Géraldine Fasnacht achieves first wingsuit flight from Les Drus
24/08/2012
With a small team that included her husband, mountain guide Sam Beaugey, she took part in the first ever wingsuit flight from an iconic place in the Alps, on the north face of Les Drus in the Mont Blanc massif.
Ms Fasnacht said afterwards that without the innovation in materials and in shape-development that has gone into the newest wingsuit from specialist extreme sports brand Phoenix-Fly, the flight would not have been possible because the starting point on the mountain only allows an initial drop of 140 metres, meaning that the suit has to allow the wearer to start flying in double-quick time.
Sam Beaugey climbed Les Drus five times in the build-up to the feat to check the conditions, using the ancient method of dropping a stone over the edge and also up-to-date laser technology to test the drop. Eventually, on July 25, Ms Fasnacht and fellow-flier Julien Meyer put on the new suit, the Venom, and jumped off. They descended 3,730 metres in total, flying along the west face of Les Drus and passing over the famous ridge of Les Flammes de Pierre.
“It was just too much,” said Sam Beaugey after watching the flight from the summit of Les Drus. “I had tears in my eyes.”
For her part, Géraldine Fasnacht said that new clothing and equipment from Columbia Sportswear, one of her sponsors, had helped. “The new gear from Columbia helped us to be light on the ascent. The new Omni-Heat down jacket was very warm but was so thin and packable I was able to jump with it under my wingsuit.”
Phoenix-Fly says the Venom was designed with experienced wingsuit skydivers in mind. “When maxed out the suit seems to hang in the air for an eternity,” the company says, “with a good forward speed but an extremely slow vertical speed. The Venom is not an off-the-shelf product, but rather a tailor-made suit designed to fit the exact measurements of the pilot.”
The manufacturer says fliers should have completed a minimum of 150 wingsuit jumps before attempting to use the Venom.
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