Posts Tagged ‘United States of America’

Retro Base Jumping off El Capitan in 1980s

In this retro base jumping video, a group of base jumpers jump off one of the most famous rock formations, the 3000 foot, 910m high El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. El Capitan is also known as one of best rock climbing challenges. It is located in Nevada.

The video shows the group of base jumpers jumping off the rock formation. They take turns running down the top of the cliff as fast as the can and just diving head first off the ledge. It definitively takes balls of steal to be a BASE jumper back in the 80s. The BASE jumpers at first appear to be just falling into the forest, without any parachutes opening. In the second half of the extreme base jumping video, we see another view where the base jumpers are gliding to safety, with their parachutes open.

BASE jumping used to be legal in Yosemite National Park in the 1980s, simply requiring a permit. This however has ended and BASE jumping off the vertical rock formation that is “El Capitan” is now illegal. There still remains many people base jumping  in Yosemite National Park in Nevada.