Monthly Archives: November 2009

BASE Jumping Off Monkey Face

Hiking up the trail to Misery Ridge at Smith Rock we catch a person fall off the Monkey Face spire out of the corner of our eyes. Leigh lets out a little scream. A blink of an eye later a parachute opens.

Monkey Face is about 350 feet tall. It stands on a hillside so you have maybe another 150 feet to clear to the ground if you jump out far. That would be about 5 seconds of free fall. Even with a parachute the ride is only about 10 seconds long with a landing on steep terrain. 

The pictures are in flight-sequence but show three different people. I wasn’t expecting this, so of course my camera was in worst possible mode to take snapshots. The last picture shows the spire from the landing area perspective taken earlier. The person on top must have been one of the people who later jumped.

 

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