BASE jumper rescued from the Stawamus Chief after his parachute gets snagged

Rescue crews say a thrill-seeker in Squamish got a bigger rush than he expected Tuesday evening.

The man was BASE Jumping off the Stawamus Chief, according to Mike Teske with Squamish Search and Rescue.

“His parachute got entangled in a tree,” Teske told Global News.

“He had an accident on the way down and so we responded with a helicopter response and a ground response.”

But the rescue got complicated when daylight faded, and the area clouded over.

Teske says North Shore Rescue was tapped to help with a helicopter loaded with night vision gear.

“Fortunately, they were very successful. The clouds cleared and it was a beautiful night, and they were able to extract the patient from the ledge just below the first peak.”

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While NSR was able to rescue the man, Teske says Squamish crews would have been able to get to him as well, but it would have taken the whole night.

“Had this been a conventional rope rescue, we’d be there until five, six in the morning. There’s a lot of snow and ice on the Chief. So there’s definitely hazards to our team. We would have been successful, but it would have been a very drawn-out exercise and the risk would have been high.”

Teske adds, the man was safely rescued and completely unharmed.

“He was uninjured, miraculously after taking a fall like that. He has no injuries; he will be just fine.”

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