His friends warned him that he might die if he attempted it, because a large cliff dominates the mountainside. So Giraud, 24, took up BASE jumping, leaping from tall objects with an unopened parachute.

On Wednesday, Giraud, a native of France, skied off a 250-foot-high cliff on the 12,978-foot mountain and safely parachuted to the ground.

The BASE jump off the mountain north of Durango in San Juan County was completed about 10 a.m. The acronym BASE comes from building, antenna, span, Earth: The typical objects from which leaps are made.

"I'm in one piece, and if you're not dead, it was a good jump," he said afterward.

In order to complete the jump, Giraud and two crew members hiked up Engineer Mountain. About four more crew members hiked to his landing spot. The morning hike started about 5 a.m. and lasted three hours, he said.

"It's not illegal, and there's nothing bad about BASE jumping," Giraud said in an interview Tuesday before the jump. "It's quiet. You're floating. You find your heart in your throat. It's an unusual feeling, and it's one of the best feelings in the world. It's just a perfect moment."

With the leap, Giraud completed his 23rd BASE jump, but it was the first known BASE jump off Engineer Mountain.

Giraud graduated from Fort Lewis College in 2006 with a business degree. He has been BASE jumping since fall of 2007.

"I've been plotting that for four years," he said. "This is really the mountain that I've been focusing on."

Giraud performed the first known BASE jump off Mount Hood in Oregon.

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