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General Climbing Discussion

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Base Jumping in the Grampians 28-Jul-2003 At 5:15:41 PM V

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On 28/07/2003 nmonteith wrote:
>The paragliders are REALLY bulky from what i have seen. James, Andrew Horchner
>once told me a story about falling out of the sky in alpine france and
>landing in the snow - breaking his ankle/leg or something. He had to crawl
>to the closet hut! It didn't sound very safe.

I once saw a paraglider crash in the Andes. The guy was spiralling down to land on the beach of a lake. I was watching from above on a nearby hill. He did a sharp turn and the canopy suddenly seemed to fold in on itself. He fell about 20m or so onto the beach and was lying motionless, people running in from all directions. Not sure whether it was a thermal or what, but it made me think twice about paragliding.

Still, it looks like more fun than rapping, probably safer than BASE, and definately more feasible than snowboarding through a crevasse field! ;-)