Andy was a cautious base jumper and new to the sport, he only had around 40 base jumps. This was the 3rd jump of the day in the gorge. The first 2 were slider up from La Conque and Bourni. I decided to go for a chilled 3rd jump to finish the day slider down from Bourni for a long canopy ride (1300ft rock drop) out of our group of 6 three decided not to jump as they were tired. Andy had skipped jumps previously because of fatigue but decided to come along on this one. He wanted to jump first with us following one by one a couple of seconds after we hear the opening and conditions were good. He jumped with a good running exit and stayed in view for around 5 seconds still holding the pc, there was no wrap and he was completely stable. I have no idea why he held the pc that long and just before the exit we talked about keeping the delays around 1.5 seconds so we could meet up under canopy but i guess it was around 6 second delay in the end. I heard the canopy open hard and it seems he was unconscious or dazed under canopy with no attempt at an input under canopy and with a slow turn into the wall. We jumped and saw the canopy hung up on the wall but too far up for us to get too. I sent an sos from a garmin inreach and called for a rescue. He had a second fall whilst waiting for the heli. He was alive when they got him from the wall and died later that evening in the hospital. It's been a difficult one to take as he was always happy to take a step back and jump within his limits, never intending to become a name in base he just wanted to have fun with his friends. I find it hard to believe that he could have made the mistake of thinking he was slider up as he had a 46 pc in his hand. He was also complaining about the hard opening on the jump previous that was slider up. The last few days have been spent organising the repatriation of his body, luckily he had found insurance that seems to cover it all. A really fun good person who fell in love with base jumping instantly I'm really sad for his family luckily he had no children but it doesn't stop his partners heart break.
Châtelus. Isère: the base-jumper did not survive (ledauphine.com)