BASE Jumping

BASE (Buildings, Antennae, Spans, Earth) jumping involves leaping from fixed objects at altitudes far too low for conventional skydiving — jumpers may have as few as 2–3 seconds before parachute deployment must occur. The fatality rate is estimated at one death per 2,317 jumps, compared to roughly one per 100,000 skydives. Norwegian pioneer Carl Boenish made the first recorded BASE jump from El Capitan in 1978 and died in a jump in 1984; his legacy is a sport that now draws thousands of participants to sites from the Eiger to the Kuala Lumpur Tower.