From Yahoo! Answers:
Where did Base Jumping originate?Quote:
That same year, 1975, Carl Boenish goes to Yosemite National Park to film some hang gliding footage. It is a pivotal event in the history of BASE jumping.
The hang gliding session concludes with Rich Picarilli and Brian Johnson being piloted by Jim Handbury. All three men on a single wing fly down the middle of the valley where Rich and Brian release themselves into freefall and parachute into the valley. The jumps caused a major fuss with the Park Rangers. (The rule banning parachutes in National Parks is originally written to exclude hunters in the back country from re-supplying themselves by parachute). This is the first angry confrontation between sport jumpers and Park Rangers. It is also during this trip that Carl Boenish begins to really see the sheerness of the granite surrounding him. He thinks of those two policeman back in 1966 and more importantly, it's a time when he truly begins to believe.
This is the beginning of the "modern era" in fixed object jumping.
Carl Boenish's Video of Rich Picarilli, Brian Johnson and Jim Handbury:
Half Dome! (1977)Quote:
Half Dome, Yosemite, California / July 2, 1977
Originally, Carl Boenish had enlisted me, along with Jim Hanbury, to make a 2-way from a hang glider off of Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park.
I chose to use a family-sized SST hang glider from Wills Wing. Chris Price was to be our pilot but his closest friend, Bob Wills, had lost his life during the filming of a Jeep commercial a few days prior at Escape Country. Chris decided against flying so, by default, I became the pilot. I then picked Brain Johnson to jump along with Jim. None of us had been to the top of Half Dome, prior to this, but Paul Stromberg (Wog) had been up there previously, knew the terrain, and became our trail guide. It turned out to be a great choice. “Ranger-danger” would be extreme.
It took two days traveling at night to get to the summit. Carl had so much camera gear that he had to hire two mules to bring him to the base of the ladder, which was 400 feet, straight up to the top. We hiked in the moonlight by waterfalls and raccoons. The next day while sleeping, our camp was attacked by an albino bear with pink eyes! He slashed a hole in our hanging food bag but Paul chased the bear away by yelling and waving his arms. Actually we all were yelling. Later the Rangers woke us up to ask us why we were sleeping during the day. We told them we enjoyed hiking at night and warned him about the bear. Moby Dick (our 110 pound hang glider) and the parachutes were hidden from view in the brush a safe distance away.
The summit was surreal. Early that morning, we launched off a geographic feature called the “diving board.” The total payload was more than 700 pounds. The launch point was 4,750 feet above Mirror Lake, the landing area. Jim and Brian had difficulty with the release. They got open just above the trees! It was my job to get down as soon as I could to the sandy peninsula on the lake without putting Carl’s four movie cameras in the water. I brushed through a tree (planned) on final. Within minutes we had the film, cameras, the hang glider and the parachutes stashed away for the park ranger’s prying eye. Within an hour from touchdown we were having lunch – right there at the park!
Although we pulled it off, park rangers caught up with me and my truck about 3 hours later. I wound up spending a night in jail, but Carl bailed me out the following morning, as he promised. The Perry Mason court case is another story, but we won!
Thanks to Gary Douris, Stretch Harris, and Jack Cleary (pro bono) we got the film, cameras, parachutes and hang glider back on 7/7/77 our luckiest day . . .
-Rich Piccirilli
