Base jumpers die in Switzerland

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/18/base-jumpers-die-in-switzerland

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Two Base jumpers, including a British man, have died in Switzerland, police said.

Both accidents occurred on Wednesday near Lauterbrunnen in the Alps, which is considered a hub for Base jumping, one of the world’s most dangerous sports.

The British victim was a 49-year-old man who jumped from the “High Ultimate” peak at Muerren and crashed into a cliff, police said, adding that he had not yet been identified.

He is the second British Base jumper to have died in the last fortnight after David Reader, 25, died when his parachute failed to open on a leap in the French Alps on 7 August.

Police in the Swiss canton of Bern said on Thursday that a 30-year-old Italian man jumped from the “Black Line” peak at Stechelberg but lost control of his route and hit a cliff.

Italian media identified him as Uli Emanuele. Profiling Emanuele last year, Vice magazine said he had moved to Lauterbrunnen four years previously and worked there as a dishwasher in between practicing his passion. It said he had logged more than 1,900 jumps and had been exclusively using a wingsuit in recent years.

Most Base jumpers wear wingsuits, which allow them to fly for miles at speeds of up to 120mph (200kmh) before deploying a parachute.

More than 20 people died Base jumping last year, mostly from impact injuries, according to an unofficial count on a website dedicated to the activity.

A study published in the medical journal Bandolier in 2007 which compared sports found that Base jumping carried the highest risk of death, with a one in 2,317 chance of dying on each leap (50 times greater than skydiving).

Technology has improved since then but a 2013 study in the Wilderness Medical Society journal found that the sport’s rising popularity was leading to more deaths.

High-profile fatalities have included that of the American Johnny Strange, who died in the Swiss Alps while attempting a wingsuit jump last October.

Perhaps the most prominent wingsuit-related casualty was the August 2013 death of Mark Sutton, the James Bond parachutist from the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympics. He was doing a wingsuit jump from a helicopter when he hit a mountain ridge.

Swiss police said investigations were continuing into the latest deaths.