FACTORS
Those intrinsic to alpine jumps: fatigue from a long and technical approach and the added discomfort of jumping with equipment
Backwind - which caused descents and further height loss on the recovery arc
Not being aware of the loss of speed
DESCRIPTION OF THE DAY
The plan was to do an alpine jump in Peña Telera, with winter conditions. There was abundant snow in poor conditions that made the approach very uncomfortable.
We were equipped with winter equipment (ice axe, crampons, sticks, harness and ropes)
It took us about 4 hours to ascend the +1300m.
It was necessary to rappel down about 30m to the exit.
CONDITIONS
Exit clear of snow and ice
Strong back wind, but exit fully protected and without wind
Not too cold
BACKGROUND
Nacho had a lot of experience in this type of alpine jumps and jumping the climbing equipment, with and without a wingsuit.
He already did that exit several times (the first repetition in slick, flying straight with onesie and flying the right line with swift)
The rock drop of the jump is large (250m) although the view is impressive (north face, dark and closed).
The simplest line for this exit is to fly straight down the channel and open outside.
There are other lines such as flying to the right and passing at different heights of a shoulder, depending on the suit you are wearing or how high you go. After passing the shoulder, there is a wall that allows you to separate the terrain for the opening and landing on a lake.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCIDENT (FLYSIGHT)
We haven't recovered the camera, but we have the flysight information.
His original jump plan, which he had done on other occasions, was to fly right over the shoulder, continue flying to pass the separation wall, open and land by the lake. He jumped in last place.
Analyzing the flysight data, Nacho jumped and followed that plan, starting the right turn from the very beginning, probably without noticing that he did not have a good start (none of the three of us who jumped with him that day had good numbers at the start, probably due to the wind from the back).
From the first moment the FlySight indicates a constant and progressive loss of speed, which Nacho should not have noticed because he continued flying right towards the shoulder instead of aborting the line and redirecting the flight to exit the channel straight.
Once it was over the shoulder, very close to the ground and with no option to change flight line, the suit stalled. Nacho did an emergency pull and the canopy opened onheading and flew for 4s. We could see the canopy fly from the landing. He lost a lot of height before opening due to the stall of the suit and the opening, so he could not fly out of that slope and touched the ground.
We assume that he rolled down the slope without removing zippers, which meant that he could not protect himself in the fall.
CONCLUSIONS
Make plan A always as the easiest line to fly. While in flight, we should evaluate if we can enter a more complicated line instead of evaluating if we have to abort to make a simpler plan. We have thousandths of a second to make a decision, if inertia leads us to the simplest plan it is more likely that we can have another opportunity in the future in which we see more clearly entering into a more complicated line.
Fly fast, flying slow is never a good option.
When attacking edges, end up passing a little below the height at which you are going. Doing so will make you gain speed and a safety margin.
PARA AMIGOS Y FAMILIA
Fue un día extremadamente feliz, de esos que tenía cada lustro en los que exteriorizaba su buen humor. Durante la subida dijo literalmente: ‘Esto es lo que más me llena’, refiriéndose a ascender una montaña, con condiciones invernales peleonas, con material alpino, acompañado de sus amigos, para luego saltar.
Fue grande no solo por lo que hacía, teniendo una lista infinita de historias vividas que ni el mejor de los guionistas podría imaginar, sino por ser un AMIGO excepcional al que no le hacía falta ni ser simpático para entrar en nuestros corazones.
https://www.instagram.com/cifuentes.nacho/
Can you help us with incident interpretation? We are interested in any details regarding personal experience, gear, weather conditions and any other circumstances related to the incident.
