Ralph Greenaway, missing hiker near Banff, was possibly BASE jumping

[airdog07]

Ralph Greenaway, missing hiker near Banff, was possibly BASE jumping
Vehicle located near Mount Rundle, but no sign of hiker despite search
CBC News Posted:Sep 09, 2014 1:39 PM MT
Last Updated:Sep 09, 2014 1:39 PM MT


Ralph Greenaway has been missing since last week when he went on a day hike to the Mount Rundle area. RCMP

A hiker missing in the backcountry near the mountain resort town of Banff may have been BASE jumping, say RCMP.
Ralph Greenaway, 40, told friends he was going to Mount Rundle for a day hike last week. Police received a call on Sept. 2 when he failed to return, and a ground and air search were initiated.

• Ralph Greenaway, missing hiker near Banff, sought by RCMP

"It's definitely a possibility he hiked up the mountain and did a BASE jump. But we're still looking at all avenues. His vehicle was found near the mountain as well. So its definitely believed he he did go up the mountain," said RCMP Sgt. Stan Andronyk.
Greenaway is described as being an avid outdoor enthusiast. He is described being roughly six feet tall and 85 kilograms in weight.
Anyone with information in the search is being asked to contact the Banff RCMP at 403-763-6600.
BASE jumping usually involves a leap off fixed objects with a parachute. BASE is an acronym which stands for four types of objects from which jumpers can make the leap – a building, antenna, span, or Earth, such as a cliff.

A former paratrooper from Cambridgeshire is feared dead having been missing for nearly a month after BASE jumping from a Canadian mountainside.
Ralph Greenaway, from Needingworth, has not been seen since he went hiking up Mount Rundle in the Banff National Park on August 31.
Extensive searches of the 6,641 sq km park have so far proved fruitless, with authorities only discovering Mr Greenaway’s truck.
His mum Charlotte said yesterday she was “saddened” yet “philosophical” about her son’s fate.
“We think he’s in the woods somewhere, it’s a very wild place – it’s just where he’d like to be,” Mrs Greenaway said.
“He’s on his hillside where he wants to be, it’s better than burying him in the local cemetery.
“We’ll have a celebration in Banff next summer. If we find him we’ll scatter his ashes and if not, we’ll just go up there and think about him.”
The 40-year-old was a former student at Holywell Primary School in St Ives, St Bedes School in Cambridge, St Ivo School in St Ives and Huntingdon Technical College, taking part in his first parachute jump when he was 16.
He worked locally for a couple of years after leaving college before joining the army when he was 21.
He then served in tours of Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan with the Parachute Regiment.
Upon leaving the army he worked in security for a short time before gaining his helicopter licence while living in New Zealand. He was working in Canada as a helicopter pilot.
“He travelled the world,” said Mrs Greenaway.
“He truly was a world citizen. Life has been a bit hairy ever since he was born really.
“He’s always been the type of person who needs a lot of space. He’s a climber, he’s an ice climber, he’s a mountain biker, he’s done the Marathon de Sables and he’s into Iron Man competitions.
“He would be gutted that he’d caused so much bother. He lived every day of his life to the full and he reviewed every day of his life.”
Mr Greenaway was declared missing on September 2, after he failed to meet friends.

[airdog07]

The search for a missing hiker came to a standstill Tuesday afternoon.

On Sept. 2, Ralph Greenaway was reported missing after failing to make a hiking date with a friend.

It is suspected that the 40-year-old was base-jumping off the cliff of Mount Rundle early on the morning on Sept. 1 and was either injured or got lost in the process.

His black jumpsuit and black parachute were missing from his trunk of his car, which was located near the base of the mountain.

Greenway was not carrying an emergency beacon or any other tracking device and attempts to locate his position by using his cell phone signal were unsuccessful.

Parks Canada and the Banff RCMP consulted with the base-jumping community to determine the most likely areas of take-off and landing.

As a result, volunteer ground search parties from Cochrane and Foothills completed a grid search of the area directly below the west summit, near the Sacre Bleu ice climb, but nothing was found.

“We’ve also had two search dogs deployed in the high likelihood areas, as were determined by the base-jumping community,” said Lisa Paulson, visitor safety specialist for Parks Canada. “That helped direct pretty much every step of the search. We consulted their expertise.”

Extensive aerial searches were performed on the upper- and mid-thirds of the mountain during six consecutive days. But Monday’s snowfall put a halt to operations.

“We knew this weather system was coming so we worked really hard in the preceding days to cover the most likely search areas,” said Paulson.

After a week of searching Parks Canada is in the phase of curtailing the efforts, given the weather conditions and how much terrain has already been searched.

Anyone with information that may help locate Ralph Greenaway are asked to contact Banff dispatch at 403-762-1470.

michelle.ferguson@sunmedia.ca