Base Jumper rescued from ledge on the Prow

[squamish climber]

Sounds like this guy is very lucky.

Basejumper rescued from Squamish Chief crevice


BY ANDREA WOO, VANCOUVER SUN JULY 14, 2010 8:45 PM


A 27-year-old man is being called “the luckiest man around” after blowing back into the cliffside while basejumping off the Squamish Chief Thursday.

Squamish Search and Rescue manager John Howe said a call came in around 2 p.m. that a man was stuck on the Prow Wall of the Chief.

“He jumped off a cliff and slammed into this ledge which is about three metres square, sloping,” Howe said. “He was able to hang on to this little tree that prevented him from falling off the edge, and then he was able to cut his parachute loose and made his way to the back of this ledge and held on to a small crack which formed a handhold. It was amazing.”

A Search and Rescue Team was flown to the top of the Chief and lowered down from a ledge near the top of the second peak, Howe said.

The man, who said he was visiting the area, suffered only a minor injury to his foot, which is likely broken. He was rescued around 5 p.m.

“I told him, ‘I think you’re the luckiest man I know,’ ” Howe said. “He was really relieved. Obviously he was in a real pickle, plus he’d injured his foot and was hanging on in a really cramped position.”

Howe said while he has seen many people basejumping off the Chief, this is only the second such incident he remembers in the last 10 years.

Base jumping is when a person uses a packed parachute to jump from a fixed object.

Here is the CTV story http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/201007 ... er_100714/

Any body have pictures.[/quote]

[Brendan]

Is BASE jumping legal here (or on the Chief for that matter)?

[Aaron]

Is BASE jumping legal here (or on the Chief for that matter)?

Perfectly legal. I worked as a Park Ranger for 8 years an know the Park Act very well. There is no section under the Park Act that you could use to charge this guy or any other person for doing what he did.

Aaron Kristiansen

[Anders Ourom]

I had a ringside seat for the latter part of the rescue yesterday, from the first summit.

Section 27 of the Park Act: "A person must not use an aircraft to arrive at or depart from parks or parts of parks that are set out in Column 1 of Schedule A, except as may be provided for in the same row in Column 2 of that schedule."
(A parapente may be considered an aircraft - I believe they are in other jurisdictions.)

Section A provides a list of parks where aircraft landings are banned. It doesn't seem to include Stawamus Chief Provincial Park.
http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws ... /180_90_02

There could be another section or regulation from the Park Act, or some other statute, that prohibits base jumping, or landing. Either specifically, or generally. Base jumpers I've met seemed quite sure that jumping is illegal in the park. But perhaps this is a case where someone just never got around to amending the regulation to include the Chief.

[changlama]

Do we know who it was yet?

[Brendan]

Is BASE jumping legal here (or on the Chief for that matter)?

Perfectly legal. I worked as a Park Ranger for 8 years an know the Park Act very well. There is no section under the Park Act that you could use to charge this guy or any other person for doing what he did.

Aaron Kristiansen

Hopefully now the rules won't change

[Aaron]

I had a ringside seat for the latter part of the rescue yesterday, from the first summit.

Section 27 of the Park Act: "A person must not use an aircraft to arrive at or depart from parks or parts of parks that are set out in Column 1 of Schedule A, except as may be provided for in the same row in Column 2 of that schedule."
(A parapente may be considered an aircraft - I believe they are in other jurisdictions.)

Section A provides a list of parks where aircraft landings are banned. It doesn't seem to include Stawamus Chief Provincial Park.
http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws ... /180_90_02

There could be another section or regulation from the Park Act, or some other statute, that prohibits base jumping, or landing. Either specifically, or generally. Base jumpers I've met seemed quite sure that jumping is illegal in the park. But perhaps this is a case where someone just never got around to amending the regulation to include the Chief.

To enforce basejumping under section 27 would be so week it’s laughable. To use section 27 would be such a ridiculous interpretation, it would be akin to accusing a kid splashing around in a lake with water wings as operating a personal water craft. The reasoning around this section is to limit access to wilderness areas by actual aircraft. No one wants to slog there way for days into some isolated wilderness lake only to be greeted by some a$% hole in their helicopter. And as much as an ideological concept as restricting access to preserve the ambiance of wilderness is, the current politic climate in the Province has recently resulted in amendments to section 27 that makes it weaker then it already is.

Another reason that base jumping in BC parks will never be banned is because there is no political will to create new laws that would restrict access. The funny things about laws, is that it’s hard to impossible to create a law that targets a specific action. If you’re going to restrict one thing, you inevitably end up restricting lots of stuff. That’s why we don’t have a law against “punching people in the face” we just call it “assault”. Besides I don’t know if anyone has noticed but BC Parks is open for business. Access is getting lifted faster than a brides dress, and Park act is being gutted to accommodate. You want to fly a helicopter, open a lodge, and build a sh*t tone of trails for your clients. THEN GO TO TOWN!

The final reason that nothing will change is if a law was passed that would make base jumping illegal. Who’s going to enforce it? The RCMP? I think they’ve got their hands full dealing with go ops, break ins, and highway speeding. The Park Ranger? What Ranger! There are no Rangers left, incase you haven’t noticed. And no that guy who collects you camp fees and tells you to put your dog on its leash at the camp ground is not the Ranger. He’s a contractor, and if he’s wasting his time trying to hunt down basejumpers then he’s a horrible business man.

[Anders Ourom]

I was merely pointing out that the only (flimsy) authority that I could find in the Park Act relating to flying was section 27, and schedule A. Neither of which clearly prohibits base jumping at Squamish, or indeed in most if not all parks. As a lawyer, I wouldn't advise Parks to charge a base jumper based on section 27/schedule A. Very doubtful if it would be successful.

But I'd guess that the jumper is awfully embarrassed. I've spoken with several base jumpers, and the jump from the Prow Wall is considered safe only in calm conditions, usually at dawn or dusk. Jumping on a windy midsummer afternoon is much higher risk.

As you say, the real issues are lack of resources for management of B.C. parks, and the increasing human, particularly commercial and industrial, pressures on parks. (For example, an illicit promotion of an 'energy' drink at the Chief campgrounds and parking lots on Wednesday afternoon.) Something that the Chief particularly is vulnerable to - we fought off the proposed gondola in 2003, and not all threats are as dramatic, but the death of 1,000 cuts which is happening is just as bad.

[Anders Ourom]

Sorry, forgot. My photos of the rescue from Wednesday are at:
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Baseju ... story.html

[dberdinka]

I watched about 6 guys base jump off from the top of Clean Crack (by the Dihedrals) in quick succession maybe a month ago around 6am in the morning.

It struck me as an almost unbelievable launch point as there is a significant ledge and forest maybe 300' down? Apparently the new chute designs deploy extremely fast.