2240 + 225 = Felix

If you think a jump from Latin America’s highest skyscraper is child’s play, think again.

The Torre Mayor towers 225 meters above the urban jungle of Mexico City and is Latin America’s highest skyscraper. But departing from a building of this scale by way of a B.A.S.E. jump is not something the Austrian Felix Baumgartner would even bother to write down in his calendar. After all, Felix had already jumped from the 481-meter Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (making him the record-holder for the “highest B.A.S.E. jump”) and from the 29-meter Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (giving him the world record for the “lowest B.A.S.E. jump”). Between these two extremes, the Torre Mayor would make for a nice little “in-between” practice jump …

Thinner is faster

… but then there was the location. This was Mexico City, population: 30 million. The city lies 2240 meters above sea level, is walled in by high mountains on all sides and features correspondingly thin air. And that’s what this was all about: one falls significantly faster at this altitude than at sea level, and even the parachute’s ability to slow one’s fall is meager. This combination of a fast fall and diminished braking effect is the kind of challenge Felix Baumgartner just can’t resist.

Landing on the artery

Monday, January 30, 2006, 12:14 p.m. local time: Felix Baumgartner extends his arms and launches himself from the 52nd floor, landing only a few seconds later on bustling Reforma Avenue – one of the city’s main arteries – to the astonishment of thousands of drivers and passersby. Felix had no one waiting for him on the ground: the jump – like all the undertakings of the world’s most famous B.A.S.E. jumper – was prepared in complete secrecy. “The surrounding buildings, the very busy street and, above all, the thin mountain air made it one of my toughest jumps,” said Felix Baumgartner afterwards, adding “I’m very satisfied,” and leaving the scene in an appropriate manner: in a lovely Hummer painted a very innocent shade of white.