I was reading the December Issue of Outside Magazine and came across a blurb in the Dispatches section that blew my mind. I know I try to keep content in this blog to hiking related topics but this story is so insane that I had to tell you about it.

Crazy man Julian Carr

A 30 year old freeskier named Julian Carr plans to attempt the world record cliff huck (jump) on skis this winter. He is going to jump off of Vision Cliff outside of Jackson, Wyoming which is , get this, 300 feet tall!

In the magazine, they have a neat diagram of how he will accomplish this feat of insanity.  He first checks the snow in the landing zone to make sure he has at least 60 inches of powder on top of a 10 foot base. If that is a go, he will then sculpt a 70 ft runway at the top of the cliff so he can reach a speed of 30 mph on take off.  While in the air, he will first swan dive and then 3.5 seconds into the jump, roll into a half front flip so that he will land on his shoulders first then lower back. Even though it sounds calculated and thought out, it is still nuts. We’re talking about 300 ft! By comparison, Big Ben clock tower in London is 315 ft.

Why jump off of a 300 ft cliff?  Because the world record is 255 ft set in January 2006 by freeskier Jamie Pierre.  Head actually landed on his head and lived to tell about. I went so far as to check my Darwin Award books and I couldn’t find anybody in there that died doing this crazy stuff. ( I can’t bring myself to call this a sport.)

I have found two video clips on Youtube for your viewing pleasure, the first is a clip of Julian Carr jumping off of various cliffs while describing his obsession. The next is footage of Jaime Pierre’s 255 ft record setting jump.

I wish Julian the best of luck. I don’t like to see anyone get hurt but I still think he is one crazy you know what.