UKC

The Sky Pirates of Hoy.......first B.A.S.E jump

© Holmes/Emmett collection
In 1966 Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey made the first ascent of the 137m (450ft) Old Man of Hoy situated on west coast of the island of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

The following year they repeated the climb for a BBC outside broadcast, watched by 23 million viewers. Since then the Old Man of Hoy has become an important objective for climbers in the UK seeing hundreds of ascents each year. Get there quick if you haven't climbed this totem of decaying Orcadian sandstone, many believe it will soon collapse into the North Atlantic.

The usual descent off the Old Man is by abseil.

But not for Roger Holmes, Gus Hutchinson-Brown and Tim Emmett, who made the first recorded B.A.S.E. descent of The Old Man Hoy at 9.00pm, May 14th, 2008.

Below is a short film of their adventure, dedicated to Gus Hutchinson-Brown who sadly died in a B.A.S.E jumping accident in Austria after this descent.

You can read an account of their adventure by Tim Emmett at the new Planet Fear website

Interested in climbing Sea Stacks?. Read and download Chris Mellor's The Stack Climbing Guide to Britain at UKClimbing.com.


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23 Jul, 2008
a really inspiring video, even more so considering the later circumstances. Is Scotland no longer in the UK though? Gareth
23 Jul, 2008
That was a good video. Really sobering knowing what came after though. I also noticed that you have removed Hoy from the Uk.
23 Jul, 2008
Lynne Leichtfuss Social climber From: valley center, ca Thank you for posting this thread. I think it's important to take note whenever possible and appreciate what some humans feel compelled to do and actually pull off. I don't pretend to be able to relate to what they do or to know what makes them tick, but they are who they are and it is sometimes amazing what they accomplish and the new frontiers they open. Putting it out there. Anyone can stay on the couch. Others efforts encourage me to push my envelope a little harder. PS Will Oxx has a great base jumping DVD .... It can be found under his name on the internet. Cheers for the Thread, Lynne http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=640103
24 Jul, 2008
Yeah great stuff, Tim is kinetic. Very sad to hear about about Gus. If people weren't out there pushing it we'd still be in caves.
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