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Wingsuit incident at High Ultimate yesterday apparently. Any more info?

I was told it was a 21 year old from Florida, 80 BASE jumps, flying a Freak. Helicopters stopped flying late last night, and resumed this morning.

Please drop me a private message if anyone
knows more about this 21 year old Floridian.

Latest i've heard was that they recovered him today successfully and he is alive and will be alright! (from a jumper who is on site)

Jumper is confirmed rescued and recovering from non-life threatening injuries. He had to spend the night as rescue choppers found him the following morning. No more details other than the above. Photos on FB show him to be smiling in good spirits.

This was his second ws base jump. Anyone know who took him there?

nobody needs to take you to high ultimate, its the easiest to access and find exit there is... heaps of jumpers are doing jumps there every day

Unrelated to this accident, but if everyone is serious about wanting to make the sport safer, then part of that is also speaking up when you see dumb things happening, and perhaps trying to enforce common sense with those where it doesn't come natural.

Air Glacier and the rescue troop of the Swiss Alpine Club got him out in a 13 hour rescue mission which lasted the whole night. I really hope he had the REGA Card...
If you are in Lauterbrunnen please say thank you to the guys who saved that guys live.
And we said it a 100 times before, these are not beginner jumps and by no means a place to do your second Wingsuit jump! I know many will ignore this advice or/and be lucky and nothing happen. But shit hits the fan from time to time and then it sucks for everyone....
http://mobile2.berneroberlaender.ch/...aa01ab5c372108000001

 
Well said.

Brento is only a short drive away! Why take shortcuts?

I met a very capable paraglider pilot with a long history of hang gliding when I was in the valley 3-4 years ago. He was very aviation "heads up" and had started skydiving and also BASE tracking recently. He lived in the Valley for many many years, decades I think. He still drove every couple of weekends to Brento to work on his wingsuit skills and did not WS jump in his home territory. I know that he did that for at least a season. Only then did he bring the skils back to the Valley. This is what real BASE winguiters are made of. :)

The above was in contrast to a good friend of mine (Max Bond) going directly to the valley and dying on his second WS jump. As others have managed to do.

Come on people, it's a journey and not a destination! Hint: The Valley is toward the end of the journey.

Glad the kid is alright. I would hope that he's not ALL smiles though and this incident has humbled him a little.

I hope he didn't had one ;-)

Is anyone else seeing the problems the ramp brings in summer? In my opinion it takes away from the challenge and the visual pleasure of the jump. As well as this, it's height and convenience sucks in people who shouldn't be anywhere near it. Why is it still up in August?

Because lazy!

What a fool,

he could have done more jumps for cheaper, and less walking if he came to Brevent!

Fixed for you.

Hey Jarno,

This is an unregulated sport that attracts those that tend to push the boundaries, as we all know. This isn't someone overestimating their abilities, rather it's someone that hasn't even done their homework on this one - because if starting WS BASE was the aim, then they would probably be someone else, or at least on a different exit point.

Figuring these people out on high-traffic exit points isn't easy, and they won't go away entirely.

Hope he makes a full recovery - and doesn't make the same gross error of judgement again.

Have you jumped it without the ramp?

Soooo much better without the ramp in summer

It's nothing to write home about with the ramp up, is it??

I've never jumped that exit WITH the ramp... I guess a quick rappel to Low was too scary.

My recommendation is that the ramp should come down if there's no ice/snow on the ground.

Not that it'd make anything safer, but you wouldn't be 'helping' these retards access a technical base jump... anyone can fall off a mountain, but when you build an exit ramp, it becomes an invitation to the overconfident and underskilled...

Blaming the ramp it's like blaming big wingsuits, powerfull bike, etc when underskilled people use it...
You can blame the cable car as well...

i didn't show the guy the exit but was accosted by a geared up jumper for my phone on the way down for my final jump of the day.

all present eye witnesses swore this would have just been a recovery mission (not rescue) and dudes parents were even called to inform them of the incident hours later, before his status of "definitely alive" was known or really even considered.

does anyone know if he pulled a jeb then on the out cropping and then line twisted into the wall face? that's kind of what the article translation came across as.

after seeing air glacier work through the night on this rescue i really see them in a whole new light.. total heros. happening to have a visiting local firefighter at the horner who was willing and able to explain (in english) the difficulties of such rescues made the whole incident a learning experience i valued greatly.

agreed about the ramp, i'd take it down asap even though winter is around the corner.. there are tourists starting to take pictures off the end of it and this year i have yet to come to that exit without two sets of tourists chilling by the fence at exit.

such a shame to loose that exhilarating rampless exit to a plank we walk for summer.

Damn base jumpers adding shit all over my nice rocky summer mountain exit point... Go jump other objects of you want to, there's plenty of man-made shit to exit from.

Just to be clear, the ramp on high ultimate was not set up by the SBA. A jumper set up the ramp privately. He was suposed to take it down during summer but not do it this year.
I am personally against the ramp even during winter. This is just my opinion...
I prefer this jump without the ramp.
But even taking the ramp down will not protect the jumpers from their stupidity...
As an example: Tracking from Via Ferrata a couple of years ago was a hardcore jump and only a few really good trackers attempted this jump. Now a days, many jumpers track this jump who have absolutely no business doing this. Most of them end up making it barely over ledges and ending up pulling way to close to the wall.
The main reason for this is that we observe that the jumpers get more stupid and are by far less educated then a couple of years ago. They rush into the sport without mentoring and without the proper training.
So mark my words, one of the next fatalities we will hear about in Lauterbrunnen will be a tracking fatality from Via Ferrata, this is sure…

No disrespect, with this being your home ground, but that's a bit of a defeatist attitude. It's obvious that this ramp makes it easier for people with little WS experience to jump something that otherwise wouldn't. And as mentioned above, if people like man made things, buildings are good. I was very disappointed to see the ramp up when I arrived a few weeks ago. Couldn't you guys take action and just remove it?

I think cliffs don't need ramps
Swiss Base Association should remove it...i think

Here are just my very personal thoughts:

1) Since SBA didn´t install it the ramp, they are not in the position to take it away

2) If ramps are a factor for accidents, one should follow earlier recommendations (take away all wingsuits, BASE-gear, cars, guns whatsoever)

3) Or trust BASE-jumpers that they use their brain (if exists) for decision making

4) It is all about human responsibility and not about ramps, tools etc.

Glad to read that the fellow jumper was lucky enough to survive and hopefully fully recover! Wish him all the best!!!

Hmm...
People with little experience in WS could go to Brento or Norway not to LB. But... at the end it's BASE. We do what we want and nobody will tell me what to do ;)

I like personal freedom, I am scared of groups,
they often infringe on my rights as an individual.

Having the right to say or do something stupid
does not mean I have to celebrate your choice.

jumper is well enough to give interviews for local newspaper

http://mobile2.bernerzeitung.ch/...098cab5c3752d7000001

short summary:
-his legs are broken, surgery pending
-he is incredibly thankful to all the rescue team
-he said he flipped over after the exit, hitting the wall with his back which opened his container/canopy facing the wall
-he will take some time to recover and learn from the incident but plans to continue jumping. wishes to be back to lauterbrunnen one day thanking the rescue team in person

http://mcdn.newsnetz.ch/...0x641.jpg?1470813112
Darwin award contender

if anyone can give me the names of the crew he was jumping with that would be great. my list of people i stay far away from is growing rapidly.

also, the ramp is dumb. man-made shit is every OTHER type of object.

Personal freedom is such a catch 22

But... what... How???

If someone can't push strong, square and stable from a ramp then what hope would they have had from natural exits?

thats what i thought... he scorpioned hard and then flipped over (remember all in a freak) and hit the wall with his back/container first... thats an advanced acrobatic maneuver
lucky that didnt break his spine

If it was so offensive to you, why didn't you remove it yourself, BigfcknMouth?

Haha. Are you RobinHeid with a new name? Don't take a constructive conversation and turn it towards the toilet. I was being polite with my opener.

Cant fix stupid..

2nd wingsuit from HU says it all

Ramp or no fucken ramp



Jewbag would be all over this like a fat jewish kid on a rice crispy..

PUssYs BiG

I must say, that is a pretty close call.
Just so stupid. :(

I get the feeling though that had the ramp not been there he would have had the same thing happen at one of the other LB exits.

I was in LB recently and heard stories of others starting WS BASE there, one from the ramp and one from Via Ferrata. Why people don't make the short trip to Brento for such a jump is beyond me.

This dickhead almost lost his life out of pure stupidity and laziness.

agreed Patto. really poor decision making. and i believe strongly in personal accountability, but seriously, no one else with him thought this was a bad idea?

i don't fully understand these people that want to keep killing themselves in wingsuits, but at least pretend to stack the odds in your favor. fuck. this isn't complicated.

What I never get is why go to the valley knowing your gonna start wingsuiting.

Brento is cheaper to stay (Means more money for more time jumping )

Brento is higher (Means more flight time to get use to ground awareness )

Brento is Approx 80 metres over hung (Means if you fuck up you limit your chances of being in BIG BIG trouble)

Brento has a shuttle (Means gone are the days you actually have to hike to jump)

And brento has 2 jumps in the morning then swimming and perving on hot Italian chicks whilst eating peppermint gelato then a afternoon Jump if your wingsuiting as I don't advise trackers for afternoon load but that's my own beliefs..

I don't get why you would choose swiss valley over Brento

http://www.nbcnews.com/...-hours-after-n626481


Yup.

I recently lit up one such wunderkind on FB for this (doing his 1st WS jump off Via); my comment saw only little support from us experienced jumpers. While it's a delicate balance between being a dick and watching a possible fatality, we should speak up or lose the privilege of jumping in the valley.

The delicate balance between being a dick
and watching a possible fatality or injury.

-Brian aka Surfers98


Very true and the longer one is active in this
deadly game of seconds, the more times he
or she will likely be put in this shitty situation.

Volume. People have been pulling +10 jumps a day from HU. If you split the cost of your trip per jump, the valley is where your money's at.

Also (unrelated to the quoted comment), blaming the ramp is very short sighted. People are responsible for their own actions. People will do stupid shit. I've done stupid shit. Not accepting this and trying to change things causes more problems than it solves, e.g., arbitrary, subjective rules based on metrics that makes no sense, as seen in skydiving.

Chasing # is the best way to get a BFL#

But I guess that's the difference between a newer jumper and a older jumpers thought mentality.


I wish you all a long journey...

+1

from an old jumper (60 years old, 19 years in BASE, 10 years in wingsuit BASE incl. lot`s off the ramp at High Ultimate)

it is all about attitude - at least from my point of view

not saying that I've never done or will do stupid stuff - however, most likely on purpose as a clear "management decision"

I ve known Coleman from jumping with him in Sebastian where he works at.

Most BASE jumps out of antennas, pretty good wingsuit flyer out of a plane.

Glad he is alive. His family got the call of him being dead and then again a call of him being alive the next day.....talk about an emotional rollercoaster.

in this way it s pretty "good"
Tell him he is an asshole

So this guy is evidently pretty good jumping OUT of antennas and planes. Awesomesauce!!! The valley is doomed. Enjoy it while you can.

The guy's in a wheelchair shooting morphine and running through those few almost last seconds of his life every time he closes his eyes. He's already got a leg up (pun intended) on the other 8 who died last week and won't get a second chance to learn from their mistakes.

Who here wasn't a stupid fucking idiot when they were 21? Most of us would be dead if we had access to a cliff and a Freak at 21. Kudos to the FJC/FFC providers who don't teach people under ~25.

All of that is true, and yet Coleman is still an asshole. You know why?

Because with the internet, with the Great Book of BASE, with these forums, with the number of jumpers, with the scene as it exists today it is IMPOSSIBLE to not know that learning to WS BASE in LB (and off HU especially) in a large suit is a bad idea. If this kid is able to read or listen he went to the valley, and to that exit, in that suit, KNOWING FULL WELL IT WAS A STUPID IDEA.

But guess what...it wasn't a stupid idea for him. At least not in his mind. It was a stupid idea only for other people. He was too good for it to be a stupid idea for him. After all, he's pretty good out of a plane.

And it's that line of thinking which makes him an asshole.

Maybe he's learned his lesson. It took a few broken bones and a heli-rescue and a night spent out on an exposed ledge to teach him. But if this is what it takes for you to learn...you're an asshole.

I hope he's learned his lesson. I hope he's learned humility. I hope he comes back older and wiser and teaches young kids about his experience...but I've got my doubts.

The same thing applies to the wunderkid Surfers98 was blowing up on FB. That kid's an asshole too. He just chose Via (which is ever so slightly better) and got away with it. Great. Now he can continue to be an asshole without consequence. For now.

Maybe we would all have done the same thing if we started in our teens or early twenties. Not all young kids in this sport are assholes...but the correlation is undeniable.

I agree, but you're talking to someone who has likely already been called an idiot by many of his friends and family just getting into the sport before he could legally buy a beer. Being told something is a "bad idea" is a daily occurrence. At some point you just stop listening and do what you gotta do.

Every day experienced jumpers with fully developed brains make jumping decisions that they know are stupid (usually involving weather), most of the time they get away with it. You can't expect a 21 year-old to do better.

The only thing that would have worked is a close friend or mentor talking to him or taking his rig/WS. Once you're at the Valley with 80 jumps and a Freak, it's probably too late.

Um. Yes you can. I started skydiving in '99 at 19yo. I made roughly 400 skydives before I hit 21. BASE was around. BASE was available. I ground crewed for the first time close to my 22nd birthday. I realized that it was a dangerous sport and I wasn't ready yet. It took a few hundred more skydives and about 400 hours flying an airplane (while earning my CFI) that I felt ready to approach BASE jumping.

You can't excuse him being an asshole because he's 21. He's an adult, and made an asshole decision. There are a lot of assholes out there of all ages. I expect everyone to be better regardless of age.

Glad he's alive.

+1. Started with skydiving at 18 and BASE at 20. Maybe we had better teachers. If I told my mentors I was taking a big WS to HU with no experience, the would have laughed me out of the crew.

Kudos. But things are different now. Thanks to FJCs and Ceb Jorliss you have people with 50-100 skydives getting into BASE. They're not assholes, they're just impatient and naive.

If it wasn't HU it would have been Brento with maybe a gainer on his second jump. You can't save people from themselves.

That is just passing the blame, this is all Coleman
Do we even know if he did a FJC?
Do we know if he told anyone what he was doing?
I was with a Aussie in the valley a few years ago, he was told by at least 5 people not to jump his suit from HU, he did anyway. That wasn't Jeb's or a FJC's fault, again all the individual

It's not like if Squirrel said the Freak is not a beginner suit and if we have a warning label on the exit about the jump.

My point exactly. To prevent this you need to get involved way before so they either don't bring a WS when they know they're not ready (not stashing one in the suitcase just in case they feel ready by the end of the season) or have their WS BASE progression planned out sensibly.

And kicking them out of your crew doesn't help. Having sensible mentors whose advice actually matches their actions is important. "Do as I say, not as I do" doesn't work in BASE. It is the jumper's fault, but it's a predictable result of the LB Disneyland debaucherous groupthink.

You're still an asshole by making a decision based on that level of experience. Sure he looked cool on FB telling his friends he bought a big suit and is going to LB to WS base.

Asshole

This kind of shit will eventually catch up with you. Also, the grim reaper doesnt care if someone's 21 or 71. Sometimes all goes well until the day it doesnt and you take a wrong step.

I honestly can't believe you are defending someone who made such a stupid decision. It is a known fact that jumping in the valley is a delicate dance with the locals and all the shit they have to deal with from over zealous newbies. There really is NO EXCUSE. Do some research. Do some tracking. Familiarise yourself with exiting a big wall in a tracking suit and spend some time at the Horner hinting at your plans in advance and see what more experienced people think about your potential stupidity. I really feel for the SBA and their seemingly futile attempts at keeping this place going. As someone said earlier, enjoy it while you can.

Couldn't agree more. Those damn kids in their early twenties think they know everything. Like they're invincible or something. Total assholes.

Pattern recognition is affected by one's perspective.

Perspective is developed over time with experience.

Well said.

I generally avoid any comments in the incidents forum, but maybe this will be helpful to someone out there, and maybe curb a bit of the name calling and viciousness.

I don't really know Coleman personally, but I had the opportunity, just over a year ago, to participate in his first Tandem Instructor jump as an "evaluator" riding front. Coleman came into the course very experienced for someone his age. I was impressed with how calmly he handled the course and his first jump was textbook. I am sure I told him that, and I am sure that he has heard how far ahead of the curve he is throughout his skydiving career. Some people are just naturals, and he seems to be one of them. I certainly was not.

Perhaps, for others out there who have advanced quickly and smoothly, it can be a learning experience for you to know that even if you have always performed far and above those around you in skydiving that BASE can be less forgiving, and that the learning curve is more steep.

We make decisions based on our past performance and experience. Expecting to continue to perform ahead of the curve in a related sport doesn't make someone an asshole. It may show their youth and inexperience, but it doesn't necessarily show they have disregarded what they have been told, just that they have tempered it with their limited experience, as we all do.

I hope he recovers quickly, and send him the same positive thoughts and energy I send to any of our group who find themselves in an unfortunate position. We all mess up, and I save my angst for those who fail to learn from their first big mistake. I suspect Coleman won't be one of those.

Peace and strength to those dealing with the fallout from all of these incidents.

Could be interesting to see a statistical analysis of fatalities vs. experience. Only ~300 to get a complete population. With plenty of the most experienced going in as well, I wouldn't be surprised is there is no correlation. At least to me, someone experienced pushing too hard and getting killed is no different than someone without experience being stupid and getting killed, end result is the same. Experienced jumpers make stupid mistakes and have bad exits too, 3 that come to mind are the recent rigging error, recent bad exit on Titilus, and recent stepping on tailwing during exit.

Food for thought, and with no disrespect to Severin and not attempting to defend Coleman, I know Coleman well and knew Severin at arms length. Less than a week before Severin died, he "reacted" with an angry face to an article about Coleman's jump on FaceBook, only to go in from what appears to be exactly the same error at a different site (apparently the same exit that killed Jhonathan Florez?).

#WatchWhereYaThrowThoseStones

I am struggling to keep up with everything, what are the details surrounding Severin?

PM'd what I know (only what is on Blinc at this point), don't want to derail the thread.

I'm sorry but just because he's used to having his johnson tugged by everyone at the DZ does NOT excuse such an egregious fault in judgment.

Huge suit. No experience. Terrible exit choice. Terrible exit. I mean...can you name ONE thing he did right here? He was wrong the second he got off the f*cking plane in Zurich instead of Milan.

That's nice that you like him, and I hope he learns too. But he's an asshole.

We all make mistakes. I might have a thread named after me here one day. Nobody is perfect and nobody is invincible...but what the f*ck man? This one is as clear as day.

So there seems to be a continuation of some bad info that is going around, I thought it would have cleared up by now. I don't like being a "source" but here goes...

I'm also not trying to defend him, he fucked up, no doubt. But to get the story right...

Low BASE experience ~80 total and this was his 14/15th WS BASE jump (2nd in the valley) Idk where the others were.

He was with a group of other jumpers who were present at the time of the jump. I only know one of them so I can't really comment on the experience level of the people he was with.

Highly experienced WS pilot including XRW, if I had to guess, well over 500 sky WS jumps. In a non-BASE environment the Freak was well within his ability to fly. Given what happened, (bad push and subterminal impact) I wouldn't be surprised if it would have been the same outcome in a P3 or a tracksuit.

Just goes to show how little all that counts for, if you take shortcuts and make stupid decisions.

And that's where there needs to be a complete change of mind.

500 wingsuit skydives are nothing. 500 jumps at 2 minutes are approximately 16-17 hours of flight time.
Tell me how would you rank a pilot with 16 hours of flight time? How does anyone rank in any sport with 16 hours of training? Beginner. Should a beginner pilot fly a jet (Freak is a high performance suit)?

Also what did he do during these 500 jumps? Just fly in a straight line? Backfly? Acro? Steep?

90% of people are beginner to intermediate pilots who should not be standing at any exit and if they do, Brento.

Indeed, as the GBB says, for WS BASE you need to be a highly experienced WS pilot and a highly experienced BASE jumper.

To answer your question, all of the above, plus XRW. You also don't read well, I said "I would guess well over 500" that means that is an extremely conservative estimate on my part.

500 would be double what is considered the minimum to fly the largest suits on the market by the people who manufacture them. Comparing fixed wing time to wingsuit time is apples and oranges mate. I don't know where you are from but apparently you only jump with Jarno and Farrington or something. 500 WS jumps is "highly experienced" by any standard I've ever known. Are there folks with a lot more experience, yeah there are.

I've only got about 300 sky WS jumps (0 WS BASE in case you are wondering) and I can backfly a C2, take it damn near vertical, and have never been unstable for more than 2 or 3 sec (in any WS ever). Are you trying to say I'm some kind of prodigy? Because in my experience I'm about average.

Was Coleman ready for this BASE exit, no, not even in a tracksuit. Should he have been WS BASE'n a Freak, probably not. But to try an call 500 WS jumps a "beginner," you are retarded.

You are the perfect example of how new wingsuiters completely misjudge their skill level like so many others who unfortunately end up having an accident or worse. It's pretty much impossible to try to talk sense into new jumpers nowadays.

I'm not bragging, most of the people I jump with are far more experienced than me, many of them more than I will ever be. And anyone can go in on any jump. I'm just asking when is someone not a beginner WS flyer? Backflying one of the largest suits on the market that is indeed not designed to be back flown is still a beginner? Do I need to be able to solve a rubiks cube while terrain flying on my back in a Viper before I'm not a "beginner?" And I only have 3/5ths of what you consider basically zero experience.

There are probably less than 100 people in the whole world with over 1,000 WS flights. Probably less than 1,000 with over 500. You need a prospective check. You're basically calling everyone but the top 10% "beginners." That would be like calling everyone in the NFL except the team that wins the Super Bowl "amateurs."

With 500 Sky jumps you are a total beginner for the exit which is one of the crucial steps in a basejump, the 500 jumps are worthless on the exit. A good base tracker with 200 trAcking jumps and only 60 or 70 WS jumps from an airplane is 10 times more qualified to do a Wingsuit basejump in my opinion.

You spelled "brevent" wrong

Why go all the way to Brevent when "High Le Mousse" is right there.

This is so true and people need to get their head around this!!

BASE is a different animal. So what if you were a drop zone hero, you are in the mountains now. It's a different game and you need to respect it. You need to earn it, and you earn it by taking your time and putting in the work...

Newbie base jumper jumping a wing suit - wtf?
Newbie base jumper jumping a high performance wing suit of High Ultimate - W! T! F!

I mean, come on - It' called High Ultimate for a reason

Right, no one is questioning any of those things. But that is not what was being discussed. 1,000,000,000,000,000 wingsuit proximity flights from a heli and no BASE jumps makes you a BASE newbie (duh!), but you are probably a fucking unbelievable WS pilot at that point. B52 posited that 500 WS flights was still a beginner, unrelated to the BASE environment, which is retarded.

For fucks sake, actually read what people write.

500 wingsuit flights from a plane - or skills as you say - count. But what was actually learned from those 500 jumps? Did you grow from it, mature, develop a healthy respect for the activity you are involved in? Or did it boost your ego, make you over confident/misguided in your own actual abilities? Did it Make you say "I've got this, I have 500 flights and 15 ws base jumps"?

I think that is B52s point, which I'm afraid you kinda missed.
We all throw stones in a glass house here - it's base jumping and it's fucking dangerous.

Peace man, and fly safe

I think people are missing your point a bit here. I'll concede that 500 WS skydives makes you a relatively experienced WS skydiver. I'll also concede that WS skydive experience is ONE of a few prerequisites which should be considered mandatory for WS BASE.

This kid, however, forgot about literally every other prerequisite. I know WS BASE jumpers with well over 200 WS BASE jumps who won't touch that ramp. That should say something.

I know you're not defending him and just trying to make sure our facts are correct. Thank you for that.