Imagine going BASE jumping after breakfast off a cliff behind your house. Or free climbing a 400-foot spire without ropes, then jumping off the top to float down on a parachute.
Enter Steph Davis’ world, a bonafide daredevil, rock climber, and author from Moab, Utah. She will be sharing her special brand of risk philosophy during a presentation at the Cortez Public Library on March 9 at 6 p.m.
Davis is all about taking calculated risks, a skill that takes time and experience to respect and understand.
“Everybody has a different attitude towards taking risks — the feelings of fear, responsibility, perceptions of others, we all have that awareness,” she said in an interview.
Risk taking can be subtle, like pushing your turn-around time, negotiating a backcountry loop hike, or mountain biking without a pump.
Other times its more in your face, like a Class III rapid in a canoe, bombing down a mountain pass on a road bike, or backcountry skiing into the steep and deep.
But Davis takes it a step further, combining free-soloing rock climbs (no ropes or gear), with wing suit BASE jumping, soaring like a bird for a while then throwing a chute.
“You hit speeds of 100 miles per hour,” she said. “A wing suit allows you to turn downward fall into forward speed.”
Her extreme sport resume is impressive. She free soloed The Diamond on Longs Peak without using ropes or gear. She is the first woman to free climb the Salathe Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Free climbing uses ropes and gear to protect against a fall, but does not aid in the climb.
Closer to home she’s fond of free-soloing the North Face of Castleton Tower, then jumping off the summit.
“As far as BASE jumping after a climb, it’s a much nicer option than rappelling,” she says.
A regular in Europe, where BASE jumping is more accepted than in the U.S., Davis is racking up wing-suit flights.
“The National Parks in the U.S. have a negative view of BASE jumping,” she said. “The BLM allows it, but the cliffs are smaller so you need to have more experience.”
Her next trip is in July to Italy, to climb and fly over the Dolomites.
“In reality everything we do is risky, but it is really an act of making a decision,” she said. “Sometimes things seem more dramatic than they really are.”
Davis has written two books: High Infatuation, a Climbers Guide to Love and Gravity; and Learning to Fly, a Memoir of Hanging on and Letting Go.
