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What to some looks
like contempt for death
and puremadness, is
to others a celebration
of life. BASE jumpers
may seem like they are
tempting death, but they
do it to feel that they
havemastered life.
Ryan Saunders’s breath comes in short,
percussive blasts. He looks down at his
feet, which are still firmly planted on solid
ground. He glances around him, and then
slowly lifts his head, as if he is just coming
to grips with what is about to happen. The
edge is just a few centimetres away, and
then from there it is a few hundredmetres
to a short steep hill. He has to follow the
mountainside closely while ensuring that he
has enough lift to clear the steep rise in the
landscape below. If he clears it, he then has
another 200 metres to fall before he has to
pull the cord on his parachute.
He has tried this particular jump six times
before. He's gone through them all in his
head, time and again, planning, calculating,
and then taking the leap. And then coming
up short.
He steps closer to the edge. "Three, two,
one!"
For just a fraction of a second it seems com-
pletely silent. But then comes the deafening
sound of the air racing past Ryan's helmet
camera and ripping through the speakers.
Ryan has jumped and the ground is getting
closer dangerously fast.
Lust for life
Anyone who sees a BASE jumper dive off
the edge of a mountain cliff has to wonder
what is going on in that person's head. Most
will say that that he or she is crazy.
"We are quick to judge people: if they
pursue risky behaviours, then they must
not be completely right in the head. When
you only see the action and not the reaso-
ning behind it, it looks like madness. But I
thought that there must be something really
great about BASE jumping since there are
so many people who are willing to take the
risk. They don't deny that it is dangerous,
but they also don't think that it will end
badly," says PhD candidate Audun Het-
land. For his master's degree in psychology,
Hetland explored the feelings experienced
by BASE jumpers when they do what they
like best.
Is it a death wish or contempt for death that
causes these young men and women to step
over the edge?
"It's certainly not a death wish. They assume
they will survive, but that's not the goal in
itself. These are people who really love life
and who do all that they can to minimize
the risk. The paradox is that if it was abso-
lutely safe to do BASE jumping, the thrill of
the experience itself would disappear."
Hetland repeatedly measured the pulse of 13
BASE jumpers who jumped from the Kjerag
mountain plateau in Rogaland county. He
also asked them to describe what they felt
during the jump. But right after completing
a jump, the release of tension is so tremen-
dous that most of the jumpers were nearly
speechless and could not express their
feelings in words. So Hetland asked them to
draw a curve to explain how they felt.
The first thing that happens when they step
over the edge is a feeling of fear and discom-
fort. "They feel fear, but much less than you
With their lives on the line, BASE jumpers leap into the best experience of their lives. Photo: Audun Helland.
Tekst: Maja Sojtarić
8
•••
Labyrint E/11
– University of Tromsø
Life
on edge
Text: Maja Sojtarić