Heart-stopping rescue: Crews pluck stranded BASE jumper from Stawamus Chief – BC
There were some terrifying moments for a BASE jumper in Squamish, B.C., on Wednesday, who was left dangling from her parachute on the face of the Stawamus Chief.
Squamish Search and Rescue was called to the popular climbing and recreation area after someone reported the jumper trapped on the rock face just below the First Peak.
“(She) was suspended about 100 metres below her takeoff point,” Squamish Search and Rescue search manager Mike Teske explained.
“She was in a relatively vulnerable position. She was hanging from her parachute from a small outcropping of rock, with probably 200 metres below her.”
After flying to the top to assess the situation, Teske said crews determined they couldn’t perform a helicopter rescue due to the risk the aircraft’s downwash could blow the woman from her precarious position.
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That meant gearing up for a conventional rope rescue instead, an operation that ultimately involved 32 Search-and-Rescue volunteers.
A large crew of team members lowered one of their colleagues down the rock face to the victim, where they were able to get her out of her parachute and safely connected to their rope system.
The pair were then lowered to the ground, where paramedics carried her to a waiting ambulance.
Global News is seeking an update on the jumper’s condition.
Teske described the operation as “smooth,” something he attributed to the fact crews have been called to multiple similar rescues in the same location.
“This is the third rescue of a BASE jumper in the same location that I have been a part of,” he said.
“We do a couple of these every year, base jumpers, fallen climbers, wingsuiters, you name it.”
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