Carl Boenish
Date: June 7, 1984 Nationality: American
Object Type: Earth
Location: Stabben – Stabben Wall (Trollveggen), Romsdalen, Norway
COD: impact
Clothes / Suit: Normal Clothes

Description:

In 1978 Carl Boenish organized the first expeditions to Yosemite National Park's El Capitan were using ram-air canopies and the ability to track ushered in the modern era of the sport he later named BASE jumping. Through his wonderful films and boundless enthusiasm he showed the world that fixed object jumping is a repeatable act available for any reasonably experienced parachutist. He published the world's first BASE information with BASE Magazine and also began issuing (in 1981) the sequential BASE Number Award (BASE #### ) we still use today. Carl Boenish, and his wife Jean, are in Norway jumping for the cameras of an American TV show called, That's Incredible. After the shoot is finished Carl decides to make one more jump. He jumps from a new launch point, not the one they had been using all week, and the result is his not clearing an outcropping in freefall. Carl Boenish is the first Trollveggen area fatality.

The following is newer (2002) information reported by a local Norwegian BASE jumper. I knew a man who went up to Stabben with Mr. Boenish the day of his fatality. He is a very skilled climber, and knew every rock up there. He helped Mr. Boenish to the top of Stabben (it's a little difficult to get up there) and found himself a good spot to photograph the jump. After Carl's fatality, he threw the camera down the cliff and later said, I didn't want anyone to see pictures of that jump. He then went down and contacted police. This same climber is later killed in an avalanche not far from the Troll Wall in the early 1990s. When Carl Boenish becomes involved in fixed object jumping he's already considered the premier skydiving photographer of his day. He photographed the early days of RW in Southern California, filmed the aerial portions of the MGM movie, The Gypsy Moths, and left us what still are some of the most breathtaking skydiving movies (he called them Film Poems) ever made. With a friendly and inquisitive personality, including an infectious goof ball laugh that heard once is never forgotten, Carl is loved and respected throughout the skydiving world. Now, however, as fixed object jumping begins to make headlines, usually for spectacular mishaps, Carl begins hearing, You are hurting skydiving, from his longtime friends. Carl lost many friends, Jean Boenish later said, because of fixed object jumping, and he never got over that. In 1987 (three years after his death) the skydiving community posthumously forgave Carl Boenish and bestowed their highest honor on him, the USPA Achievement award.

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