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Following the 2 fatalities at ITW this year there has been some fall out with the local residents, media and politicians.

Similar to Lauterbrunnen this threatens the status of legal jumping here. More often than not the dust settles and things carry on as before..

In this case though the issue has been escalated with one politician pushing to ban jumping, with others pushing to keep it legal.

To help limit the damage and to ensure that our voice is heard the BASE locals have entered in to the game writing articles in the local press and also holding presentations to explain BASE to the public, fire brigade and mountain rescue.

For a brief period around the year 2000 jumping ITW was in fact illegal following a series of accidents. To make jumping illegal (punishable by fine) is actually straight forward, the mayor writes the law and it is enforced the day after.

Luckily public opinion is on our side (for the moment), they respect personal freedom and our choice to realise a dream jumping from ITW.

That said it makes for a stark reality to meet the mountain rescue team face to face and they ask why we sometimes jump in very strong winds and then they must risk their lives flying a helicopter close to a dangerous turbulent wall to rescue us.

Overall BASE has been compared to climbing here in this valley 30 years ago - it was seen as crazy, stupid and reckless. BUT this year Arco is holding the world climbing championship!

So the local council hope the same for BASE, that it will mature and grow - they want us as jumpers to manage ourselves, educating and sharing knowledge to help minimize the accidents - ESPECIALLY accidents caused by low experience and lack of knowledge. They will also support us in this process.

ITW is not for beginners, 6 of the 10 fatalities here involved people with less than 5 BASE jumps. 2 were 1st jumps..

There are a number of proposals being suggested to improve safety, which i will post shortly.

The most important thing we can do though is look out for ourselves and each other. If the wind is too strong better to wait or even hike down. Better that than to risk your life unnecessarily and also that of the mountain rescue volunteers..

No-one expects "zero" accidents but many of the accidents that happen here could be prevented with better preparation and training.

Kjerag, Lauterbrunnen and ITW have become the main focal points of European BASE. If WE don't look after them ourselves then WE will lose them.

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you all are doing the right thing by being proactive.

On a related note, have any efforts been made by BASE jumpers to assist in rescues and/or recoveries? At a minimum, I've always thought it would be advantageous for us to have a "rescue fund" where money could be pooled and then spent helping to insure rescue costs are paid. Perhaps jumpers could work with local climbers to purchase gear and allocate rescue time in the event that someone gets stuck on the wall. It's good that we police ourselves (mostly), but it might help if we can rescue ourselves as well.

Just a thought. I haven't been to ITW for awhile, but I will never forget the first ITW fatality in 2000 that jumped right after me.

Keep up the good work James.

 

The European acceptance of extreme sports, and BASE is so much more common sense than in the USA, that visiting jumpers overlook the possibility that it can be taken away from us here also. These sites are not just the main sites available to Europeans, people are coming to these sites from all over the world because they either don't have anything comparable, or as in the USA, it has been put off limits to them. In order to keep access available for the benefit of everyone, the locals will have to take it upon themselves to police and protect these treasures since it is often the visitors that don't respect what has been made available to them in these countries. It is not unreasonable for locals to impose criteria that will control the disrespectful behaviour of visitors, in fact it is apparently becoming a necessity. It should be obvious to everyone that we are in danger of losing our limited resources for our sport,BASE is by nature a sport that is attractive for it's lack of regulation, but if we're not mature enough to respect what we have then we bring restrictions upon ourselves.If you're in to cat and mouse games go to the States, if you're in to jumping lets protect these sites.