We’ve Found a New Use for the Olympic Stadium

Jackalope Fest Goes Above and Beyond With Montreal’s First-Ever BASE Jumping Showcase

SportsKelsey Litwin — Published August 22, 2016

The annual action sports festival, Jackalope Fest which took place at the Esplanade Financière Sun Life at the Olympic Park from August 19 to the 21, added BASE jumping to their line-up of competitions for their fifth edition.

The event, called “JUMP OFF,” saw professionals dropping into a short free-fall from the top of Montreal’s iconic Olympic tower before releasing a parachute to land by the site below.

Standing at 165 metres tall with an incline of 45 degrees, the Olympic tower is the tallest of its kind in the world. In a press release, Marc-André Denault, seven-time world record holder and ambassador for JUMP OFF, explained that the “competing athletes unanimously agree that [the tower] is one of the best locations in Canada for base jumping” as the slope increases safety.

Stick the Landing

The sport shares a lot in common with its older brother, skydiving—including a lot of the dangers. Like most rebellious younger siblings, BASE jumping takes it up a notch.

The acronym BASE stands for “buildings, antennas, spans and earth”—the four types of fixed objects from which athletes jump. Because the altitude of these jumps are significantly lower than the average 4,000 metres at which a skydiver will jump, the risk of something going wrong runs a lot higher.

The lower altitude reduces the amount of control and stability that a BASE jumper has while flying. When combined with the danger presented by the sheer proximity to the fixed structures from which they are jumping—such as cliffs—it’s understandable why a team of researchers from the University of Stavanger in Norway found that BASE jumping to be anywhere between five and eight times more likely to result in an injury or fatality than skydiving.

For the extreme sport aficionados who are drawn to events such as Jackalope, the controlled risk is just a part of the game. Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau, a former freestyle skiing world champion and olympian turned BASE jumper, said for him and his family, it’s all about trusting your judgment.

Missed the Mark

Despite having completed two successful test-jumps in May, Jackalope Fest proved that in action sports, planning and preparation can only go so far.

After a small crowd gathered around the barricaded bullseye-style target at the Esplanade on the evening of the 19th, the refreshing summer breeze proved to be too much of a risk factor for the ten expert jumpers who were set to compete.

In order to move forward with the planned precision contest, which Jackalope was advertising as the first of its kind, the winds would have needed to stay under 15 kilometers per hour. Instead, the athletes landed just north of the tower, away from the attendees, in a friendly showcase.

Rousseau reassuringly explained that although the conditions weren’t ideal for the anticipated competition, the important thing is that they were still able to highlight the sport.

“I think that we proved that we can be safe [BASE] jumping and showcasing…parachuting and skydiving in general,” he said.

The weather conditions only deteriorated for the two following days, pulling the plug on the festival’s hope to hold the competition. While all skateboarding, climbing and fixed gears continued as scheduled on the second day, the JUMP OFF event scheduled for that evening was cut entirely.

Early on Sunday, however, Jackalope wrapped up for the year as all remaining events were cancelled when the rain started to trickle down, proving that mother nature always reigns supreme.