There is perhaps no more dangerous pursuit in the mountains than ski-BASE jumping. Flying off the edge of a cliff, only to release a parachute and (hopefully) fly away unscathed. But it can obviously be a crapshoot. BASE jumping off skis is what killed iconic skier Shane McConkey. And this episode, posted by Matthias Giraud to his Instagram account from 2011, looks as though it could have easily been fatal.
“Getting carried away on the Matterhorn,” he wrote. “I shouldn’t have survived this jump but somehow I did. My ego and ambition on this jump made me overlook the variables and consciously reduce my error margin. I didn’t BASE jump for 1 month after this shit show. Thinking about going back to do it properly and climbing instead of getting dropped by a helicopter.” Hopefully, the second time around will go a little smoother.
Here’s a ski-BASE jump from Matthias that went way better:
