Basejumper.com - archive

This just in, from "The things you thought you knew but really didn't" department. Outdoor winter activity fatalities far overshadow Base fatalities, in USA anyway. There have been 590 fatalities in the USA in the last 25 years due to avalanches alone compared to around 154 fatalities for Base in the same time frame.

http://avalanche.state.co.us/acc/accidents_us.php

http://www.nwac.us/...State--1985-20XX.pdf

Thinking about SkiBase ? Might wanna think again. Be a real bitch to pull off an epic jump only to be taken out by a rouge wind slab.

respectfully disagree.

Tens of thousands of people enjoyed the wintertime backcountry in the US EACH YEAR for 25 years - at least two orders of magnitude more than base jumped in the US during that same time - yet there were only four times as many fatalities, not 100 times as many, which would mean an equivalent fatality rate, much less 150 times as many or more, which would be a statistically significant higher rate.

Even if you include all backcountry winter fatalities (falls, crashes, heart attacks, exposure, et al), you won't even approach 6 times as many fatalities against 100 times more participants.

So I sure hope you calculate your rock drops and freefall times a little better than this...

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Fatal accidents among elite mountaineers: A historical perspective from the European Alps.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20586599


Aiut Alpin Dolomites
RESCUE INTERVENTIONS (1990 - 2009)
http://www.aiut-alpin-dolomites.com/english/statistics.html

French Avalanche and Off-Piste Accidents 2009 - 2010
http://pistehors.com/.../Accident-Statistics

I don't really see the correlation between that and ski BASE.

there is really no way to calculate the risk

people = 100% death rate

no matter what

poverty is certainly more deadly than BASE jumping

There is!

Big walls kill more jumpers than anything else.
You are more likely to die if you jump wingsuit.
If you fly proximity you.............
Etc
Statistic can tell you a lot about the risk you take
Easy

Try high mountaineering.

Some of the 8,000ers (K2, Annapurna, Kangchenjunga) still have death rates in modern times of about 20%.

Before 1990 the death rate on Nanga Parbat was 77%! Those figures are deaths per succesful summit, so they don't take into account expeditions that retreated before summiting but still, it must take a special sort of person to set off on a mission where you're 3 1/2 times more likely to die than succeed.

I do not think you can say one is different than the other when we are speaking of the lead arrow of people who is constantly pushing their and other limits. The difference between BASE and other high risk activities, is that BASE is so EASY to get in to. There is no limits you can do in short time with only a little bit experience from airplanes and a few BASE jumps under your belt. Only common sense is stopping each one to do stupid things to kill themselves.

Every sport have people with death wishes, BASE is no different than others.

Lets say Mike Tysen in his very best shape. How many idiots do you think would be willing to meet him if they could, even they knew they would get brain damaged?

Hey Robin, maybe you haven't heard, most people don't believe in rock drops anymore. They just wing it and hope for the best.


Avery, as usual, probably said it best. 434 made some good points, but we have to remember Base is about freedom. I don't believe anybody wants the regulation in Base that there is in skydiving. Not that it would help that much. Even with regulation skydiving still runs almost even with Base in fatality rates year after year. Yes, again, there are probably at least 10 times as many people skydiving.

In the end it all seems to be relative though. There used to be an adage in Base that you could do everything right and still die. But from what I've gathered from the BFL, that only applies to about 5%. Nearly everyone made a mistake that ended their life. The same ratio seems to apply for skydiving, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, etc..

I thought we all agreed a few years back that shark fucking was the most dangerous sport.

Have I been wasting my time? I just blew some dog water into a dog fish. Of course, I had to tape it up hamster stylee.

Meh, any 15 year old can do shark fucking!

there have been hundreds of thousands of fatalities from driving cars in the last 25 years so maybe driving a car is more dangerous than BASE jumping. You need to take a statistics class. You can't draw any rational comparison with just the info you provided.

Free climbing seems more dangerous to me, but I have no stats on that.

You're thinking of "Free Soloing" not "Free Climbing". Don't feel bad, alot of people get the 2 confused, including myself.

<sigh> Thanks for making my point for me.........

I think this is a profoundly accurate statement that a lot of people who aren't impoverished don't understand.

Good job Avery. Poverty and ignorance are way more dangerous.

Robin,
I was just positioning my mouse curser to reply, when I saw that you wrote EXACTLY what I was going to say!
Well done...

This is the world's most dangerous sport...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7S5BP-tvR8

yer welcum...


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