear?
Well, there’s no wingsuit jumps in Moab, but we have lots of other rescues for people doing all the other sports here: ATV-ing, rafting, climbing, hiking, trail running and dirt biking. It is really hard to reconcile the fact that adventure is dangerous. You’re right that there is a real problem with people going about things without enough education and sometimes without enough respect for the rules of the environment. Harder to understand and accept is the fact that there’s a certain degree of randomness to any sport, and to life itself.
Thanks for the El Cap link.
I just watched a skydiving video in which an elderly woman struggling to stay in the plane nonetheless tandem jumped with obviously loose harnessing (which may have become so due to the struggle) and an incompetent tandem “trainer.” She damn near completely came out of the harness on the way down. I wouldn’t fly with an outfit that forced the unwilling, or jumped with loose harnessing. As a matter of fact, any jumper, new or experienced, ought be accorded the redundancy of one tandem-chute-equipped-*and*-while-in-freefall-tandem-harnessing-of-malfunctioning-chuted-or-flat-spin-or-tumble-unconscious-diver-trained trainer diving solo for each regular chute diver, and corresponding deployment order).
When it comes to safety, I don’t think doubled, tripled, or quadrupled, but squared, cubed, and power-of-foured.
And thanks for the thoughtful reply.
you’re welcome 🙂
Yeah maybe they shouldn’t have forced her out. Her squatting was the reason for the harness problem. You really confused me with the power-of-four? Please explain. What outfit do you fly with Han’s Twin? Just curious:)
So awesome, your love for your dog and in the title of the book. Fletch was the dog before the one you have now right? I forget her name…Looking forward to your new book! Thanks
Thanks Jesse 🙂 Yes, Fletch was my first dog, and my new book is a LOT about her. She was the best dog in the world….at least to me.
Aw, dissappointed to hear this book’s release date is so far away, super excited to read it! You said in one of your replies that Moab does not have wingsuit jumps. Is there a specific reason for this? I plan to travel to the States for a number of months to get enough jumps to fly a wingsuit and Skydive Moab was a possible destination, but there would be no point if it is banned/not allowed.
Thanks Jonny! Sorry for the confusion: the original exchange was about wingsuit base jumping, and we don’t have any of that in Moab because our cliffs are too low for wingsuit base (though perfect for subterminal base). But Skydive Moab is great and I fly my wingsuit there all the time from the Cessna. Skydive Utah, a few hours north in Tooele, is also a great DZ, a little larger with more regular loads going.
If squared is raised to the second power and cubed is raised to the third, “raised-to-the-fourth-power” might have been a better choice than “power-of-foured.”
I haven’t flown in anything smaller than a commercial commuter, but if I did, it wouldn’t be with an outfit that couldn’t even handle a little old lady safely.
After studying the BASE fatality database, I notice a pattern of overconfidence or mistaken physics on the part of very experienced skydivers (1000+ jumps) new to BASE. Would you recommend good overhang and tailwind, and hand-held, to new BASE jumpers? Or should I wait for your book? ;}
If you can wait until April 2, I think lots of these questions can be answered… 🙂
Can’t wait! But if you were to write On Being Married to a Grown-up, I might even buy two. (The youthful bridegroom I was thirty-five years ago could have used it as a wedding gift).
Meanwhile, I must lose 50 lbs., for, while appreciating the element of randomness in life and the fact that everything, including BASE, must have lone pioneers in the beginning, I can conceive of no first-time BASE besides with a pair as cliff-side reverent as you.
Can’t wait! But if you were to write On Being Married to a Grown-up, I might even buy two. (The youthful bridegroom I was thirty-five years ago could have used it as a wedding gift).
Meanwhile, I must lose 50 lbs., for, while appreciating the element of randomness in life and the fact that everything, including BASE, must have lone pioneers in the beginning, I can conceive of no first-time BASE besides with a pair as cliff-side reverent as you.
(If this post is a duplicate, kindly delete, as the Disqus comment system was under maintenance, when made).
we have had two tandem jumpers already who lost weight specifically to make a base jump! so maybe see you soon.
I am so hungry!!!!:(. Anyway I can fly without the wingsuit. All I need is to fart and I would blast off into the speed of light.
Your pal: Oliver Clothesoff