Illegal BASE Jump Off Longs Peak in RMNP

BASE Jumping is illegal in national parks, but that didn’t stop an as-yet unidentified skydiver from taking the plunge off of 14,259-ft. Longs Peak, the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park. Around 9 a.m., the BASE jumper launched into the air down past the Diamond face on the east side of the peak.

Park workers first reported the jump, and the incident is currently under investigation.

“It’s very rare, and we’re only aware of one other time it’s occurred in the last 10 years,” (said RMNP spokeswoman Kyle) Patterson said. She added that jumpers are known to hide their equipment so rangers can’t prove they jumped.

BASE jumpers are a peculiar sort — it’s almost as if they took the phrase “if [blank] jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?” to task very, very seriously. I’ll give them credit, though: Jumping off the Diamond Headwall to a soft parachute landing sounds much more appealing than descending through the Keyhole while all the fannypack’d pikers make their way up at 1 p.m.

— Ted Alvarez

Skydiver makes illegal leap from Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park (Coloradoan)