Mario Richard, BASE Jumper and Sky Diver, Dies at 47

Chris Hunter
Mario Richard estimated that he had performed 7,000 sky dives and 2,000 BASE jumps, and had never had so much as a sprained ankle.

By JOHN BRANCH
Mario Richard, a leader in the extreme sport of BASE jumping, in which participants leap from fixed objects and use a parachute to break their fall, died Monday while wingsuit flying in the Dolomites in Italy. He was 47.





Chris Hunter
Mario Richard and his company, Moab B.A.S.E. Adventures, were the subjects of a New York Times article in 2012.


His death was confirmed by family and friends in the United States. Details of the accident were unclear Tuesday, but the Italian news media reported that Richard hit a cliff wall minutes after his wife, the professional rock climber Steph Davis, had jumped successfully.
BASE jumpers launch themselves not from airplanes, but from objects attached to the ground. The acronym stands for buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and the earth (cliffs).
Moab B.A.S.E. Adventures, a company started by Richard and Davis, was thought to be the first commercial operation to offer tandem BASE jumps — in this case, the towering sandstone formations surrounding Moab, Utah.
Richard and Davis combined their talents and passions, leading customers on guided hikes or climbs and attaching them to the front of Richard for a fall of 1,000 feet or more.
Increasingly, when diving solo in their free time, the Richard and Davis wore wingsuits, sometimes called squirrel suits, to extend their flights before pulling the parachute. The suits are webbed under the arms and between the legs to slow the fall and give more experienced users some ability to maneuver through the air before pulling the parachute.
BASE jumping is one of the more dangerous thrill pursuits because of the low margin for error. Last week, Mark Sutton, who wore a James Bond costume while parachuting into the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London with a jumper dressed as Queen Elizabeth II, died when he was wingsuit jumping in Switzerland.
Richard, a native of Quebec, began sky diving in 1988 and did his first BASE jump in 1991. He had estimated last year that he had performed 7,000 sky dives and 2,000 BASE jumps, and had never had so much as a sprained ankle.
He was quick to admit that his business and his passion were dangerous.
“But I’ve got very good reasons to come home at the end of the day,” he said in 2012.
Richard moved to Moab in 2007 and soon met Davis. They married in 2011, atop the majestic Parriott Mesa outside Moab, and celebrated by running and leaping off the mesa and gliding to earth with parachutes.
“It’s a simple device,” Richard said last year of the little-considered parachute, something he spent years building and designing earlier in his career. “And it makes us do extraordinary things.”
Survivors include Davis, two sisters and a brother.