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Hang-gliding race claims Cochrane man
Last updated Apr 25 2005 03:54 PM MDT
CBC News
CALGARY – A 29-year-old Cochrane man was killed Friday while competing in a hang-gliding competition in Florida.

Chris Muller was a champion hang-glider, whose death echoes that of his father Willi, killed in a paragliding crash in Washington in 1998.

"Flying is dangerous," Randy Parkin, who learned how to para-sail from Chris Muller, said Monday. "Chris was one of the best in the world, so he made decisions, I think, that were well within his capability.

"The problem is, stuff happens, and stuff happened this time."

Muller, who started hang-gliding when he was five, was at the end of the 113-kilometre Flytec U.S. Nationals race and Parkin says he appeared to have gone down to try to grab a bag of money the racers had placed atop a pylon as part of a side bet.

"Chris would always swoop into goal," friend Wil Gadd said. "Even if there wasn't a grab bag there. He would come in and go hard. That was his style.

"This time something went a little bit wrong. A little bit of wind was wrong, and he was low to the ground and hit it hard."

Had things gone right, Muller would have grabbed the bag and pulled back up. He was seventh in the race of 105 competitors.

Speeds during the race reached 100 km/h.

Parkin said it would never have occurred to Muller to quit the sport that claimed his father.

"I don't think it would enter Chris' mind. He's been doing it all his life," Parkin said. "It would not have been anybody's wish, least of all Willi's, that Chris quit flying because of the accident his dad had."

Michael Fuller, president of the Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, called Muller's death "a terrible day." "Today's news leaves me almost breathless with sadness," Fuller wrote on the association's website. "We've lost a wonderful pilot, a wonderful role model, a gifted teacher, an insightful and trusting coach and the most humble of human beings.

"He was an inspiration to me and to so many others. He loved his sport. He loved his life. He lived it well. He died doing what he loved."


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The Mullers are legendary in our little part of the world.

I was hoping those that had BASE jumped with Chris might comment.

My fourteenth base jump was with Chris Muller. It was a skibase and my first cliff jump. Chris had jumped this particular exit point before on a snowboard, and his calm at the exit point managed to instill the confidence in me that I needed to enjoy this adventure to the fullest.

It didn't take long to realize what a great guy Chris was. It seemed that every single second in his life was about living it to the fullest. Even after the jump when we were sharing stories in the bar, I noticed that every single thing he did was about enjoying life and getting the most out of it. And he certainly did.

Chris was a world-class paraglider. See this video to get a taste of his incredible skills. Chris was the last to jump that day and when we were watching his descent, we saw him do turns with a parachute that I have never seen any skydiver do.

I was even more impressed when I found out that after he started base jumping, Chris decided that it would be good to get some skydiving experience. He got his AFF/PFF in a record low number of jumps and continued jumping to improve his canopy and tracking skills. He admitted that he wasn't a big fan of all the rules at dropzones, but he agreed that the jump experience itself was invaluable to base jumping.

I only spend one day with Chris, but it was easily one of the best days of my life. I was looking forward to joining Chris for some days this summer and jump from his paraglider, and maybe even make a couple of paraglide rides myself.

BSBD Chris. My next jump is for you...

Jaap

More than a few wrote me about Chris over the last few days (for the List) and while I didn't know him it's clear he was very well liked and respected . . .

Blue skies, Chris.

NickD
BASE 194

That is an awesome video - I've never seen anyone looping or hooking a hang-glider before!
Obvioulsy a very talented young man.......

Fly on

I only jumped once with Chris -- a night jump from an 'A'. The guy was a natural. He was one of the few people I would broadly characterize as a "high performance individual" in that I have 100% confidence that he would perform well in any sport one might call high-performance. That said, he suggested on a number of occasions, when I invited him out on a cliff jump, that he'd like to do something from an 'A' first, with a tailwind, to get current (no good spans around here). Crazy, but not stupid.

Probably more importantly, he had this awesome attitude toward other people that you'll see mentioned wherever people are talking about Chris. The guy practically glowed with positive energy every time I saw him.

It was truly a pleasure to have Chris in our little community for as long as we did.

I had the pleasure of sharing an exit point with Chris just a little while ago.
To make a long story slightly shorter, myself, 736 and Crwper got in touch with Chris through various channels, past meetings and other people etc.
Must have been around November or so when myself, 736, Wildcard and Muller went out to a local "A" that is quite nice. Now, I was on the ground because I am too fat to fit through the tight squeeze required. Well, as 736 is worming his way through, Chris, in pure Muller style found a new way to get around, one that I can fit through. He had never been on the object before but finds a more accessible way to get on! Blazed his own path and away he went. By the time he hit the 600+mark 736 was still a couple hundred feet down. I was laughing my ass off on the ground listening to Chris describe how he is near the top and can't see the other two climbing below him. Some continued ribbing and sarcasm over the radios etc……so...Chris just hung out up top, enjoying the view of the city and waited. Once they were all together, I think it was Chris who went first, slider up, nice fat delay and a sweet landing of course. He was jacked and enjoyed that jump enough that he went and visited it several more times over the next few months.

Then, near the end of Feb. I got up one morning for a daylong adventure with Mr. Muller. It was Feb 25 to be exact and I’m not a real morning person but I was up by 7am and on my way to the Muller Wind Sports flying area and home near Cochrane Alberta. Jaap, who posted earlier was already on his way from Vancouver to meet us for this epic adventure and Wildcard was probably eating breakfast at his leisure since it was near his home that we would be jumping that day.
Got to Chris’s and after a quick chat with his mom we threw all our crap into his truck and were off. We talked and laughed for the next 2+ hours driving to Golden from Cochrane. Good tunes, good conversation and always a smile on his face. We talked about BASE; we talked about paragliding, hang-gliding, women, life, backcountry ski touring using kites and so much more. I had not known Chris that long but he was so easy to like and so easy to respect. As 736 said, “he practically glowed with positive energy” and that was the Chris that I got to know.
We pulled into Golden and got in touch with the other 2 jumpers (Jaap&Wildcard) of our load of 4. We all met up and threw our shit in the chopper Wildcard had arranged for us (cheap) and away we went. Got a cool flight in a nice 407 and landed upon a ridge top several miles out of town. SO there we were, almost 4,000 vertical feet above the valley!! There were sunny, blue skies, a spattering of clouds and no wind even at the top of the ridge. It was a beautiful day, the kind of day that commands you to live and have some fun with friends and a jump of course!
So away we went down the mountain as we had roughly a 1,400 vertical foot ski descent just to get t the exit point. Three of us were on skis and Jaap on his snowboard as we worked our way down the mountain on less than ideal snow! It was an icy crust that you would break though as you tried to turn. During this run I had the worst wipeout on skis I have had in 15 years or more. Hit some hard blue ice while making turns down an avalanche chute that leads to the exit. I am now flying down this chute out of control and gaining speed as I go. I have to admit I was more than a little worried as I sailed down getting closer to the trees and no, I couldn’t have actually gone over the edge, just could have hit trees going fast. I had lost both skis at this point but still had my poles and was trying to dig in with them but to no avail. So now on my stomach, going feet first I play my desperation card and kick down as hard as I can with my ski boots. The desired effect was achieved as I cart wheeled through the air wondering how the landing would feel!?! And then the inevitable thump as I came crashing back down and luckily punched through the ice and stopped dead…half dead anyway;) Chris gets down to me and once finding out I am ok says.”Geez dude, why didn’t you tell me you were going to do that?! I could have videoed it!” And everybody had a good laugh over his comments!J
After putting myself back together we continued down to the exit point. This is when I realize I am bleeding from some bad ice-rash and 2nd degree friction burns on my forearms. With my wounds deemed worthy of footage, Muller took sick pleasure in taping my bloody arms before we went to look at the exit from both sides. Chris had already done this jump on his snowboard just days earlier so he was on his skis for this one.
I was scared about this jump and not feeling too good after my wipeout either. Chris is a good guy to have around for that. Again with a big smile on his face, boundless confidence and lots of positive energy just flowing out of him. He volunteered to be the last one off and shoot video of all of us from the side.
Wildcard went first with a front flip and a long delay. Jaap was up next for his first “E” and totally stuck it! I was up next and was still feeling a little rattled but off I went for a solid 0.45 second delay and a girlish scream (much to Chris's delight!) as I went over the edge. Muller was last off with a solid delay and then an impressive canopy ride. As I said in another thread, watching him fly that canopy was amazing!! He was doing some strange stall spins that I had not ever seen done on a big-assed BASE canopy. Then he performed a nice long carving swoop in on his skis and a great landing. We were all jacked and had great jumps. Talk and laughter about the jump while we drove back into town filled the Suburban.
So when we were back at the vehicles, Chris gave me some of that spray on "second skin" stuff and then videoed me as I screamed in agony spraying it on my wounds. He did like to laugh!
Chris, Jaap and I went to the local pub for some food before heading home. I had a burger and a beer, Jaap and Chris had something healthy and no beer. ON the way back to Cochrane Chris and I again had a couple of hours to chat about a lot of different things. I enjoyed that time very much and was looking forward to having some more jumping adventures together.
Chris was a busy guy with all his travels, competitions, teaching and friends to fill all hours but I knew we would be sharing some exit points together this summer! He was excited about the local terminal and near terminal walls we have. He was excited to jump that “A” again and again and we were all excited to learn what he had to teach us about paragliding, about flying our BASE canopies about attitude and many other things. He was larger than life and really lived the dream! He flew and flew and it’s hard to imagine that flying could take him yet not if you know what I mean?! He flew hard, he flew fast and that’s why he was one of the world’s best.
The Chris I knew was a man of his word. I called him while he was in Norway and upon returning to Alberta he was not home long before heading out to go to Florida where this tragedy occured. He called me back as I was driving home from Vancouver after having done an early morning jump with Jaap and left a message saying he had more or less just got home and was heading out but he would call me from the airport. Well, I am very happy that when he called back I was in cell range. He was at the airport on his way to Florida, he sounded upbeat, happy and sounded like his trip to Norway was really nice in so many ways. We chatted a bit and then it was time for him to go. We always take those last words for granted don’t we!???? The last thing I remember Chris saying was….”I’ll call ya when I get back and we’ll go huck something……………………….” I am grateful that I got that last conversation with him!!! To me those are great words to remember someone by……..
For those who knew Chris so much better than I did all I can say is……I wish I had that opportunity! You are very lucky indeed as was everyone who crossed paths with him.
Chris Muller= Friend, son, fiancée, teacher, competitor, world class athlete and world class human being!! I will miss you Chris, blue skies forever dude!! Thanks…..

Sincerely:
Dave Lundquist

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Attached are 2 frame grabs from that day

Thanks Chris, it was a pleasure to meet you. RIP

Adam