It was a perfect day, sunny and a slight breeze from the North (tailwind).
We arrived 7 jumpers to the exit, the idea was to jump and land in the water in the reservoir while cutting away. We had a support boat in the water.
The day before we were jumping in Benasque and Ager and all was going great. Luis had also just returned from a trip in LAuterbrunnen having done loads of jumps there and he was very current with tracking.
The Pared de Aragon is 450m to impact. For the first 3/4 seconds the cliff is near vertical, and then it's super overhung.
Normally we take between 8 and 11 seconds, though in this occasion since we were wearing shorts 8 to 9 seconds was perfect. Rig was packed slider up.
We got jumping one by one and everything was running perfect and according to plan. Drop in the water, retrieve the canopy, and onto the shore.
Luis exited last, it was his first jump from this cliff.
Watching from below, it looked like he had a good exit and then, possibly when transitioning to a tracking position, he was seen to become unstable and he pitched around the 3/4 second mark leading to a very violent off heading of about 140 while still in the vertical section of the cliff.
It seemed he attempted to turn it around, but due to the proximity of the wall and the speed with which the canopy surged he impacted hard on his side on top of a ledge.
He was not seen to be moving or attempting to regain control after the initial impact. The canopy remained pressurized, facing the wall, and Luis was deposited at the base of the cliff taking some further impacts along the way.
There was nothing it could be done for him, the first impact was fatal.
A very unlucky incident... If it had happened a bit lower it would have been a non-event. 180's in this wall are generally not a problem to turn them around as you are well away from the cliff with loads of space.
Notes: While we will never know what made Luis become unstable and the reasons why he took the decision to pitch at between 3 and 4 seconds, we think is important to remind of the importance to carefully consider each jump we do, its characteristics and variables, before each and every jump and be confident as much as we can that we can react to any eventualities accordingly to that assesement.
There is 2 main factors that contributed to Luis having the offheading, and a 3rd factor that contributed to him striking the wall.
- Pitching while unstable, has never been great for heading performance.
- Deploying a slider-up packjob prepared for a 9 second delay after 3/4 seconds is known to lead to heading issues and twists, the shallow break setting may cause the canopy to surge on opening, the speed at which it'll fly towards the cliff will be faster, and the delay in inflation and slider having to descend means early inputs to correct heading will have little to no effect.
- Pulling while still at the vertical section of the cliff takes away some margin that could be had if deploying lower at the overhung section, and this ties with the points above.
Given this cliff allows you to pull at around 9 seconds at which point you have maximum separation from the wall, giving it some more time could possibly have allowed to assume a controlled symetrical position for deploying, the airspeed would be the one the rig was packed to deploy at lowering the chance of deployment issues, and if still having to deal with heading problems the extra separation would surely be most apreciated.
Luis was aware of this, and the reason he pulled high will remain a mystery, but the lessons on adapting our 'EPs' for each individual jump should be heeded.
He leaves behind a beautiful family and a much bigger family of friends all around the World. He was well known in the Spanish climbing scene as a pioneer of ice/mixed climbing during the 1990's and being a handy Alpinist and crack climber, when he was referred to as "el maestro", but his humble demeanour meant it would cost you a few rounds of beers and some prodding before he even mentioned that he goes climbing when not jumping and that he's done "a few things here and there". And that's how Luis was. Humble, friendly, approachable, gentle, a pleasure to be around with, with a heart of gold and a passion to match, attributes which quickly made him a reference within the Spanish base jumping community.
Cliche as it may sound, it is truer than ever that the World is a poorer place without him.
Be careful out there everyone!