Base jumper rescued then arrested after dangling overnight on mountain
Rescuers reached a Lynnwood man who was base jumping and became stuck on Mount Baring near Stevens Pass after his parachute lines got caught on a rock.
By Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County reporter
A parachutist who spent Monday night dangling from a rock outcropping on Mount Baring in Snohomish County was arrested shortly after he was rescued Tuesday morning on an outstanding warrant for parachuting off the Deception Pass Bridge.
Eldon Burrier, 44, a Lynnwood landscaper, is a former Army paratrooper who took up the dangerous sport of base-jumping about 10 years ago, according to press accounts. He told Snohomish County rescuers that he was making the jump off 5,700-foot Mount Baring, near Stevens Pass, to honor a friend, Aude-Marianne Beretucchi, 32, of Bothell, who died base-jumping off the same peak a week earlier when her parachute failed to open.
Base jumping is the sport of using a parachute to jump from a fixed object, such as a building or mountain. "Base" is an acronym for the things from which participants jump: "building, antenna, span and earth."
Burrier jumped from an 800-foot cliff near dusk on Monday night. His parachute lines caught on a chimney rock about 200 feet down the mountain, said Lt. Kathi Lang of the Snohomish County sheriffs Office. Burrier called 911 from his cellphone at about 9 p.m. and told dispatchers he was dangling from his parachute straps, scraped and bruised, but otherwise uninjured.
He spent the night hanging about 600 feet off the ground, wrapped in his parachute for warmth, Lang said.
A Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue helicopter attempted to reach Burrier Monday night but couldn't do so safely. A ground team climbed up to the parachutist Tuesday morning and, using ropes and pulleys, hauled the man to the top of the mountain where he was airlifted to Granite Falls, Lang said.
Burrier refused medical treatment and was having lunch in Granite Falls when police realized he was wanted on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant from Skagit County. He was arrested and taken to the Skagit County Jail, where he was booked and then released because of jail overcrowding, said Chief Will Reichardt of the Skagit County sheriff's office.
On May 1, Burrier was cited for reckless endangerment after he jumped from the Deception Pass Bridge, which connects Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island, and parachuted to the shoreline about 180 feet below.
Deception Pass State Park rangers said there was heavy boat traffic in the pass that day, and they were concerned about the safety of those on the water.
Burrier failed to appear for a court hearing on the reckless-endangerment charges in July, and a judge issued the arrest warrant, according to court records.
Over the past several years, Burrier's name has turned up in press reports about base-jumping competitions around the country.
In 2004, he participated in a "swooping" contest in New York where jumpers hurtled toward a pond at about 70 miles per hour using small "canopy" parachutes and then maneuvered into surface glides across the water before landing on a far bank.
Burrier told The New York Times, "I'm a speed freak and this is a serious taste of speed."
Two years later, Burrier was quoted in The Denver Post after the death of a sky diver during another swooping competition. He brought red lilies the following day to commemorate the death.
Seattle Times researchers Gene Balk and Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.
Bothell woman dies in mountain plunge when chute fails
by
mknutson
Published on July 18th, 2012 06:45 AM
Bothell woman dies in mountain plunge when chute fails
By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer
INDEX -- A 32-year-old Bothell woman died Sunday after her parachute failed to open properly during a jump off Mount Baring in east Snohomish County, officials said.
Aude-Marianne Bertucchi was involved in a sport called BASE jumping. BASE stands for buildings, antennae, spans (bridges) and earth. She was with her husband when the accident occurred, officials said.
Elaine Harvey, a spokeswoman for the Harvey Field-based Skydive Snohomish, said Bertucchi also was a licensed skydiver.
"Skydive Snohomish is not affiliated with BASE jumping," Harvey said. "They are two completely different sports."
Harvey described the woman as "a skilled skydiver" who was "a well-liked member of the community, a very adventurous person."
Friends said Bertucchi was bright, fluent in several languages and knew the risks of the sport she loved. Bertucchi had been skydiving at Harvey Field the day before her death, they said.
It's unclear exactly what went wrong on Sunday.
"The chute failed to deploy," said chief Kevin Prentiss of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. "She fell 800 feet to her death."
An acquaintance wrote on a forum for a website used by BASE jumpers that he was in contact with one of the two witnesses to the mishap.
The friend wrote: "Her exit was observed to be a clean launch, after which time her descent was obstructed from view. The jumpers explained that they were able to hear her canopy open after 4 seconds, but that she failed to fly out into full view. The two jumpers with her waited a few seconds longer to determine if they could hear anything or spot her canopy emerge."
Mount Baring is a popular area for BASE jumpers.
"I have been told it is one of the better areas in the United States," said John Robinson, a wilderness specialist for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest ranger station in Skykomish.
Snohomish County Search and Rescue airlifted the body to Snohomish. It was then turned over to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office.
The sheriff's office received a report of the accident early Sunday afternoon. Friends described Bertucchi as an avid skydiver who also enjoyed BASE jumping. She worked for an Everett-based aviation engineering consultant.
The Snohomish Medical Examiner's Office said she died of "multiple blunt force injuries."
Mount Baring stands 6,125 feet high. It is northeast of the Skykomish River and U.S. 2 on the western edge of the Cascade Range, about six miles east of Mount Index.
BASE jumpers off Mount Baring typically land near Barclay Lake, which is located beneath the mountain's towering north wall. A well-traveled climber's trail leads up the mountain above the cliffs.
There are no laws against BASE jumping from Mount Baring, Robinson said.
"The only restriction we would have is if it was in the wilderness," Robinson said. "They are not landing in the wilderness. We don't have any regulation to restrict that use."
It wasn't the first time someone died BASE jumping from Mount Baring.
In July 2004, rescuers recovered the body of another jumper who fell 1,000 feet off Mount Baring when his parachute failed to open.
Blincmagazine.com, an online website for BASE jumpers, lists 153 deaths worldwide from failed jumps since 1981. Of that total, 45 were from the United States.
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