Basejumper.com - archive

03 July 2011 - Cape Town

We had a not so cliff strike cliff strike at our favorite E here today. I say that because it was more like an accuracy landing on a minuscule piece of ledge whose sole purpose in this whole universe was to save my friend Fritz's life.



Fritz has been down here from Pretoria for the week-end and had done his 79th BASE jump off this place on Friday.
I phoned him this morning saying the conditions kind of looked all right and we should give it a try. He was keen and we met at the usual spot.

We hiked up and then we waited and waited. Soon, after even having cancelled the jump, we realized there was a pattern of gusting wind, drizzle, no wind, gusting, drizzle, no wind. We decided that I would go first as soon as the rain stopped. These days I like to go last because I am into the whole taking pictures thing and all but being the only local on this load...

Nothing special about my jump except that like for every jump it was special. Also I had the gopro turned backwards and didn't get time to remove it to film what would happen next.

Fritz pretty much jumped right after I landed. At first all looked normal but I realized he had a twist and was going the wrong way. What happened next is just one of the most incredible things I have ever seen: Fritz literally landed on the cliff - not ploughed or crashed but landed. One sole piece of ledge was waiting there all these thousands of years just for Fritz to land on. Needless to say, I burst out laughing.



Like an idiot I didn't bring radios but luckily my buddy was within cell phone reach and I was able to speak with him and check that all was fine.

Next was a series of phone calls to my wife and friends to try and organize a rescue. A friend Andy De Klerk got hold of BASE jumper/climber Jeremy Samson who in turn called me to assess the situation. We decided on meeting in a nearby parking lot and I would help them carry gear up.

Before long Jeremy and Graham, another old friend pitched up and we started the hike.



The original plan for Jeremy was to abseil down to the ledge with gear then abseil down to the bottom. Once on the ledge, Jeremy realized that this just was not going to work; the nearest point was just too far. At this point Fritz was ok but cold and somewhat shaken still. After a few phone calls back and forth between Graham, Jeremy and myself, Jeremy decided it would be best to go up. He gave Fritz a quick briefing on how to do the jumar thingy and they started up.

Jeremy is the funniest man to watch on a mountain. This little guy could be at home in his living room talking to you about the game on tv and he wouldn't seem more casual.

I went and joined Graham to help haul all the other shit up and sooner than we had thought, two heads were popping up over the edge.



As bad as it sounds, this was the most fun I have had in a long time.

And the moral of the story is: No matter what condition it is in, DO NOT BUY A DAGGER.
More seriously though, according to Fritz, his body position was perfect and he recons it could have been the packing. He walked away from this with a scratch on his hand and is this weeks luckiest man alive.



...Still, don't buy a dagger...

You're a pretty talented writer.
I enjoyed the story, and am glad everyone made it out all right.
Oh, and thanks for the advice.

Rain?? it looks like a nice day!

I'm glad Fritz is alive and relatively uninjured!! Next time I guess he will be wearing protective gloves!!
I got to hang with him when I visited SA a few years ago, nice guy.

Good work on the rescue!! Nice pics as well.

Was he not up for a roll-over self-rescue?

I gave Fritz a call while he was still on the ledge and he answered the call like he was in a pub drinking
"Uuuuummmm..... I don't know how I'm gonna get off this thing"

Fritz you're a legend buddy, well done on keeping up the SA tradition of striking a cliff without any injuries

You da man Fritz! Hope you never have to deal with this again...1 withdrawel from bag of luck... Look forward to jumping with you sometime...

The voice-message I received shortly after the incident.

Sorry I couldn't help POC.

That's really nicely written. Glad Fritz is ok!

Ahaha, that's brilliant!!

My wife eventually managed to get hold of Andy who got hold of Jeremy.
Put all these numbers on my not so new phone today. It was quite frustrating not having them at the time.

Here is another one taken with the gopro; spot the orange dot...

Was actually as a BASE reader a bit curious about a self-rescue possibility when I read the original post. Would it have been possible at all should the need have arisen? Not a roll-over obviously but a TARD?

If this question is as tarded as the solution i'm asking about I am sorry. Just curious.

I think that after an event like this the best thing todo is to wait until rescue arrives if that is an option which it was. Also I imagine that one would not be thinking straight. Fritz did suggest packing and doing a go and throw. It might have worked but I told him not to; it would have been a bad choice with his state of mind at the time in my opinion.

Why do you say "obviously" not a rollover? Done correctly, with enough altitude, a rollover would be cleaner/easier to setup (with limited space). I personally tend to get better heading with rollovers than TARDs, (unless it's a smart-TARD, flaked neatly before-hand). And you would want to be extremely current on cliff rollovers. But with cell-coverage and climber buddies, sounds like they sorted it out nicely. Well played! By the way, that jump is amazing! one of my favourites in SA.

I agree that if anything a McConkey would have done the trick better; even more so than a go and throw.
But the best thing to do is just what he did: sit and wait it out until rescue gets there.
I remembered this one when we were talking to each other over the phone:

From BFL
"#50 Terry Forrestal - 2000 Jun 10
Object: Earth
Location: NORWAY, ,
COD: Object Strike/Impact ***
Description:
This is Terry's 8th BASE jump. A videotape shows him having trouble with directional control and tracking. He deploys with a 180 whereupon he hits the wall very hard. Terry comes to rest on a narrow ledge and later probably sees a rescue helicopter approach and then turn back because of fog developing in the immediate area. The full extent of Terry's injuries are unknown at this time but speculation suggests both his legs are broken. At this point, but unknown to Terry, a foot launched rescue effort is advancing on his position. When they arrived, 10 hours later, Terry is gone from the ledge. No one knows if Terry tried to self rescue himself by jumping from the ledge using his reserve canopy (this is done with success by another jumper several years earlier) or if sometime during the night he simply fell. Friends say he probably thought rescue was not in the immediate future. And the 52 year old former SAS is the type to take matters into his own hands. Terry is also a movie actor and stuntman. Some of the movies Terry worked on are Moonraker, Octopussy, A View To A Kill, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Titanic where he played the doomed ship's chief engineer. The following is 2005 information: There is a short film, now making the rounds called Last Stunt concerning Terry's accident that was made in 2002. The film is touring with the Banf Film festival and was recently screened in California. Here's the text of the promo from the film. British stuntman Terry Forrestal arrives in Kjerag in Lysefjorden, one of Norway's greatest fjords. He is going to relax - away from his hectic film work - by BASE jumping from the top of the 1000-metre-high mountain. But one of the jumps goes wrong and a difficult rescue begins. In the film, Terry's sister accuses Norway of bad rescue planning and of running death tourism. This is the story of Terry's last stunt, the promo concludes."

Sorry about that 'obviously', it just kind of jammed its way in there. I am yet to be the proficient BASE reader/jumper I intend to be, and thought a rollover necessitated a bit of free space behind, under the canopy, not to fall into the wall back first while inflating the canopy. And also imagined it needed a bit more height underneath. Thanks for clearing that up :)

safest way in that point is to rappel down him, if you ask me.
Way to go Fritz :) we will see you again soon , well done man