Blog

Sun is Shining

• January 2015
• Climb Fly

Sun is Shining from steph davis on Vimeo.

Ian and I were mountain flying in Italy, Switzerland and France during the unusually cloudy and rainy summer season of 2014. This 5 week period of travel featured about 70% walking up and down mountains in the clouds and rain and 30% flying down them: and it made for some spectacularly visual (and much appreciated) flights.
We also were given the opportunity to fly a heli line above the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the iconic Dolomite group, and to jump in Chamonix and Switzerland with good friends and talented pilots.

For those curious about the sport, mountain flying starts with the approach: hiking and climbing up for several hours, often involving some rappelling or ropework, or a portion on a ski lift if you’re lucky. If wind and cloud conditions allow for flight, the flight begins with the “exit” and the “start” from the cliff. Good technique, a good wingsuit and body awareness are required to push off the cliff in the correct position and transition from the first seconds of freefall into fast, forward flight as the wingsuit fills with air. In the last couple of years, new advances in suit technology, and pilot skill and confidence, have resulted in better and better starts which have allowed us to fly newer mountains that have shorter vertical drops in the beginning. Not long ago, wingsuit pilots required a sheer thousand foot drop to start, now most experienced pilots are comfortable with half that drop.

Once flying, the pilot takes a “line” down the mountain, as wingsuit flyers will always lose altitude even as they fly forward, much like a skier. Pilots can choose a straight out line, avoiding all the terrain, or they can choose an aggressive line, diving down to the terrain. The skill, experience and style of the pilot dictates the loft and speed of the flight and the proximity to the terrain of the mountain.

At the end of the flight, when all of the interesting terrain has been flown and the mountain has spit the pilot out into open air, most flyers will slow the suit to deploy the parachute and choose a good, flat spot to land the parachute.

For the most part, climbing the mountain is a significant part of mountain flying, but occasionally pilots will exit from a helicopter in order to fly a particularly interesting line that doesn’t have a cliff start above it: these are called heli lines. The Adventure Outdoor Festival in San Candido invited us to fly a heli line above the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Having climbed these faces, the most appealing line would be to create a beautiful flight past the sheer faces of Cima Ouest and Cima Grande and through the gully that separates Cima Piccola, if the altitude and terrain would allow for it. We spent a day hiking around the Cime, exploring landing zones and discussing possibilities for the line. We studied topographic maps to plan the line three dimensionally, and decide where in altitude and distance to leave the helicopter in order to set up for our flight. On a trip which was characterized by driving rain and thick clouds, we found it a miracle that this scheduled day allowed for the flight, and with just enough clouds to make the Tre Cime even more beautiful (if that could be possible!).

Most wingsuit pilots jump with a small camera on their helmet: a very few specialize in camera flying, with larger cameras on their helmets. Camera flying is an extremely specialized skill: a camera flyer must fly the same line as the pilot in front, but has to exit, start and fly while matching speeds and travel to the front pilot and while keeping her in frame. As another ski analogy, an extreme skier has to hike a mountain and ski a line: the cameraman has to hike the same mountain, carrying camera equipment, and ski the same line while keeping the front skier in frame with a big camera on his head. Ian Mitchard is one of the best camera flyers in the sport, and I’m lucky to have him flying with me 🙂

Filmed in Lauterbrunnen Switzerland, Monte Brento Italy, Chamonix France, Tre Cime di Lavaredo Italy, Le Valais Switzerland, and Gorge de La Bourne France
Music tracks
Rusko Everyday (Netsky Remix)
Avicii Addicted to You

Many thanks to prAna, Evolv, Contour, Mammut, Squirrel and Backcountry.com for the support!