Adventure seeker BASE jumps with his mountain bike off 250m Snowdon cliff
Tim Howell is a former Royal Marine, Alpinist, Wingsuit BASE jumper, mountain biker and thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie. Tim has recently combined his love for mountain biking and BASE jumping by taking on his most hair-raising challenge to date and one that would seem to most people, a simply terrifying stunt in the Snowdonia National Park.
Tim rode off a cliff attached to his Jamis Dakar MTB wearing just a parachute for a double dose of extreme sports.
Footage filmed on his GoPro Max 360 camera showed the fearless 33-year-old flying off Snowdon's Clogwyn Du’r Arddu with his chute safely opening in mid-air before landing smoothly on the ground 250 metres below on the rocky beach in front of the Llyn Du’r Arddu lake.
After the parachute opened, Tim let go of the bike’s handlebars to slow his descent and grabbed the chute’s steering lines, to guide him to his landing spot. At the last moment he regained control of the handlebars to ensure a smooth landing.
“I was so unbelievably stoked after landing this one. I haven’t felt like this after a jump for a long time. Freeride MTB was probably my first love in extreme sports. Sending road gaps and drops, my mentality had to change when I started BASE from just “sending it” to a more controlled and calculated approach. This is why I think this stunt went so smoothly, planning, preparation and experience.
I collaborated with Jamis Bikes and GO Outdoors for this stunt. I’ve had it in mind for a while, and it became more of a reality once I started planning it with the team. It also took me a while to find a suitable location and we had a very small window of just three days to work with in terms of weather and availability. Luckily, it all came together nicely.”
On the day of the jump, Tim and the support team headed up the Rangers Path in the Snowdonia National Park, one of the more straightforward routes to the summit of Snowdon. Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and a stunning location of the jump. The choice was a cliff just off the path, Clogwyn Du’r Arddu, which is considered one of the finest traditional climbing locations in the UK.
"The most special part for me, is that point of no return moment, right on the edge. The jump looks fairly elegant and the landing well it's pretty heroic. This stunt was the most insane I've done but super stoked to pull it off perfectly. And the video footage is epic!"
Follow Tim and his adventures on Instagram @tim_howell_adventure
