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FEATURE - WINGSUIT FLYING

MOUNTAIN

Thrill-seekers risking life and limb in French Alps

A mountain in the French Alps has become a hot spot for the high-risk and often deadly extreme sport of wingsuit flying. And the seemingly hairbrained alpine activity where "there is no margin for error" attracts a lot of "dangerous egos".

Thrill-seekers risking life and limb in French Alps
Wingsuit flying has taken off in France despite dangers. Photo: Philippe Desmazes/AFP

Playing Icarus as they leap off sheer cliffs and fly at eye-watering speeds along mountainsides, thrill-seekers dressed like flamboyant bats have become an increasingly common sight in the Alps. But the incredible rush of wingsuits can come at the ultimate price.

On a plateau of the Brevent mountain in Chamonix, France, a group of men and women in winged bodysuits are lined up along the edge of a sheer cliff face, facing the snowy peaks of Mont Blanc and staring down at a 2,500-metre (8,300-foot) drop.

Suddenly, they throw themselves off, drawing gasps from nearby tourists.

Their flight lasts barely a minute. Within eight seconds, they are up to speeds of 200 kilometres per hour (120 miles per hour).

They fly "by pushing against the air: it's gravity that creates the magic of it all, the wind doesn't do anything," said Roch Malnuit, head of the French Base Association.

First tested by wingsuiters in June 2012, Brevent has quickly become a renowned port of call for the discipline, along with Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland.

Here's a video of wingsuiters flying in Brevent:

Its fame spread as a result of Internet videos and within weeks there were 30 or so jumps a day.

But then came the first injuries, and then the first death, and the authorities in Chamonix shut the sport down there for a year before reconsidering their decision.

"They only speak about us when there are accidents," said Swiss wingsuit enthusiast Geraldine Fasnacht, 28. She was the first to jump from the 4,500-metre high Matterhorn in Switzerland last June. "It's a magnificent sport that requires an enormous amount of preparation and work."

A dangerous encouragement?

The role of video in the sport remains controversial.    

Films of particularly daring stunts have become Internet sensations, as expert wingsuiters skim perilously close to mountainsides and push themselves towards the record flying speed of 363 kph.

"It's not the practice itself that is the problem — it's the way it is mediatised," said Colonel Blaise Agresti, mountaineering adviser to the police.

"It gives ideas to people with little experience, and leads to competition for the most sensational images. The game is to get as close as possible to the ground."

Frenchman Loic Jean Albert became a star of the sport in 2003 by flying just three metres from the side of a snowy slope he hurtled down in Switzerland.

"Today we see this all the time. The problem is that some do it without any experience. When they fly just two or three metres off the ground, there is no margin for error," said Jean-Philippe Gady, president of the French Association of Paraclimbing.

The Base Jumping Fatality List, published on Blinc Magazine's website, says there were 21 wingsuit deaths worldwide in 2013.

There are thought to be around 2,000 practitioners – most of them in the United States and Australia. There are no tests or diplomas in wingsuiting, although schools in Norway, Austria and the US do offer courses.

This video is a collection of spectacular wingsuit flights from around the world:

"What we recommend is to get insurance and do around 200 jumps from a plane, to get a mastery of the air, before jumping off a cliff," said Malnuit.

Gady jumps as many as 180 times a year. "With rates like that, we can afford do try technical jumps," he said.

Filming with GoPro cameras fixed to his helmet, he has produced films that are almost too tense to watch as he flies through narrow corridors or under a footbridge among the peaks of Mont Blanc.

Makes it look easy 

"Video has a positive side," said Vincent Descols, one of the first to jump from Brevent. "It allows us to fine-tune the art of flight: the accuracy, the height at which to open the parachute.

"But other videos are a problem because they give the impression that it's easy," he added, saying there were a lot of dangerous egos involved in the sport.

The death in August 2013 of Briton Mark Sutton, the James Bond parachutist from the London Olympics, followed by that of three young wingsuiters in Switzerland during filming for extreme sports channel Epic TV in March, has reignited the debate over the way films encourage risk-taking.

"We had a moment of doubt after the death of Dan, Brian and Ludo because we got a lot of criticism," admits Jools Benker, head of wingsuiting at Epic TV. "But they are the ones taking the risks, they understand them. The fact they are being paid does not push them to fly closer to the ground."

The channel, based in Chamonix, claims to have 2.7 million visitors to its site each month, primarily Americans, Brits and French. The videos are a hit, though they bring in little revenue to this start-up of 35 employees which struggles to sell their footage on to outside companies who remain cautious.

Jean-Noel Itzstein, a pioneer of wingsuiting, regrets the bad reputation: "People think we're committing suicide by jumping. But in mountaineering, there are lots of deaths every year and it's accepted."

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MOUNTAIN

Hochvogel: A famed mountain straddling Germany and Austria faces a rocky collapse

It is one of the most famous mountains in the Allgäu Alps - and it could soon be history. According to experts, the summit of the Hochvogel will soon collapse, and up to 260,000 cubic metres of rock could fall into the valley.

Hochvogel: A famed mountain straddling Germany and Austria faces a rocky collapse
The summit of Hochvogel. Photo: DPA

Yet the possible scenario is hardly shaking up the locals: According to the authorities, there is no particular threat to the population near the mountain.

For years now, a huge crevasse at the summit on the border between Bavaria and Tyrol has been growing in size, and the first rock falls have already occurred. Researchers use sensors to monitor the movement of the massif in order to be able to predict large rockfall.

SEE ALSO: Weekend Wanderlust: Reaching new heights in the Allgäu

The only building near the Hochvogel summit is the Prinz-Luitpold-Haus, an almost 140-year-old refuge of the German Alpine Club. But it is so far away that hardly anything can happen to it, says Andreas Kaenders of the Oberallgäu District Office.

There is no built-up area on the Austrian side, says Thomas Figl from the Tyrolean Landesgeologie association. “If there is the big rockfall, there will be a cloud of dust in the Hinterhornbach community depending on the wind, but the area is definitely not threatened,” he says.

The village is more than two kilometres as the crow flies from the mountain.

The rock movements at the Hochvogel are monitored by researchers. According to them, the crack at the summit is currently a good 40 metres long, 8 metres deep and 3 metres wide.

In the Zugspitze area as well as in two other regions in Austria and Italy, threatened mountain regions are also being monitored by drone flights and measurement technology.

It is unclear whether the Hochvogel summit will actually come to an end with a great deal of noise. “There have been smaller and larger events for years,” says state geologist Figl.

It is difficult to assess whether the rockfalls will continue piece by piece or whether the “big bang” will suddenly occur.

 
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