Basejumper.com - archive

http://www.franceinfo.fr/...s-1142071-2013-09-14

I am nobody to judge, I have absolutely no info besides this news article, but please, all of you, please fly/open higher

An American of 33 years was killed on Saturday in Chamonix ( Haute-Savoie ) during a flight in "wingsuit". This is the sixth person killed since the beginning of the summer in the Alps on a break in wingsuit, discipline which is to jump from a cliff with a combination in the form of wings, prior to activating a parachute.

The man from California is death to 15h30 on Saturday, after jumping out of the Brevent (2,525 meters), a summit accessible by cable car from Chamonix, in Haute-Savoie . Age of 33 years, he practiced this extreme sport that is called the "wingsuit", and that is to jump from a cliff, fitted with a combination in the form of wing to go more quickly, before activating a parachute.

Except that, since the beginning of the summer, several persons have not been able to operate their parachute to time. This is the sixth death in the Alps, since the beginning of the summer. The platoon of gendarmerie of high mountain (PGHM) has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.

►►► HAS also read extreme Sport: a summer murderer to the wingsuit

The practice of "wingsuit" is permitted from the Brevent, except between 10h and 15h (to avoid collisions with the paragliders), and to condition to prevent the PGHM (to check that no helicopter does stolen in the area), that the victim had done. The hops in the Brevent se are strongly developed since July 2012 and the setting on line of videos of flights on the internet.

Another time we have to say. This is not a jump for those who arent completely and totally confident in their exit that they will nail it every singe time without fail. I was very surprised to see that this jumper was jumping this exit less than a day ago, and I really wish I had said something. A couple of others have shared the same sentiment. If you see your friends doing something that is outside of their comfort or ability level, tell them. It might save their lives.

Was this in fact an exit related accident? Have any of the other Brevant accidents been exit related?

clean up your exits before coming to Brevent

like nikfrey said, as far as I know there was not one exit related fatality there up to now. of course you need good exits on most of the difficult jumps... but once the exit is done the danger starts. rocks and trees are not made for bouncing of them...

From what Roch wrote on the FBA board, the guy had only 75 wingsuit jumps on 4 different wingsuits model. He was jumping an apache on this one. He made a flat head high start never found the good flying angle, flew a few second nearly in stall never past the cables, pulled a few meters high over the ground and impacted.

Some of his friends told him not to jump Brévent but he did.

I would argue that this jump the exit is the only mandatory technical part of this jump. If you fly straight out, after about 5 seconds you will be hundreds of feet above anything, and over the landing at well above 1000 feet.

That's 75 wingsuit jump in total? Or 75 wingsuit BASE jumps?

75 BASE, not sure of his WS sky numbers but it's got to be in the 200+ range

I'm not sure how many WS BASE jumps he had. I would believe you if you told me 75. He had a lot more non-WS BASE jumps though on a very wide range of objects.

He had hundreds of WS skydives and was very current in his Apache. He also had a lot of balloon skydives in it practicing his exits.

which he looked like he was exiting head high off the balloon.

Hello,

Having 75 WS jumps from cliff, and going to jump a highly technical exit like Brevent is suicidal.
Exit point like Brevent is for very experienced jumpers. Experienced means several hundreds WS jumps, from many exit points with many years of exercice. It requires to be current, if you do only few dozens WS base jumps a year, don't go there. And if you only have few WS base jump with your suit, don't go there, it's not a test jump. And it requires to have an high experience for technical exit where you need to push hard and start fast.
As long as we do not stick to the rules, there wil be accidents.

Jean-phi

To be clear, I'm not defending the choice to jump it. It obviously wasn't a good decision in retrospect. I'm simply trying to fill in some of the gaps here with what I know about his experience.

He was a friend and will be missed by many here in SoCal. I'm saddened by the loss and disappointed that my first posts on these boards are in the Incident forum. =/

You can't push off a balloon.

It's useful to a point but it's not a substitute for launching off rock - I wouldn't be able to replicate anything like my normal BASE exit on a balloon jump.