Michael Pelkey
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On July 24,1966, Mike Pelkey and Brian Schubert, two 26-year-old skydivers from Barstow California, made the very first parachute jumps from the top of the El Capitan mountain in Yosemite National Park. El Capitan is among the world's tallest sheer monoliths, ascending more than three thousand feet straight up from Yosemite Valley. It is the second highest unbroken cliff in the world (the highest is Mt. Thor on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic). The sport of BASE-jumping, practiced worldwide today and said to be the original extreme sport, began about twelve years later, obviously inspired in part by Mike and Brian’s El Capitan jump. An early pioneer and highly respected historian of the sport, Nick DiGiovanni, recently related the following to Mike and Brian:
“I'm not sure if you know, but before Carl Boenish organized the 1978 loads from El Cap it was you two that gave him the idea. He was a young jumper at Elsinore in 1966 with about a hundred jumps when he heard about your jumps. It was something that stuck in his mind and all that he did later, naming the sport "BASE" and coming up with the BASE award, is all due to what you two did.”
The sport consists of parachuting from man-made and natural fixed objects. BASE is an acronym for Buildings, Antennae, Span and Earth, the objects from which BASE jumpers commonly launch their jumps. Obviously it is not for everyone. Even highly experienced skydivers go through extensive training before attempting a first BASE jump.
Mike and Brian were honored as guest speakers at the 2005 Bridge Day event in Fayetteville, West Virginia, where 175,000 spectators converged over the course of the day to take part in the 26th annual festival on October 15th. Approximately 450 BASE jumpers from all over the world made more than 800 parachute jumps off the New River Gorge Bridge into the New River Gorge 876 feet below. The New River Gorge Bridge is the second highest span and one of the few places in the United States where BASE-jumping is legal for six hours, just one day a year.
Mike made his second BASE jump at the 2005 Bridge Day event from the 876-foot New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, West Virginia. He and Brian are planning to jump together at the 2006 event, a few months after the 40th anniversary of their first El Capitan jump.
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