Steph Davis - BASE jumping from the Eiger

Steph Davis, 36, is considered one of the best solo rock climbers in the world. She also practices BASE jumping (highly dangerous freefall parachuting) after reaching her peak destinations, often with the aid of a wingsuit which slows descent and guides the wearer from a cliff wall battering.

Earlier this month, Davis arrived in the Bernese Oberland to tackle a BASE jumper’s Holy Grail – the fearsome Eiger mountain (alt. 3,970 metres). “I've been to Lauterbrunnen for BASE jumping twice before, but always in the off-season when there is too much snow to go to the Eiger mushroom (3,219m),” she told Swisster in reference to a precarious pillar of rock (and ideal launchpad), jutting from the side of the sheer north face.

“The Eiger is a great jump, because it gives much more elevation than the other cliffs in the area, and it also takes some effort to walk up there,” she added. The plunge is one that her former husband, Dean Potter, another mountain extremist, has also performed.

Reaching the mushroom requires a two-hour trek up the western flank of the mountain, a head-spinning ordeal for most, though a stroll in the park for Davis who has free-soloed (without ropes) the Long's Peak Diamond in Colorado – a 300 metre plus granite wall at an altitude of more than 4,000 m – among other ridiculously steep peaks and spires.

“It was a sunny day, clear and very cold,” she said. Wearing a Phoenix Fly Vampire 3 wingsuit, and a Flik lite parachute with a Snekor container, Davis then prepared for take-off.

“A wingsuit gives a lot of feeling of safety since you can fly far away from the wall. But the first jump from a site is always intimidating for me if I have not walked the landing area,” she said.

“With the Eiger jump, I was not sure how far I would fly out in my wingsuit, and I didn't know the topography of the ground where I would end up – if it was flat or hilly –  since you can't tell those things when you are looking down and far away, so this made me more nervous the first time I jumped it,” she added.

Looking up at the Eiger is threatening enough, but looking down is an acrophobe’s nightmare.

“It's important to exit the cliff correctly – if you do not have the right body position, the first seconds of the jump are not efficiently getting you into flight,” she said. “If you have the right body position, you feel your wings starting to inflate as you leave the cliff, and after the first seconds of freefall, you start to move forward.”

“My flight was about a minute with about a minute under my parachute since I pulled pretty high to be conservative,” is how she nonchalantly describes the flight, filmed from a camera on her helmet (shortly to be edited into a film).

Although a highly experienced rock climber, BASE jumping has been added to her CV over the last two or three years. “I love the feeling of flight in a wingsuit. As a rock climber, it was somehow a natural progression to start base jumping – same cliffs.”

Davis says that practicing BASE jumping in Switzerland is far easier than back home in the United States. “There are no problems with authorities in Europe, because BASE jumping is accepted as a mountain sport. It's not like this in the States, which is why American jumpers travel to Europe.”

Insurance issues are also surprisingly straightforward. “Again, in Europe things are set up practically and reasonably,” she said. “I buy IHI travel insurance when I come to Europe, and Rega helicopter insurance. At home, I have SPOT which provides helicopter insurance, and a policy which does not exclude BASE jumping, though this took research to ensure.”¨

Despite her Marvel comic book feats of daring, Davis doesn’t possess any super powers and prefers to rely on “experience, skill and conservative decision making”.

Any fear appears to have been left behind a long time ago. “I am a professional climber, so I have spent a lot of time with heights. Before I started jumping though, I couldn't imagine falling from the cliff, after spending so many years trying not to fall! Now I am used to jumping, and I love having the freedom to do this safely,” she said.

For those that wonder what motivates Davis, this is how she puts it: “Connecting deeply with friends and with the natural world, challenging my notions of what's possible, living life as intensely and as simply as I can.”

“Climbing gives lots of time to think, during quiet evenings in the Moab desert, or hanging off the side of El Capitan in Yosemite. It's good to sit quietly in a wild place, listening to the birds fly by,” she says.

And for more on that, read her book – "High Infatuation: A Climber’s Guide to Love and Gravity".

Lauterbrunnen currently is hosting the first ever professional BASE jumping and wingsuit competition (October 22-25) to be held in Switzerland.

BASE is an acronym that refers to buildings, antennas, spans and earth.