A BASE jumper is dead after his parachute failed to deploy during a jump at the Stawamus Chief Sunday morning.
Squamish RCMP Sgt. Jolaine Percival told CTV News the victim jumped from the Chief’s first peak shortly before 10 a.m., and crash-landed near the Sea-to-Sky Highway, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Police have not identified the victim, but he is being mourned on social media as Gary Kremer, a former U.S. Marine from Seattle who had posted numerous videos of himself BASE jumping - including from the Chief - on YouTube.
The B.C. Coroners Office was called to the scene.
The incident slowed traffic in both directions, closing one northbound lane for a few hours.
Percival told the Canadian press she believes the victim was with a group, and the community of people who enjoy the activity is a tight-knit one.
“It's an adventurous kind of district that we live in, and people from all around the world flock to partake in activities like this,” she said. “Now, it's just ensuring that we deal with the family and get all the BASE jumper's belongings back to the family.”
Sunday’s incident was not the first BASE jumping fatality on the Chief, Percival said.
“I don’t know the stats, but I can tell you that this isn’t the first one that has happened, and it’s not going to be the last,” she said.
In 2010, after a BASE jumper smashed into the cliffside, fractured his leg, and had to be airlifted to safety, then-mayor Greg Gardner said he’d like to see the sport banned on the Chief.
“It’s not safe to jump off the Stawamus Chief,” Gardner said at the time. “It’s a sheer granite cliff, but more importantly this is a very windy area. The name Squamish is Coast Salish for mother of the wind.”
Current Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman said she believes BASE jumping is legal in the provincial park that includes the Stawamus Chief, and it would be difficult for her district to regulate the activity.
“People who do these extreme sports know the risks they're taking, have prepared tremendously to do them, and you just have to hope they're doing things within their skill set.”
“I don't think you can prevent people from trying to push the limits.”
BASE jumping is when people jump from a fixed structure or cliff using a parachute or wingsuit. It's considered more dangerous than skydiving due to the relatively low altitude of the jumps.
The first peak of the Stawamus Chief towers about 540 metres above the highway. The granite cliff draws scores of hikers and climbers daily, and has become a draw for extreme sports fans as well.
A 40-year-old Squamish man died after plunging from the mountain last July while speed flying, a sport similar to paragliding.
With files from the Canadian Press and CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
