Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 9.24.14

22 | SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
NEWS
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
BASE JUMP
Continued from page 5
the fringe sport jump.
According to Shapiro, who first
met Weiher skydiving four years ago in California, he had completed hun- dreds of dives before progressing to BASE jumping, as well as wing suit fly- ing, which involves wearing a special- ized suit to lend the human body surface area to fly through the air before deploy- ing a parachute.
“He knew what he was doing. He was not a rookie. He did all the neces- sary training and really respected the progression to reach the point he was at,” Shapiro said. “There were some mis- takes made, but he was not a reckless person just hucking off cliffs. He was a very skilled practitioner of the sport, and unfortunately he had an accident.”
Because Weiher had attempted the Siyeh jump solo, no one knows what led to the fatal mistake. His body was dis- covered the evening of Sept. 14, less than 24 hours after family and friends told park officials he was overdue from the solo trip east of Logan Pass. Weiher was attached to a deployed parachute.
“It’s all speculation, but from what I understand they found him 1,000 feet below the summit on the wall wrapped up in his parachute,” Shapiro said. “He may have ended up in a poor body posi- tion and had to deploy early. He may have been knocked out or killed after contact- ing the wall, or had his parachute deflate if it contacted the wall. He may have ex- perienced line twist, which is one of the dreaded malfunctions that BASE jump- ers can have. It’s all speculation.”
Shapiro described Siyeh as a clas- sic jump because of the steep nature of its north facing cliff and the incred- ible views of Glacier Park it affords. Al- though BASE jumping in Glacier and most national parks is illegal, Siyeh has been jumped numerous times, as well as flown in a wing suit, Shapiro said.
Weiher’s fatal jump was also not the first time that a BASE jumper has made mistakes on the mountain.
In 1998, James Kauffman jumped off the summit of Siyeh and experienced problems immediately. He flew into the rock face of the sheer, 4,000-foot cliff and his parachute became snagged in the rocks. Kauffman dangled beneath the point about 400 feet below the sum- mit for several hours until rangers were able to rescue him.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to fed- eral charges and, following the convic- tion, was sentenced to two years proba- tion and ordered to pay nearly $9,000 to cover the costs associated with his res- cue. He was also ordered to sell his para- chute and apply the proceeds to the cost of his rescue; and was banned from the park during the period of his probation.
Members of the BASE jumping com- munity, including Weiher, are opposed to prohibitions on BASE jumping, and petitions regularly circulate seeking to legalize it in national parks.
According to the website The Adre- nalist, which features athletes who par- ticipate in extreme sports, Weiher grew up in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, just north of the New Mexico border.
Shapiro said the high-level of con- centration and calculation required in the sport of BASE jumping doesn’t leave room for adrenaline junkies, and Wei- her possessed the unique headspace and skill of an accomplished athlete.
“Every one of us that does this thing, you have to act as a professional. You have to keep your act tight because the consequences are so high. There is no room for error,” Shapiro said. “You have to be on your game 100 percent. It’s not skiing. You can’t crash. Respecting the progression is a concept that Beau really believed in. Slower is faster. It doesn’t have to take a long time to learn, you just can’t skip any steps. You can’t cut corners. And Beau was a guy who didn’t skip any steps. Beau was jump- ing what I would consider to be a very forgiving object.”
In an interview with Spencer Lund of The Adrenalist, Weiher explained his decision to quit working and pursue BASE jumping full time.
“I began to realize each person is a product of how they spend their days. The only way to become a good carpen- ter is to spend a lot of time doing it. Af- ter buying some warm clothes, replacing broken tools and maintaining a vehicle I needed specifically for work, I realized I was paying to be a carpenter,” he said. “It immediately became apparent I would lose nothing if I could re-evaluate my needs. Simply put: I’d rather be a broke BASE jumper than a broke carpenter.”
Weiher’s Facebook page is cov- ered with posts by friends expressing their condolences, as well as photos of Weiher in the mountains and soaring through blue skies.
Kevin McCracken, a friend of Wei- her’s who lives in Bozeman, blacked out his profile picture to indicate a loss in the BASE jumping community, and wrote “BBSD Beau,” an acronym for “blue sky, black death,” and added, “fly free.”
“He was an amazing kid,” Shap- iro said. “He was one of the more posi- tive and optimistic people that I have ever met. He had a passion for life that I think few can ever achieve. His energy was contagious. He was exceptionally bright and smart and motivated, and he did things based on one ambition, and that was to be a happy and fulfilled per- son and to give the best of himself to the people he cared about most.”
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