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A BASE jumper died in Utah on Sunday morning, after falling about 700 feet from a cliff that authorities said is located in “an area popular with this type of sport.”
The jumper was identified as a 27-year-old man by the sheriff’s office in Utah’s northeastern Cache County, who responded to the incident. They haven’t released his name and said that information would be withheld until the man’s next of kin had been notified.
Cache County Chief Deputy Doyle Peck described the man as an experienced BASE jumper who had participated “many times before” in activities like the one that ultimately led to his death. But, during this particular jump, from a spot just east of Millville Canyon in Utah’s Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, “something went wrong and he did not have enough lift with his wingsuit,” Peck said in a statement.
“He impacted the ground at a high rate of speed resulting in his death,” the statement continued.
A Life Flight helicopter assisted Cache County search and rescue crews as they attempted to reach the man, who had fallen into a gully and couldn’t be reached by ground crews, according to dispatch audio footage. He was declared dead at the scene, said Peck, and the helicopter was able to recover his body.
“We appreciate all of the professionals who responded to this accident,” said Peck. “We also extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of this individual.”
BASE jumping is an extreme sport, in which participants leap from fixed objects such as buildings, antennas, bridges and cliffs, and descend using a parachute. A wingsuit, like the one worn by the jumper in Utah, is an aerodynamic suit designed for skydiving or BASE jumping that aims to allow jumpers to glide through the air during a free fall, according to Red Bull.
In order begin training to BASE jump, courses typically require that participants have significant skydiving experience, according to Base Access, a nonprofit organization focused on education around the sport. But engaging in it is still notoriously dangerous. Two people, including extreme athlete Andy Lewis, died in another BASE jumping accident in Utah over the summer, the Assoiated Press reported.
