Venstremeny

History of Kjerag

      Back in 1992, when Stein Edvardsen had about 2-3 base jumps, he saw a picture of Kjerag on a post card in a shop in Stavanger, so he asked the lady at the shop about it.  He traveled to the area and hiked around, trying to find out if it was jumpable, but with his low experience he wasn’t sure about jumping the site.  Stein had jumped some construction cranes and an antenna, 45-100 meters, so his experience wasn’t enough to make him confident to try this cliff.  After about 2 years of thinking about it, and researching the site on the computer, he went up there with some friends in October 1994 and did his first jump there.

          So they discovered it was jumpable, but it was fall and winter was closing in so they weren’t able to do more jumps.  People were talking about it, however, especially in Sweden.  Stein also went to Bridge Day the weekend after that first jump, met John Vincent and Todd Shoebotham (who showed Stein how to pack), and he asked the guys what they were jumping.  John had been jumping in Chamonix, France, and was taking about 9 second delays.  Stein shared that he had an 18 second delay the prior weekend in his back yard, and the guys got very excited.

          The next year, nearly 400 jumps were made at Kjerag, opening up all of the sites, 1-7.  Many Swedes arrived to jump, as well as Randy Harrison, Rick’s brother.  Word spread very fast about this awesome site, so more and more BASE jumpers were showing up to enjoy Kjerag.  At this time BASE jumping was not accepted by the Norwegian Skydiving Association, so any word of BASE jumping could get a jumper grounded from skydiving, even if you were just helping out as ground crew or boat driver.  They were so strict that all BASE jumping was kept very secret, with everyone keeping very quiet about it.  Stein, however, wanted to jump the cliffs more than he wanted to skydive, so he volunteered to step out of the Norwegian Skydiving Association so he could follow his heart and BASE jump.  This instigated many phone calls, from jumpers and from the media, wanting to know what was up with all of this jumping.  During the summer season of 1995, Thor Alex and Stein decided to start the Norwegian BASE Association, which actually began in February of 1996.  They started this association to give other jumpers a contact to call when wanting to come jump Kjerag.  Stein had the public phone that first year, taking phone calls almost every day from interested parties. 

          The guys were new at this, and had much to learn, but they realized they needed some kind of club to help people that wanted to progress from skydiving to BASE jumping, and in 1996 began planning some kind of a course to assist.  This was still under the NBA, and they knew that other jumpers would begin forming clubs as jumpers began gathering together, so they maintained the NBA as an umbrella for other clubs to form under.  Also, the Association served as a formal front for the government and media.  Any agencies that had questions or concerns could contact the Association, which gave a sense of professionalism to the sport. 

          In 1996 the NBA did begin offering a BASE course at Lysebotn, and also in that year jumping was going on at Romsdal.  Unfortunately, Kjerag had it’s first fatal accident with BASE.  The police came to speak to the NBA, asking questions about if there were procedures to prevent this type of thing from happening again.  Since they were just beginning, they had to start developing some guidelines and rules for the jumpers that were coming.  BASE jumping could have been stopped at that time, but the police wanted to see how this was going to pan out in the long run.  We can see now how progressive of an attitude this was for the time; it was a very lucky break for BASE in Norway.

          In 1997 there was a second fatality, and the chief of police then wanted to close down the cliffs for jumping.  The NBA had seen this possibility coming, so they had been contacting rescue teams.  The Chief of Police needed some facts on the table in order to close the jumping down, such as the rescue teams stating that it would be too dangerous to attempt rescues, and also that the activities would most likely result in necessary rescues.  Because these two points could not be proven, the Chief was not able to shut down the jumping. 

          The NBA continued to refine the guidelines and rules for jumping, and even though in 1999 if the government wanted to stop the jumping, it had grown so much and was so well organized it would take a lot of work for them to do so.  The Forsand community was interested in keeping the jumping going, because the media attention was bringing Forsand into the public eye, increasing tourism and economic growth.  Jumping didn’t just bring more jumpers to the area, but also tourists that wanted to watch this exciting and extreme activity.  Additional support came from the campground, which was enjoying the biggest benefit of the increasing jumpers to the area.  In this summer 2850 jumps were made at Kjerag, with two deaths. 

          In 2000, there were many people jumping in the area, including the new addition of jumping Smellveggen, which is the cliff that you can jump and fly your parachute back to the campground.  In this year there was a helicopter boogie that experienced a fatality, and there was a second fatality a bit later in the season, as well.  Four fatalities in 2 seasons again brought negative attention from the police and the media, and one more time jumping was threatened at Kjerag.  The involved parties met several times, discussing what to do to save the site.  Between 1999 and 2000 the jumping experience level had been allowed to drop to 100 jumps, so canopy skills were less than adequate for the area.  After discussing this, the NBA decided to again increase the required experience level for jumpers.  Also, there was no local club to be responsible for the area.  The NBA was a national association, so Stein and some other involved jumpers decided to form a more local entity.  All the jumpers that could be contacted were called in for a meeting, and they started the Stavanger BASE Klubb in December of 2000.  Jumping had decreased from nearly 3000 jumps in 1999 to around 2000 the following year, due probably to increased awareness of the risks and possibility of serious accident. 

          The number of jumps required to qualify to jump at Kjerag increased to 250, there was more supervision due to the inception of the SBK, and an instructor for the season was brought in, so in 2001 there were only seven minor accidents and no fatalities.  It appeared that the additional people being responsible for the jumping was paying off.  This was a good year for BASE at Kjerag, with about 1600 jumps made.  The number of jumps was down, but some of this was due to weather, and the rest due to the increased rules that disqualified many jumpers from participating.  Again, these procedures did pay off for BASE in the long run, as the jumping was more successful in the public eye.

          No dramatic changes were made in 2002 so things continued as they had in 2001 with the same instructor and the same rules, with increased jump numbers.  This year there were the same number of minor accidents, but this year there were another 2 fatalities, with the first wingsuit fatality occurring.  The other fatality was an exit position problem, which brought to the fore the necessity for some type of exit practice.  Ronny Risvik came up with an idea using a harness, ropes, and tall trees to create a “Pendulator”, which allowed students to practice their exits before trying it off a cliff.  The use of the Pendulator dramatically increased the ability of the newer jumpers to exit properly.  In addition to this, any new jumpers to the area must take the SBK Course before they were allowed to jump at Kjerag, even if they were attending another jump course.  This was because 3 deaths had occurred due to bad exit and body position up to this point, so the SBK had to step in and take responsibility for the training of new jumpers to Kjerag.  A jumper must have 250 skydives to participate in jumping at Kjerag, and if they have less than 15 BASE jumps, they are required to take the SBK First Jump Course. 

          After the increase of more stringent rules, a marked decrease in all accidents was observed.  Even such incidents as twisted ankles decreased.  By the end of the 2003 season it was obvious that the rules, requirements, and training was paying off, with 2050 jumps and only 5 minor accidents, with no fatalities.  This was a very successful season at Kjerag, with only one helicopter rescue required.  In hopes of maintaining this safety trend, the rules will again be strictly enforced for the 2004 season.

          In the three seasons since the inception of the Stavanger BASE Klubb, much work has been done to improve the site for jumping, particularly in the landing areas.  Boulders have been cleared from both the main landing area and the small area below Smellveggen, and along the shoreline below #7.  Another improvement made to the area is a bridge over a crevasse that has been quite an obstacle on the hike to #7.  Since there have been requests for rental gear, the SBK has purchased 10 new sets of gear from Basic Research that has been available from the 2004 season.  The Stavanger BASE Klubb Store will be carrying this rental gear, plus accessories for purchase.