Juan Pablo Diban

Apparently he had a stable exit, but the parachute opened with a 90 degree off heading, and for unknown reasons couldn’t correct it, resulting in multiple cliff strikes. The rescue team arrived and tried CPR but couldn’t help him. JP was a great person, and friend, very motivated and driven. A super sporty person, professional kitesurfer and good skydiver. He will be deeply missed by his friends and family for his strong energy and for the great friend he was.

Updated 10th March - Written by the jumper with him
Ski-base was one of JP's dream, as it was for me, so when I went to inspect the cliff in my local resort that I knew had already being jumped, he was already committed to do it as well. My measurements showed that it's a cliff that doesn't allow for mistakes: it's not a big one and even though the straight line is slightly overhung, at the sides you have some edges that make an off heading quite a problem.
The take off and in run are though really nice, and that helped our confidence.

By the time he got to the resort with a friend, for what should have been a week of fun, the forecast had changed and it looked like we'd had available 3-4 days of good weather.
We spent the first day skiing, hitting jumps in the park and on the slopes, it was the first time I saw him skiing and I felt reassured, as he was a good skier, solid on his skis and well balanced in the air.
We ended the day having a look at the cliff and inspecting the landing area.

Probably with a bit of pressure from the weather forecast he told me he wanted to go for it the following day, and without much hesitation I agreed, we had an easy dinner and set a meeting point for the following day at lift's opening.

On our way to the exit we went for few more jumps off some nice rollers, again no problems or hesitations. At the top of the last lift we parted ways with our friend as he wasn't going to jump and will watch us from a slope right in front of the exit.

As we got to the exit I found out the snow has melted more than expected since my last jump and told him that the starting point now would be a few meters below what I did in my previous 2 jumps, he asked me if I thought it was still ok and I replied that it shouldn't be too much of a difference.
We went to the edge and I showed him the right direction, he expressed a little bit of a concern about the slight turn that has to be done in order to go around a rock and get the right direction, I told him not to worry about that, has it was far into his ability, not to overthinking it and to focus instead on the exit position.

We geared up and he decided to go first, handheld. He had the Go pro on his helmet and I suggested to remove it and so he did. From the already lower start position, instead of pointing his skis to the little turn and the fall line, he slowly side slipped forward losing some meters and what in my opinion, might have been some speed that could have helped him. He then turned his skis to the exit.
In the first moments in the air, instead of keeping the tucked-race position we agreed was better, he extended his leg and went into a more belly to earth position.

What follows is a supposition of what might have happen by looking at the video and what we saw inspecting his container and risers (the canopy hasn't been recovered).
From the video took by our friend positioned in front of the exit, we can see that between the pilot chute throw and the opening, his body turn slightly to the left and this, once his canopy opens with a 90 to the right, probably resulted also thanks to the added inertia of the weight of boots and skis, to violent rotation of his body back to the right which might have caused the last mistake: he released only his left toggle and not the right one, this might have been the reason why his canopy does another 90 degrees turn to the right and brings him to impact.

From the exit I've only heard the opening and not the expected scream of joy, I look at our friend standing on the slope and I see him moving frantically, I realize how stupid I have been to not exchange telephone numbers with him. I get to the edge but can't see anything included our friend that was supposed to move to the landing after the first jump, eventually I calmed myself down, went back up, and did my jump. Under canopy I tried to see if I could spot anything but with no success, at that point I believed it was just a trip that I got myself into. But once I landed alone I got informed that patrollers have been called and a microlight started to fly above the area, with no success in spotting him for over 30 minutes but eventually found him, his white and green canopy might have not helped.
The rescue Heli with the needed hoist was busy in another rescue and got to JP an hour later after the call, reanimation has been tried but it was soon after declared dead.
Speaking with the first doctor from the Heli, said he thought JP probably died at impact.

https://euro.dayfr.com/local/18075.html...

https://www.ladepeche.fr/.../un-base-jumper-chilien-meurt...

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/.../savoie-un...