A BASE jumper is “lucky” to be alive after a botched jump off Ha Ling Peak resulted in a “high risk” rescue late Saturday morning (March 12).
The man deployed his parachute immediately after jumping off the north face of the iconic mountain near Canmore, which caused its lines to tangle and bounced him into a sharp rock wall, said Jeremy Mackenzie, public safety specialist.
The man, whose age and name were not released, then slid approximately 250 metres until the parachute’s fabric caught the rocky edges about 80m above ground.
The BASE jumper suffered severe fractures to his lower leg, ankle and foot.
“He got lucky,” said Mackenzie. “He was with a group and he was the first to jump, but the others didn’t jump after him.”
The battered man used his cellphone to call his peers and they alerted emergency personnel about the situation.
Kananaskis public safety specialists, along with Alpine Helicopters personnel, responded and were able to perform a “high risk” rescue.
“This is the extent of combined skill level with the public safety program and helicopter pilots – it doesn’t get harder for difficulty,” said Mackenzie.
A public safety specialist heli-slung onto the scene and built an anchor to secure the injured man.
A second member then assisted in evacuation of the man down to a waiting ground EMS, where he was transported to Canmore Hospital.
Ha Ling is one of two mountains in Kananaskis Country that are approved for paragliding or BASE jump launching, with Mount Lady Macdonald being the other.
BASE jumping is an activity that requires jumps from four categories of fixed objects – building, antenna, span, Earth – with a parachute.
