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I had a sorta scary experience on today's jump. See the pic attached. As I threw the PC, I felt it tug at my gloved thumb, and it took two jerks of my right hand to get it to come loose.

This is probably one more argument as to why you should throw the PC up; I am sticking to what has worked (i.e. the mushroomed and to-the-side method) simply until I develop a little more confidence in my launch skills (and overall).

Would this be classified as a "shit happens" thing, or is it something that happens now and then and can be prevented?

Jumping in strong crosswind coming from the right.

Handheld or stowed?

Probably handheld.

Did you prepare the bridle so that it exits your hand towards the back of your thumb or the palm?

That can make a difference. So can a moderate tailwind.

Handheld. I routinely s-fold the bridle, then route it under my thumb to prevent the bridle from going underarm on throw.

You did something wrong, sorry, but there is no other explaination.... There is no reason that the PC / bridle wraps around your thumb other than you did something wrong....

If the bridle is routed out of the top of your fist, instead of the bottom, you should be okay.

I don't know how cold it is there, but if you can avoid wearing gloves that will reduce the risk of something weird happening. (We jump in below freezing temps and it's okay.) Just make sure your hands are warmed up before you exit and you'll be fine. If you do feel the need to wear gloves, make sure they're thin and allow uncompromised dexterity.

That is, naturally, understood. I was wondering what could be the probable cause, and how to avoid it in the future. I was not holding or throwing the PC any different than I was on previous jumps. My mentor always checks my PC and grip before the jump.

I dont like to jump in gloves, but from the pic I totally see why you were. brrr.. When I go handheld the bridle is s folded inside the pc, the remaing bridle is then routed up between my palm and the pc, then droping over my index knuckle then the rest of the backside of my hand to the top of my container, then to the first pin. this keeps the bridle away from the thumb, snag point. why now start going stowed? what the alti on the tower?

360 ft, plus I only have 10 jumps :)

if you stow your PC HH correctly there is no way your bridle can hang up on your thumb...... as when you release it its above your hand...

There's always a way for weird shit to happen while BASE jumping.

But...

If the pilot chute and bridle are prepared appropriately, there is very little risk that the bridle will entangle with your hand.

Unless you're going stowed (short delay) with a tailwind. Then there's the possibility that the bridle can blow under your arm.

true...

stowed is a different story......

your problem is youre not supposed to jump when its that cold outside..evidenced by all that white stuff all over everything... (what the hell is that anyway?)

Helas...it's going to be "this cold" for at least another 4 months. That thing nearby is an asphalt mixing factory as far as we can tell

Some more pictures in which you can, if only barely, see the way the bridle is routed.

rather than kissing each others arses, I would say that the only way your bridle went over your thumb is that you had way too much slack on it whilst HH and the slack caught around your thumb when you pitched... if it was not the slack then you really are stowing it HH incorrectly...

I will second others opinions. I take the gloves off right before exiting. It might be cold, but the short canopy ride is not going to freeze your hands off. And if the PC mesh snags on your velcro/stitching whatever - you might have no canopy ride at all. Also, imagine missing your toggle ( assuming you don't have big grabs ) and having to take a few tries to get it - not a scenario I want to experience first hand.

And yes, we were jumping this past weekend, it was below 20F with strong winds...

Yo!

It's easy to see from the sequence of pictures that you shook your hands while looking at the horizon before the launch. That's when the bridle got under your thumb.

Don't shake your hand while the bridle is in it before the jump and you'll die during sex at age 100.

Yuri

Moscow. December. Probably pretty cold.

Did you ever put the video of your previous jump up on-line anywhere?

I'm not sure, but I can't help but suspect this is related to the inverted mushroom thing we were talking about before.

I think I'm going to go break out a PC and see if I can recreate this snag in my living room.

in my view, the routing looks not so bad.
but the length from fist to container does.
in germany, we put some velcro on the upper and the lower side of the right flap and also on the bridle.
this prevents the bridle from slacking and a possible pin-extrusion, i.e. when winds are blowing.
in my opinion, the correct length is when you get light tension on the velcro while the arms are in exit position.
means, not fully extented right arm.
with that, during exit move there is no possibility for a bridleslacking.

Do you have the bridle tucked in at the top as well?

I generally prefer to tuck the bridle into the top of the side flap, or the riser cover flap, to control it. I like the velcro to be up on the shoulder (the Vertigo style) if it's there.

Also, are you placing the pins top-bottom (standard) or bottom-top, for hand held?

I was totally unable to recreate this bridle-thumb snag. I tried for about half an hour.

Is it possible that the snag was actually a loop of slack bridle below the hand, that came up and around?

and myself too, I had velcro put onto my gargoyle shoulder and bridle as I used to own a wizard and liked that little touch in controlling the slack, especially doing solos as its much easier to mate the velcro then try and tuck in...

we just use velcro.
it gives the feedback a little better than the tuckin´ it in.
you can test the length of the bridle by stretching out your forearm and feel the grip of the velcro.
on my first rig, a perigee2, we placed a tuck-pocket (is that called so?) under the right flap on the upper side.
but mostly while testing the routing and length, we pulled the bridle out.
with the velcro, you get direct response and you can give small tension on the bridle.
if too much, your buddy can fix it with one hand back again.
we use to tuck the bridle under the flap when someone jumps a rig without velcropads sewn on.
it is better than nothing.

no, we do not place pins in different ways as far as I know.
perhaps some jumpers do voodoo-style techniques ;-)

also stand-up openings worked well, the bridle pulls the pins in every direction.

I mostly to route bottom-top to reduce the amount of bridle that's out there to potentially flap around.

Moscow is in deep south, its warm there....come here to jump without gloves, to the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi (google it!)....
Its 3-4 months -15-45 celsius, aaaand jumpin... !!!

Fu...the finnnss !!!

Skydiver (for now) here, but an on topic short story-

I dumped once on a hop-n-pop in what must have been a not quite belly to earth position- the next thing I feel is the bridle which is passing from my pin, up around the front side of my elbow, and a pilot chute that luckily hasn't inflated yet. Actions were pretty much instinct as I reached that arm backwards to allow the bridle to clear. The entire process must have taken less than a second to happen, because it felt like two.

No harm done, but after opening the first thought through my mind was 'well, that could have been interesting'. (of course not extremely as exciting- I had another 4g' to play with)