We woke up at 05:30 to shuttle vehicles and catch the first gondola up to Gitschen. We made it to the top of the gondola by 06:30.
We started our hike nice and easy, took plenty of breaks and didn’t have to rush. Talked a lot of shit about probably half the cunts reading this, our normal morning routine.
The weather was great. Slight cross/tailwind on the summit, but as we made the little scramble down to the exit, there was basically no wind. The sun was on the exit and the start of the line, so it was nice and lifty. It took us just over three hours from the bottom of the gondola to the exit.
We all got geared up, made sure everyone was ready, and went one at a time—myself first, Jeremias second, and Liam last.
When I jumped, my start felt great. I stayed on the outside of the upper ledge, flew over to the left to set up and bomb down the trees. I didn’t cross over into the grass ridge and played it safe for my first jump here.
Liam and I had spoken about ripping down the grass field the day before. Ideally, we would come back, jump this exit again, and he wanted to corkscrew over the last ridge to connect back down into the terrain. This was not the plan for this jump. I know it was in the back of Liam’s mind for a while.
We all jumped individually. I landed where we talked about. I saw Jeremias’ canopy a few minutes after, so I went in to grab a beer, came out and Jeremias showed up not long after.
I told Jeremias we should have another drink to give him some time, maybe he had to land off and was walking to us.
After about 30 minutes, we decided to go back to the original meeting point to see if he had walked back to the car instead of the bar. Once we arrived at the vehicle and I didn’t see Liam there, I knew what had happened.
We called REGA, who sent out a helicopter to search for him.
After about an hour or so, the helicopter found him—just past the grass field, down near the tree line. At that time of morning, the grass section of the mountain was still shaded. My best guess is he was nicely set up to do a corkscrew coming over the top, just as we’d talked about. Except that the cold, shaded side was probably sinky. So as he would have come around, he more than likely impacted there, trying to reconnect with the terrain.
This was his second time flying Gitschen, and he knew the line he was flying. That’s why I believe these are the circumstances that brought Liam to his end.
His helmet and camera was not found. His pins were not popped and his pilot chute was in his BOC.
Catch you on the other side Cunt.
– Mr. Spooky Eyes
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.
