“I Was Pretty Nervous”

On January 30 the extreme B.A.S.E. jumper Felix Baumgartner leaped from Torre Mayor, Latin America’s tallest skyscraper. It was a jump that he described himself as one of the toughest he has made to date, and one that presented him with entirely new challenges. The Austrian talks here about the dangers and preparations the project entailed, his responsibility for traffic jams and his sudden loss of self-confidence.

You have jumped from the 481-meter Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and from the 29-meter Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro. The Torre Mayor is 225 meters high. What was the special challenge of this B.A.S.E. jump?
It was the unusual conditions having to do with the location. Mexico City lies 2,500 meters above sea level, which means the air is much thinner. Which also means that your parachute takes longer to open, and you have more speed when landing.

When did you have to open the chute this time?
When I was about halfway down the building. I jumped out of the 52nd floor, which is 210 meters high. After about a three-second free-fall I opened it, at about 100 meters.

How long did it take you to get acclimated to the difficult conditions?
About a week, on-site. We spent as much time as possible on the building every day to find out everything about the changing wind conditions, wind shears and rotors near the building. And the time we spent there was necessary, because the conditions were completely new for my team and me.

You landed in the middle of bustling Reforma Avenue, one of Mexico City’s main traffic arteries. Was this landing especially difficult, or just like any other?
It was, in fact, very difficult, because the landing spot was very small and there were absolutely no alternatives. Normally you have a couple of back-up spots lined up, but I couldn’t find a single one. Then there were all the electrical wires, the traffic and, of course, the wind, which was changing constantly. That was the worst part. I sat at the landing spot for over an hour and a half, and the wind was shifting every ten minutes – sometimes up to 180 degrees. I had to change my approach plan every ten minutes – which doesn’t exactly build up your self-confidence.

How did you feel right before the jump?
I was pretty nervous. News of our undertaking had spread like wildfire through the city, which resulted in huge traffic jams, which, in turn, attracted the attention of the police. That really puts you under some serious stress when you’re standing up there. But at the same time, you can’t let yourself make any mistakes.

The jump itself went off without a hitch ...
Yes, it has to! As soon as you jump, you have to do everything right, because the tiniest mistake can set off a chain reaction that you can’t handle anymore. And it’s not hard to imagine how that can end. But everything went according to plan. I’m really very satisfied.