Tag Archives: Alps

Base Jumping in Alps – extreme videos

BASE Jumping Alone with Neil Amonson

BASE Jumping Alone with Neil Amonson

GoPro Athlete, Neil Amonson, travels to Italy to find solitude in his craft. Amonson says, “To actually experience all the things I’m feeling, I have to do it alone.” Get a look into the incredible experience Neil goes through as he sets out to accomplish this solo BASE jump.

Neil Amonson in one minute or less about himself

I spent my first four years out of high school in the Air Force Special Forces. I deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq and finished my enlistment as a decorated combat veteran. My next move was from the east coast where I was raised out to Utah where I could more easily access the things that give me joy, spending time outside and in the air. Two years after moving to Utah I received my Bachelors of Science in Professional Aeronautics, as well as being an air traffic controller and commercial pilot.
Neil Amonson
Since then I have been working for GoPro assisting with marketing, content creation, and product testing. Along the way I have aligned myself with a few other companies who have similiar values to myself and we work together to help make their company great. I have also worked for Google as a contractor working with such projects as Google Glass and Project Loon. I enjoy being challenged, being part of a team, and working in space that allows a lot of creativity and freedom. I take pride in being able to tell a good story though images, weather that be still photos or video. I’m on here looking to expand my network and find other companies who value integrity, hard work, and creativity. Let’s make magic happen.

Live Your Dream – Brandon Mikesell

Live Your Dream – Brandon Mikesell

Brandon Mikesell

Live Your Dream – Wingsuit Motivation

Wingsuiting done in France. Most of the footage was filmed in or around Brevent – Chamonix.

Brandon Mikesell began his journey to become a professional wingsuit flyer when he was 23 years old. He dedicates everyday to jumping off of cliffs, buildings, helicopters, and planes. Some might call him crazy, but he says he is just like any other regular guy.

Brandon has worked with companies like GoPro, Red Bull Air Force, Garmin, Bear Grylls, and many more to release his awesome adventures. He continues to search for long flying lines down different mountain terrain around the world. However, most recently he decided to take his flights into the urban environment and fly between city skyscrapers and buildings.

Brandon Mikesell

Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924.
Situated near the massive peaks of the Aiguilles Rouges and most notably the Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix is one of the oldest ski resorts in France and is known as the “gateway to the European Cascades.” The north side of the summit of Mont Blanc, and therefore the summit itself are part of the village of Chamonix.
To the south side, the situation is different depending on the country. Italy considers that the border passes through the top. France considers that the boundary runs along the rocky Tournette under the summit cap, placing it entirely in French territory. The south side was in France, assigned to the commune of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains sharing the summit with its neighbor Chamonix. It is this situation “for France,” which is found on the French IGN maps.
The Chamonix commune is well known and loved by skiers and mountain enthusiasts of all types, and via the cable car lift to the Aiguille du Midi it is possible to access the world-famous off-piste skirun of the Vallée Blanche. With an area of 245 km2, Chamonix is the fourth largest commune in mainland France.
Chamonix is a winter sports resort town. As the highest European mountain west of Russia, Mont Blanc attracts mountain climbers. There is a cable car up to the 3,842 m Aiguille du Midi. Constructed in 1955, it was then the highest cable car in the world and remains the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world.

Old VHS Footage of Shane McConkey

Old VHS Footage of Shane McConkey

Old VHS Footage of Shane McConkey

Take a look back in time with Shane McConkey as he BASE jumps from a cliff in Lauterbrunnen. This segment and many more are featured in the film “McConkey”, now available on Red Bull TV!

Fly in Peace, Shane – “You have one life. Live it.”

Shane McConkey (December 30, 1969 – March 26, 2009) was a professional skier and BASE jumper. He was born in Vancouver, was eventually based in Squaw Valley, California, but because he never identified with a single place due to his itinerant childhood, was “from” Boulder, Colorado, where he started his professional skiing career and attended the University of Colorado Boulder before dropping out of college.

Shane McConkey

He won numerous awards and competitions. McConkey started as a competitive ski racer, but moved on to be featured in a long line of extreme skiing movies. McConkey was known for combining BASE jumping with skiing, as seen in such feats as skiing into a BASE jump off the Eiger. McConkey went to Burke Mountain Academy. He was also known for his contributions to ski design, notably being the father of reverse sidecut and reverse camber skis (aka: skis with rocker); first mounting bindings onto water skis for use in Alaska, then with the Volant Spatula and, more recently, the K2 Pontoon ski design. McConkey’s high-speed chairlift and ski area at Park City Mountain Resort are named after his father, Jim McConkey, who was an early proponent of extreme skiing in the U.S. On April 2, 2011 Shane McConkey was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of fame along with other Tahoe skiers, Daron Rahlves and Glen Plake.

On March 26, 2009, Shane McConkey died while executing a ski-BASE jump in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. One of his skis failed to release, sending him into a spin. After he corrected the problem, it was too late to deploy his parachute.

Matt Gerdes – September Sessions

Matt Gerdes – September Sessions

Matt Gerdes – September Sessions

Base-Book

Matt Gerdes

Matt Gerdes tells us:
“BASE Jumping is probably the deadliest and most dangerous sport in existence. It is so dangerous that we actually don’t recommend that you do it. In fact, we honestly think it’s a bad idea. We also think it’s probably the most fun that a human being can have.”

Matt has completed over 1200 safe BASE jumps to date, the vast majority of which being wingsuit flights from alpine cliffs. He has opened many new lines of flight and his videos and BASE book are well known to jumpers around the world, with more than ten years’ experience in the paragliding industry.