CASE 7138 - Boenish (1984) Record he broke the day before he d*ed #shorts #basejumping #norway

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Carl Boenish (43) was the co-originator of the BASE acronym and the founding figure of modern BASE jumping. He and his wife Jean had set a Guinness-recognized BASE record the day before, 6 July 1984, from a Trolltindane ridge exit called "The Bishop," filmed for a David Frost television special.

On the morning of 7 July 1984 Carl left the hotel before sunrise, solo, without Jean, and hiked to a different exit called "The Castle" - Stabben pinnacle - a 200-foot spire on the same ridge. Earlier that week Carl had personally evaluated the Castle site's rock tests and called it "crazy" - outcroppings jutted into the flight path and effective altitude was only about 2,900 feet because of overhangs. He jumped it anyway, with a new ram-air canopy he had not fully dialed in, under post-record and film-crew momentum.

At the ledge he patted his parachute pack and told the local guide "I don't need angels." Then he stumbled on the exit step, tossed his pilot chute with insufficient airspeed, and his canopy inflated asymmetrically. The malformed canopy wrenched him about 180 degrees off-heading into the cliff face. His body fell roughly 5,000 feet down the Trollveggen north wall and came to rest on an ice-covered ledge.

No footage of the death exists. The teenage guide filming the exit on a Nikon still camera ripped the roll out and threw it off the cliff at the scene. A Norwegian military helicopter piloted by Capt. Peter Eggen winched the body off the ice ledge about three hours later.

Jean Boenish was at the hotel, believing Carl was already at the landing field. Two days later she hired local climbers to take her up the ridge, inspected the Castle site, and then jumped from the original Bishop exit - perfect meadow landing.

Boenish was the first BASE fatality at Trollveggen.

Sources:
- Wikipedia - Carl Boenish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Boenish
- Wikipedia - Troll Wall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_Wall
- Wikipedia - Sunshine Superman (film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Superman_(film)
- John Long, "Ripcord" - Climbing Magazine: https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/john-longs-first-big-time-tv-break-turns-to-tragedy/
- Men's Journal / Yahoo mirror: https://sports.yahoo.com/ripcord-story-fame-love-tragedy-193910341.html
- International Skydiving Hall of Fame: https://skydivingmuseum.org/member/carl-boenish/
- UPI 8 July 1984: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/07/08/An-American-stuntman-slammed-into-the-face-of-a/3790458107200/
- UPI 10 July 1984 (Jean's jump): https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/07/10/Parachutist-continues-to-jump-after-husbands-death/1519458280000/
- CNN 2016 retrospective: https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/14/us/sunshine-superman-carl-boenish-base-jumping

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