Squamish Photos and Stories

A 42-year-old man is lucky to escape injury after his attempt at “speed flying” off The Chief in Squamish resulted in being stranded on a ledge.

According to a witness, the speed flyer jumped off the third peak in The Chief park and did not make it around one of the corners and instead ended up 30 metres down from the peak, stranded on a ledge.

Squamish SAR were notified by RCMP just after 1 p.m. and 15 members headed to the scene to execute a rope rescue.

“We have four different teams up there and they’ll be putting anchors up in the surrounding trees and lowering one member of our team to access the subject, and then raising the subject up,” said Katie Chambers with Squamish SAR.

Due to darkness, using a helicopter to rescue the man was not an option and instead the SAR teams will have to hike down the backside of The Chief with the man.

Speed flying is an air sport that involves flying with a small, fast fabric wing, usually in close proximity to a steep slope and it combines elements of paragliding and parachuting.

Chambers said both base jumping and speed flying are increasing in popularity on The Chief over the last few years. But she cautions, they’re not activities for people who are inexperienced in flying.

“You need a lot of experience and training to fly,” she said.

So how many lucky snags has that been now?