Risking It All

(8 of 10)

The Ridiculous Boat concept could be extended; sailors with money might begin to wonder, for instance, what is the largest craft controllable by a single person in a transatlantic run. But to a certain breed of determinedly independent risk takers, sailing lacks originality. Sailing has been done. Mountain climbing has been done. What has not been done? Ben Colli, 36, an Atlantan who specializes in washing the unwashable window—the exterior of the blue dome of Atlanta's Hyatt Regency hotel, for instance—thought about this a few years ago. Then on New Year's Eve in 1976, as a party stunt for the hotel, this wiry and deceptively calm-looking man, by descent part Italian and part Algonquin Indian, took off his clothes, put on a baby diaper and, holding a long mountain rope, jumped from the dome of the Hyatt Regency's 22-story atrium. He fell free, then slowed himself with the sort of rappel brake that climbers use and landed to cheers from the crowd. Colli, who had practiced for three weeks, says now that he did not know then how dangerous the jump was. But he kept on jumping, and now every July he jumps off the 75-story Peachtree Plaza hotel in Atlanta. He bounces down his 7/16 in. nylon kernmantel rope in 150-ft. to 200-ft. swoops, and the 750-ft. fall takes 28 sec. He wears padded gloves to work his J bar, or rappel rack, which creates the braking friction.

"There's a breeze up there that I love.

It keeps me away from the building," he says. The rappel rack is dangerous: "If you got your hair caught in the bar on the rope, it could jerk your scalp off." He must miss a retaining wall at the bottom and land facing the building on 2 in. of frame. Colli, a soft-spoken man who says, "I'm looking for a good time," has a wife, Jill, who water-skis and snow-skis with him, and three daughters by a previous marriage. He is in demand around the country among hotel managers whose establishments are in need of being jumped off of. Two months before a big jump, he starts preparing himself mentally. He loves the sensation. "You feel these free falls in your heart," he explains. "You are euphoric. When I'm in the jump, I hate to see it coming to an end."

Listen to Carl Boenish: "Jumping is like a knife cutting through all the malarkey of life. Truth is radical."