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Caption: _______ ADVENTURE
STORY Cirque of The Unclimbables
Caption: A journey into the remote Cirque of the Unclimbables is a must do!
Special thanks to
Tim Emmett
for making this magical journey possible
&
Scott Adamson
for providing support and technical skill.
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Caption: https://vimeo.com/84249958 WATCH FILM
Caption: Is Lotus Jumpable? 62°06’06”N 127°40’15”W
Warren LaFave, our cowboy bush pilot screams over the loud radial engine of his custom De Havilland Beaver aircraft, “My boys won’t make this run anymore because it scares the holy shit out of them”. We’re in a hard-left, descending-dive over the notorious Fairy Meadows; a majestic area of the Cirque of Unclimbables located in the heart of the Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada’s Northwest Territories. The scale of the towering granite monoliths has not yet hit me because as a pilot, my focus is on our overweight, over-speeding aircraft. The airframe screeches from overstressing as Warren pulls the yoke back, the ground is no longer filling the entire front windscreen as we shoot out over the edge of a cliff and into the valley below.
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Caption: DHC-2 BEAVER
Northwest Territories
Canada
Caption: Landing at Glacier Lake brings a sense of relief but the approach to Fairy Meadows is not complete. I still have 5 miles of rugged terrain where at one point I will gain one mile of altitude for every 1.1 miles hiked. I encountered a timber wolf den, a sick juvenile brown bear, a fresh hatch of thousands of mosquitos and a vast talus field. The information I previously read about the hike outlined 12 exhausting hours and a definite path to take. Tossing all logic, I decided to follow a newly cut trail through the vegetation that also kept me close to the stream. 10-hours after landing I arrive at the majestic Fairy Meadows. Dropping my engorged pack full of camera gear, enough batteries and food to last 8 days, I took in the meadow’s dreamy look while the sunset and rays of light painted the blades of grass and granite towers.
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Caption: Joining me at base camp are Tim Emmett and Sean Leary. Professional rock climbers and wingsuit pilots whom Epic TV hired as athletes in a 4 part series. They had just spent a week floating 200 miles of the Little Nahanni River on stand up paddleboards and then climbed in an area of granite towers called the Vampire Spires. The B.A.S.E. jump nearly took Tim’s life. Later, I watched the GoPro helmet camera footage and the two were visibly nervous prior to the jump because it was the shortest distance from the ground below that either had ever wingsuited from. Shortly after jumping, Tim pulled his parachute. It was twisted and he descended quickly into the boulder littered earth at full force. Sean, watching as his friend spun uncontrollably toward the ground, aimed for the best landing zone he could find and crashed landed. Upon impact, his GoPro helmet camera angled down his face and body revealing him quickly unzipping his wingsuit and screaming over to Tim “Are you ok? Tim... Tim...”.
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Caption: MORNING
Caption: I laugh as they both men cram into Tim’s new Mountain Hardwear sleeping bag to test it out for the overnight bivouac on the Lotus Flower Tower's (8,432ft) first ledge. “The lighter the better” Sean exclaims! Their goal is to climb Lotus and be the first people to B.A.S.E. jump off with wingsuits. It’s 1900 hours, now fully packed; we start our 1.5 mile approach to the base of the tower.
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Caption: Sean Leary At 5.13, "Penguin Rock" is no joke! Enjoy this scene from high base camp!
Caption: Half way through the approach things begin to go wrong. I’m surfing a flat talus rock the size of my truck, downhill and directly toward Tim. “Move” I screamed! He hits a full sprint at 90 degrees from my path as the rest of the talus gives way. I’m holding the camera above my head as not to “spill it”! Jumping off at this point means serious injury or death. We’re no closer than 2000 rugged miles to the nearest trauma center and any poor decisions are surly fatal. A long scratching sound ends my alpine wave with no injuries. “This years talus training is complete” I exclaim!
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Caption: Lotus Flower Tower HEADWALL
Caption: Reaching the base of Lotus Flower Tower, I filmed one last interview before leaving the team. My vantage point was from an adjacent wall and it was getting dark. Moving quickly through the haunted talus field alone and at night brought thoughts of home. “This is too dangerous” I mumbled. 45 minutes later I reach my vantage point. Looking back at “Lotus”, I see head torches burning silhouettes of two men on the exposed tower while I set up my long lens and camera. Having the only satellite phone I stayed up throughout the cold night watching over them. If Lotus was jumpable, they would EXIT first thing in the morning or the winds would be too high to fly their Wingsuites.
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Caption: 2 AM
Caption: My radio cracks as warm light paints the tops of the enigmatic cliffs. “Summit team to base” it’s Tim Emmett’s British voice full of energy and excitement. “We’ve summited mate, but we’ve found out it’s not jumpable” The chance for a historical first in the Cirque of Unclimbable’s crumbles.
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Caption: THE BEAR
Caption: Walking back to high camp all I can think about is finding the coffee when an overwhelming feeling comes over me. The hair on the back of my neck stands as I notice air filling my lungs and I stop moving. Adrenaline is blasting through my veins as my eyes scan the cirque; I hear a slow squishing sound off to my right. Slowly looking over I meet the eyes of a massive Brown Bear standing at the edge of a marsh. I scale onto the nearest boulder and watch as the bear runs past and up into the cirque toward the un-expecting climbers where fog now forces it’s way vertically into the gothic towers. Heart pounding, I head back to camp. 30 minutes later I’m making coffee when suddenly, the sound of an explosion... Looking West towards Mount Harrison Smith, the tallest piece of granite in the area, a boulder the size of a commercial airliner is rolling down the hill crushing massive rocks along the way. We hear rock falls day and night here.
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Caption: SCOTT ADAMSON HARRISON SMITH
Caption: A day later and all of us reunited, sounds of a helicopter burr off the granite walls. Surprising us, it circles around and lands below the low camp. Three women and a male pilot step out of the 6-passenger jet engine helicopter. We were totally confused, as none of us have seen signs of people in weeks. I approached the pilot and ask him what’s going on. With a thick Canadian accent “We’re a Geological Survey crew”. Having an alternative motive, I immediately reached into my pocket and pulled out my iPhone, “Take a look at this,” I urged, signaling for the young women to come over. “We’re here shooting the first jump in this area ever and we just discovered that the tower we chose is not jumpable. Is there any way possible you could fly us to altitude? This would complete our expedition and set a historical record!” A pause as they finish watching a previous jump I had filmed of Steph Davis and Mario Richard a few months prior. “Ok, that looks cool,” said the pilot, “Let’s do it”!
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Caption: REFLECTION
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Caption: Sean Leary & Tim Emmett
Discuss the exit strategy from the chopper.
Caption: Tim, Sean and I are passengers climbing out of 6500 for 12’000 feet. Passing by the lightly cloud covered mountaintops of the cirque was unreal. We can now see for hundreds of miles in every direction. Looking to the Vampire Spires located 50 miles away... “There they are...” He says in a heavy tone that I can hear over the hum of the rotors. This is his first jump since the accident only a few days ago.
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Caption: HELICOPTER EXIT
The most peaceful location to begin a jump.
Caption: We’ve entered the drop zone. “I can’t hold it anymore!” The pilot yells. I’m sitting in the front seat with my door open; Tim and Sean are standing on the skiff. Tim signals with a nod he’s about to exit. The wind directly under the rotors is calm because the blades are designed to push air away toward the tips. The jump team slips left head down toward the ground dropping at speeds of over 200 mph. It takes about 5 seconds of descent before a wingsuit is flyable. I tell the pilot that there clear and to fly due East while descending at 500+ feet per minute so that I can continue filming. From the ground, the geologists report on sounds of excitement from a hand held aircraft radio as they stood watching the parachutes open. “We did it,” remarks Tim & Sean over firm handshakes.
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Caption: JUMP TEAM
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Caption: LAST MORNING
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Caption: After descending from the beautiful "Fairy Meadows" we are greeted by our bush pilot Warren!
Caption: @epictv
@mountainhardwear
@goalzero
@blackdiamondequipment _______ CHAD COPELAND