A 27-year-old BASE jumper died Sunday after leaping from a 700-foot Utah cliff when his wingsuit failed to generate enough lift, authorities said.
The man jumped from a ledge in Millville Canyon, about 45 miles north of Ogden, alongside a group of 10 other jumpers. His wingsuit did not give him the lift he needed, and he hit the ground at high speed.
Officials reported that two medical helicopters raced to the scene. The jumper was declared dead. His name was withheld pending family notification.
Cache County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Doyle Peck described the victim as experienced in the sport. Peck also gave a blunt account of what happened on the jump.
"On today’s jump, something went wrong, and he did not have enough lift with his wingsuit," Peck said. "He impacted the ground at a high rate of speed resulting in his death."
Millville Canyon is known for steep rock faces that attract BASE jumpers. BASE jumping pairs a leap from a fixed point, buildings, antennas, spans, or cliffs, with a wingsuit or parachute. The margin for error is thin. Speed builds fast. Equipment and timing have to work on the first try.
Peck’s assessment left little room for mystery. Something went wrong in flight. The suit did not produce enough lift. The impact killed him.
No other injuries among the group of 10 were detailed in the available official statements. No charges or new restrictions were announced in connection with the death.
The fatality added to a grim tally for the sport. The BASE Fatality List, a log kept by an online community that tracks the activity, has counted 541 reported BASE-jumping deaths worldwide since 1981. Before Sunday, the log had already recorded 15 such deaths globally this year.
Utah had already seen two BASE deaths in June. Daredevil Andy Lewis, 39, and a 50-year-old man were killed in a botched tandem jump at Mineral Bottom, a remote desert area near the Utah-Colorado line. Lewis had performed during Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. That earlier wreck was separate from Sunday’s crash in Millville Canyon, but it underscored the same hard fact: when a jump goes bad in this sport, survival odds collapse in seconds.
Sunday’s victim was 27 and, by the deputy’s own words, seasoned. Experience did not save him once the wingsuit failed to do its job over a 700-foot drop.
Extreme sports sell freedom and adrenaline. They also demand that adults own the risk when gravity wins. A wingsuit is not a video-game power-up, and a canyon ledge is not a controlled arena. When the lift is not there, the ground does not negotiate.
