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Anybody know the status of the jumper that had to be rescued from the Canyon wall at Royal Gorge late Sunday morning, 9/16?

Will said jumper, or significant other of said jumper, please contact me. I will pass on what I have to said jumper.

Jumper broke bones in lower left leg. She was flown to a local hospital. She is doing fine and should be out Tuesday.

good to hear!!!!
I hope the jumper stays comfy and well spirited for the duration!!!

 

Hey Guys,

Melissa was the jumper. It was our 2nd jump of the day. I was jumping right after her. She executed a double gainer perfectly, she had a flat and stable pitch out at 4.5 seconds. Her canopy opened hard 90 right, from footage from my camera (on the bridge) and hers (on her head!) it looks like the 90 was violent and that spun her into 4 line twists. She climbed above the twists and tried to turn the canopy, then went to a second option of untwisting. She got out of all the twists but by that time (4 seconds) she impacted the wall about 400 feet above the landing area. She bounced 3 times off the wall and then got hung up about 180 feet above the LZ. She broke her leg but other than that not a cut on her.

We are in the hospital now. One more day in Colorado and then we head back to CA.

We would both like to say a massive thanks to everyone involved in the rescue. You guys rock. You all did an extremely professional job and Melissa is all smiles.

Thanks to for an amazing event & Mel says sorry for holding up the jumping for a few hours!! HA HA.

Rex & Melissa

 

Yep,

When we get back we will put a carnage vid togther and post it.

Best wishes to Melissa for a speedy recovery. Hopefully we'll still see you and Rex at Bridge Day in a month.

I just spoke with Melissa at the hospital. Not much to add, above Rex';s comments other than she seemed in GREAT spirits (she was very lucky it could have easily been much much worse). She even said "this is a good time to get hurt (!) because my flying season just ended and doesn't start up again till february".

They performed tow successful surgeries, so no cast, she's already on crutches, knowing her and her attitude she'll recover very strongly very fast!

Best wishes to you Melissa!

Wayne

I was in the landing area and watched the whole jump. I would agree with everything but the line twists. I think she was either still in 1 list twist or had bearly just swung out of it (and then hit the wall). I will review footage tomorrow and repost.

I would also like to thank the high line rescue team on their technical and professional expertise, they rocked.

Hey Melissa, you were pretty light to carry, hope the hospital is feeding you well.

Le Roy

Mel, you are one tough Cookie (Composite?) We love you girl, glad to hear you’re doing well. Wishing you a speedy recovery, knowing your spirit…it’s only a scratch. (The screws and plate are simply concealed bling).

The CO crew is here for you 24/7. Anything, just call and it’s a done deal.

Hi Le Roy, apparently you saw the last half second of the jump. Rex's statement is accurate.


I completely agree. Perfection, accuracy and speed. The experience and planning of the rescue crew shined BIG TIME on Sunday!

Hi guys, I am still in the hospital but should be out of here by tomorrow.

I wanted to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone involved in my rescue. They were absolutely amazing and had me smiling the whole way down the rock and to the hospital. Joe, you are my hero! Seeing you lowering from the bridge was the best feeling I have ever had. Hank, sorry I broke my promise and hit the cliff, but thanks for risking your neck to save me! Eric and Casey were the hottest (and most skilled) nurse/paramedic I could have asked for.

Also thanks to everyone's flowers and letters and prayers for a speedy recovery, its a reminder of how wonderful all of my friends are out there The Go Fast Games were by far the best event I have ever been to despite my injury. Before my jump I said that the last thing I would want to get there were line twists...go figure.

Thanks to Troy and AJ and Jimmy and Marta for the chance to attend the event and I'm sorry to all of the jumpers who had to have a few hours of extra hold time on Sunday.

So glad you are recovering smoothly! That could have happened to any of us, that sure is a crazy place to jump. It was nice to finally meet you and watch your very solid, very smooth jumps. Hope to see you soon! Try and stay relaxed.

Can someone explain the reason behind this? It sounds like she couldn't get the canopy turned around even after climbing above the twists. Why?

Thats a great question, It all happened so fast, the canopy didn't seem to respond when I tried to turn it from above the twists....maybe because there were so many??? The only thing it seemed to make it do was dive.

Speedy recovery girl!

Hello Melisa

I am glad you are fine , I saw everything and it could have happened to anyone. And no need to apologize for the hold , BTW great movie you showed the night before.

The MexBase crew wishes you a fast recovery
Gabo

Melissa,
Hope all is well and you have a speedy recovery!! It was nice to meet you and Rex.(Send him to Arkansas, and we will teach him to speak proper English) Hope to see ya'll again at another exit point.
321CYA
Sitflybaseboy
Arkansas BASE Crew

DVD of what I have will be mailed tomorrow.

Hey Melissa,

all the best from good old germany and a speedy recovery (hope you are back in shape when your jumping season starts again!).

And even with a broken leg and crutches, I am sure what I said to you in the Tram right before your exit is still true ;-)

Horrido,
flummi

haha, thanks flummi, my other half might come looking for you with those comments hahaha

hmmm... so you remember me and my comment... INTERESTING!

WHAT??? YOU TOLD HIM WHAT I SAID??? I explicitly did not repeat it (so he might have thought i said something like "have a good jump" or so...)

OMG - where can I hide???
HELP

;-)

Well, it was indented as a compliment, and I'd repeat it anytimes (after all, it's true!). Neither my better half nor yours should take offense...

I send you a big hug,
flummi

Hey Melissa. You sounded great on the phone. Thanks for the update and your version of the jump and the rescue. I did not see the jump but did see the entire rescue. It was quite a relief when Joe got to you.

Hopefully I'll see you and Rex soon after you get back.

Melissa, a speedy recovery. And we'll rescue you off of any cliff anytime(don't do it again). The HighAngleRescue crew at the Games has been nervously waiting to perform just such swoop in and rescue since it started. Joe Grubb was the team leader this year and was everything I new he would be when he joined, I just like to rockclimb and this was a convenient excuse. Heal up and show us the video. Say hi to Rex for me too.

Love and best wishes,
Hankster Caylor

Alright, I've heard enough B.S. on what happened here. I've seen 2 angles from the bottom one from the top and watched it live from the top.
Here's what happened:
Melissa exited doing a double gainer, on the second rotation she became a bit off axis. (Left leg and shoulder low) at line stretch the canopy opened 90 left, as her body swung through her right leg rotated around her body and ended up in 540 line twists to the left. Facing 180 from the flight path of the canopy she reached up with her left hand and grabbed her right riser at the V and pulled momentarily, realizing nothing was happening she reached again with her left hand back farther to what normally would have been her left rear riser, but only to get the right front riser. She impacted just starting to come out of the twists and got hung up on the wall. I'm not knocking Melissa, she fought it all the way to impact.

Do you think undoing the linetwists by a fast method (e.g. by pushing the risers together) instead of climbing up would have worked better in this situation?

Guess you wont be GL for quite a while longer either. Norcal is having some rough luck recently, but thats three, so we should be ok for a while. Glad to hear youre doing well and in good spirits. Send Rex my way when you guys get back and settled.

Charley

...is best answered by:


Sounded like the line twists were already low enough to reach above (unless the account is wrong). Pushing the risers together therefore wouldn't make any difference - although I'd be keen to hear from anyone that has used that method to turn away before an imminent cliff strike...

Rexy! what tha???

Mel hope you heal up fast ;)

James