Randy Zhang 张曦元

Please note this fatality was professionally guided.

On August 5, 2025 Randy, myself and 2 other jumpers ascended Piz da Lech at 12:00 to arrive on exit when lift started to form on the SW face. The hike was simple and upper winds were calm. Upon arriving at the exit I told Randy to make me a promise, that he would bail on the upper canyon early if he wasn’t able to dive into it. Before exiting, another jumper under canopy radio’d up to us and said the canyon was a little bumpy.

The last words I said to him was better to avoid the canyon and come back another time…he agreed and shut his visor.
Randy had a near perfect exit, with great lifting conditions. We lost site of him shortly and heard nothing while Julia lined up to jump. The slider off jumper who jumped before radio’d up to say he did not see a canopy. We hung back and waited further news. When 5 minutes went by, we immediately called 112 and started rescue.

Randy was found at the base of the first notch. He stalled before reaching the first notch and impacted while trying to bail left.
Randy had shown me a lot of maturity in the last few years, and I had developed trust in him to make the right decision and do what he said he was going to do. You must be fully prepared to bail early on the crack at Piz da Lech, and Randy knew that. On this day, he made the wrong choice.

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https://www.rainews.it/tgr/trento/articoli/2025/08/base-jumper-cinese-si-schianta-e-muore-sul-piz-da-lech-221de811-1e92-4ce4-b9f8-fc78f67f7df1.html