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Unfortunately there was a fatality this morning in the valley.

Police report:

link: http://www.police.be.ch/...ertoedlichverunfallt

The report says about:

A group of three jumpers went to "La Mousse" about 10.30. The third jumper had problems pulling his pilot chute, so his parachute failed to open. He impacted the forest ground at high speed. the doctor found him already dead. They recovered the victim with a helicopter with a winch.

The victim is a 31 jears old french jumper.

Was it a wingsuit jump- or does anyone know what may have caused the no pull?

My condolences to his family and friends.

I heard that he slipped on the hike, with his stash bag on his back.

That was another incident. a few days ago, a czech jumper slipped and fell to his death on the hike down after deciding not to jump. (somewhere on the jungfrau as far as i know)

my condolences to both, the czech, and the french crew.

new suit for example

Just to set some facts straight on this thread :
- Yes, these are 2 separate accidents. Unfortunately we had 2 fatal accidents last week in the Berner Oberlands involving a base jumper.
- The jumper from Czech turned back on the hike up to Buffalo and was reported missing by his fellow jumpers when they came down and could not find him. He was later found dead on the mountain wearing a tracking suit but his rig in his stash bag. This accident happened last wednesday (22nd of June).
- The jumper from France made a tracking jump from La Mousse, was reported to pitch but experienced some problems to get the canopy out. This accident happened yesterday (26th of June).

This is all the information I have, my condolences to family and friends of both jumpers.

Thank you for clearing that up mate..

R.I.P to both familys and both friends....

one is recorded as a base fatality..and the one other is recorded base related hiking fatality..

condolences to family and friends...
do anybody know the name of czech jumper?

No disrespect intended. But you suck for posting a condolence when you dont even know the jumper and there is a forum exactly for this. Check it out now funk soul brother. I thought that when i see a new post on the incidents forum I could learn something or find out which of my friends have died lately. Post appropriately please. Sorry that I am having a bad day and taking it out on you.
But you deserve it.
Take care,
space

Jakub K. - did u know him?
btw: he died on June 22

 

R.I.P Rodolphe.......

Condolences to your family and friends.

According to French base board: Rodolphe Climent, several years of base experience.
No clue yet as to why gear malfunctioned.

psssst http://www.basejumper.com/...gforum.cgi?forum=16;

Just meet them... But I'm very close friend with some guys from czech crow... I try to call them but they was unavailable...
thanks for info...
Take care!
B.

Anyone have any further details regarding what went wrong on this jump? Hearing rumors in the Valley about a bridle knot. Thanks.

Yes,
Rodolphe pull between 6 or 7 second in la mouse, so high pull. and then, nothing... He waits 1 second, then look on his back, to change the place of the depression. The end of the jump he was on the back and impact in the talus.
When his friend inspect the rig, there where a briddle on the pilot chut.

He was experimented base jumper, something like 400 jump. It was a tracksuit jump.

RIp my friend Rodolphe !

Take care when you pull to have a good and perfect movement and to launch the pilot chute long way from you ... because when your pilot chut stay "in your ass..."

I presume you mean that the bridle line was wrapped around the pilot chute, preventing it from inflating? If so, that's possibly due one or a combination of a weak throw, not tightly packing the bridle line inside the mesh, extracting the PC momentarily before throwing it, or "going BOC" using a bridle with a shrivel flap (as used for wingsuit pouch depolyment) sewn on. Similar factors have caused such consequences before.

Sorry for your loss.

Richard

you presume good...

Sad.

I will say this, a lot of great climbers have died by slipping on easy ground. Always be careful.

A lot of climbers have also died by screwing up a rappel. One of the easiest things to do. Main culprit is rapping off the end of the rope, which can be eliminated by knotting the ends of your rap ropes. There are instances of this every year.

So always be careful on easy ground. Don't get complacent.

What do you think about this way of folding PC? Would it be better than the usual "mushroom"?
http://vimeo.com/26274995

I'm super unexperienced, so my opinion is to be taken with many grains of salt.

I think that variations of this method are really good. I have used one taught to me by a very experienced jumper I'll call the B.B. method. He does something similar with the bridle only he folds it like this inside the ZP but outside the mesh (if that makes since). It's not a method I use for low jumps as I have had great success with the mushroom, and like the big handle the mushroom provides. The only problem I see with this method displayed in the video is it could result in a weaker pull than the mushroom because you may only extract the pilot chute, leaving the bridle in the BOC. This could cause a throw that leaves the bridle unstretched and the pilot to be more effected by burble than if you cleared the PC and majority of the bridle on your initial throw. There is such a lack of info that it leaves a lot of speculation as to what could have happened.

Condolences and Blue Skies.

Was this brought up because this was his method of stowing the PC, or just a random thought?

I was just thinking about better methods to avoid bridle entanglement with the PC...Just a random thought..

Where the guy folds the mesh over the bridle line (from 0:12 in the video), I have my entire bridle line s-folded inside the mesh. The potential problem - especially with the method shown - is that the bridle has a chance to fall in a heap in the slipstream once the PC is thrown and, if the PC gets burbled, possible entanglement could follow.

By stowing it tightly inside the mesh, the bridle line never has the same chance to fall out in one go.

To be honest, there's probably a number of ways of achieving this - it would be good to see footage of deployments using different techniques. Ideally what you're looking for is a straight line between the PC and the pin at all times during deployment, without excess bridle being blown around (I've seen many sub-terminal deployments where the bridle is S-shaped to the PC, and part of the bridle line is higher than the PC for a moment - not good as, during PC inflation, a knot could be formed if it passes the wrong side of the bridle.

Folding methodology can help with this.

Pitch technique is also important, and usually overlooked. If you flick your wrist to throw (as most of us were taught skydiving), you generally end up rotating the PC as it travels to bridle extension, which can often put the bridle in front of the PC and create an entanglement hazard.

When you pitch, you ought to deliver the pilot chute to bridle extension with authority, in the best possible position to inflate. It is best to throw the PC such that it travels in order (cap/handle->ZP->mesh->bridle) from your hand to bridle extension, without any end-over-end rotation.

Tom,
Rotation from wrist is so random and so hard to control or avoid. To me problem of PC entanglement with bridle has very little with wrist rotation.
IMHO all the entanglements did happen primarely because of the weak throw followed by turbulence behind the body. Bridle being fold outside , inside , on top on bottom , does not really make any difference. Same goes for folding the PC it self..
I saw many jumpers who fold PC like the average skydiver does, neat but not logical, and it works as well. It works as long the PC is thrown in the clean air.
At the throw sequence, drag of the bridle , even being exposed a little is so high that such force will pull bridle faster than hand will release the PC.
There is a lot of back shooting video and this can be used for good analysis.

What is I think most important is
1. good throw of PC
2. PC packed like trash packed canopy, with central strap stretched
3. PC must be as light as possible with lightest handle possible

Cheers

MODS please take this into a new thread please..