After two base jumpers had to be rescued from the Stawamus Chief in less than a month, the mayor of Squamish B.C. is calling for a ban on the extreme sport in his community.
Three weeks ago, a 27-year-old base jumping enthusiast was blown back into the face of the massive rock. He was lucky to escape with just a fractured leg.
On Monday, rescuers returned to the mountain to retrieve another stranded base jumper, tying up emergency resources at a time when a search for two missing hikers was also underway.
Squamish Mayor Greg Gardner says that he has nothing against the extreme sport, in which people jump off fixed objects using parachutes, but he believes the Chief is not the best peak for it.
"It is not safe to jump off the Stawamus Chief. It's a sheer granite cliff, but more importantly this is a windy area; the name Squamish is Coast Salish for ‘mother of the wind,'" Gardner told CTV News.
He believes the time has come for provincial regulations. Either base jumpers should be required to use only safe, sanctioned peaks, or have insurance to pay for rescues and injuries.
Tim Emmett, one of the world's best known base jumpers, lives in Squamish, and he says that some of the sport's practitioners are taking unnecessary risks by jumping when it's too windy.
After the July rescue, he told CTV News that the jumper bore the majority of responsibility for his accident, because of the wind conditions during the jump.
"This is 99 per cent human error. He really shouldn't have been there. It is irresponsible for him to have put the rescuers at that risk," Emmett said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger
