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Gary Jewbag Kremer

Gary 'Jewbag' Kremer

Date: June 26, 2016
Nationality: American
Object Type: Earth
Location: The Chief, Squamish B.C.
COD: Impact (low-pull)
Clothes / Suit: Wingsuit / Aura 1
Parachute: TBD
Age: TBD
Experience: Experienced
Time of day: 10am


Description:

Gary was first to exit. The jump occurred around 10 AM.
The conditions were calm on exit with a slight right to left wind in the LZ.
The face and talus is shaded at this time of day.
Gary exited and started to fly with very little forward speed.
He continued to fly at this speed as he approached the two sets of high tension power lines between the exit and the LZ.
The forward speed decreased as he attempted to fly over the lines.
He cleared power lines and deployed immediately.
The pilot chute opened the container and canopy extraction began to occur as he impacted before line stretch.


Updated from eyewitness 22nd May 2022


Gary Kremer passed away on June 26, 2016. I wrote the BFL incident report as I was the only eye witness to the entire jump from exit to impact. At the time I only included the information from Gary’s exit to impact.

Today is May 21, 2022. I recently listened to the Exit Point Podcast episode hosted by Matt Blank and Laurent Frat with guest Brad “Patto” Patfield. As most know, Brad maintains the BFL. During the interview a discussion regarding outside factors that may contribute to an incident (example, partying the night before, landing jet lagged and not resting before the first jump on a trip, etc). For years I have held what I thought to be my opinions vs the simple facts to myself. After much thought I have decided to add all context leading up to the incident, with the intention of educating either the jumper who finds themselves in Gary’s shoes, or a jumper who finds themselves in my shoes.

I recently moved to Seattle, Washington from Washington DC. The idea of being able to do legal wingsuit base jumps near where I live was so extraordinary to me at the time I was only focused on me, not those I was jumping with. I say this because it is a part of how I ended up at the Chief with Gary.

I had met Gary only in passing before I moved to Seattle. He was one of the first jumpers in the area I became friends with. Shortly after I moved Gary asked if I wanted to do a weekend road trip to Canada to do some wingsuit jumps off the Chief. I was 100 percent in, the excitement was high. All I knew about Gary’s wingsuit experience was that his FB profile was a picture of him exiting Mount Baring in an Aura. My excitement stopped me from asking or thinking about what Gary's experience actually was. I was only thinking about myself and getting to do wingsuit base locally and knowing a new exit point location.

For those who knew Gary he was a jokester. On the drive to the Chief I was inquiring to understand as much information about the jump. Gary told me over and over that it was basically like Brento. I pushed for the jokes to end and he just reiterated that it was like Brento, a gigantic wall with a straight out easy flight. I knew this wasn't correct and I got the correct information from another friend via text. I stated this to Gary and he said that was wrong and it was similar to Brento. To this date I look back and think that Gary might have been serious, and I do not know if he had ever been to Brento. Gary also stated that when we returned he was going to immediately book a trip to France to jump Brevant.

The next day we met a couple locals and hiked to the exit. I did a two way with an experienced local, Gary exited last. The other jumper and I waited and Gary never landed. We hiked back to the parking lot and found that Gary had landed on the shoulder of the highway. This concerned me. I have attached a video of another jump I did at the chief for a visual of the jump profile.

We decided one jump was enough for the day and went to a local coffee shop. I asked to see Gary’s video and he gave me his GoPro. In 2016 plugging a GoPro into a computer and trying to play the file usually resulted in choppy results and I copied the file to my desktop. Gary tried to stop me and asked why I was taking his video, he stated that he did not give me permission to get a copy. This immediately concerned me as I took it to mean a mistake was made and he did not want it to get out.

I watched the video and immediately knew Gary exited and was immediately in a stalled flight. He had to pitch in an emergency pitch and landed on the highway. At this point I knew Gary was in over his head and should probably not execute this jump again. I still did not ask Gary about his history with Wingsuit Base.

At this point in my BASE career I had approached people that I felt were doing things above their experience level by just telling them they can’t do it and never had good results. I decided the approach I would take would be to provide as much knowledge I had at the time regarding Wingsuit BASE. Exit technique, angle of attack, what it meant to be jumping in the morning when the talus was shaded with no thermic activity. Most of the information I was provided was well received, but brand new to him. I felt by education he would realise he had some progression to work on and it would lead him to a decision to not jump, or jumper slider down.

That evening we met a non jumper who had a camera that was odd to us. It was a first generation 360 camera and the person was there to capture video of sunrises etc. The camera had the ability to attach to a GoPro mount. He asked if I would jump with his 3000 dollar camera. I said I would and we would plan something that would be a great shot. This pertains to what you will read below.

The next morning another friend from Washington and two more locals joined. The person with the camera hiked with us. I planned a jump for one local who was tracking to exit first, and set up for a threeway wingsuit flyby. I would buzz the canopy with one wingsuit on my left and the other on my right in formation.

Gary packed the slider up and brought his wingsuit. When I saw this I intentionally hiked next to him and reiterated all the information I provided the day before and asked him to think about if he should jump or go down. He wanted to jump.

As we geared up Gary asked me if he could join the formation flyby. This is when I realised all my efforts had no effect on Gary’s decision. In fact he wanted to add himself to a very technical multiway. I told Gary sternly that if he decided to jump it must be a solo. After the flight the day before he needed to focus on his exit and have a safe flight to the LZ opening with sufficient altitude. I explained that joining our jump would add many distractions and impede his ability to perform, as well as be a potential danger to us.

I recall Gary being upset and telling me I was just an elite ‘athlete’. He quickly said sorry and asked if could hang off the rope to watch his flight and give him feedback when we debriefed and I agreed. What happened next is written below in the original report.

I recall watching and hearing the impact and turning around and saying “God damn it I KNEW that would happen and I didnt stop it”. I almost jumped and the local stopped me and said it would only potentially cause more problems if I got hurt.

We all called rescue and down hiked.

After years of guilt and remorse I accepted that the decision to jump was his and not mine. Even if I had stopped him that day unless there was a drastic change of his approach an accident would happen. But what could I have done differently if I felt so strongly that this was a likely outcome??

If I could go back in time I would have told Gary my true thoughts and that I was just going to drive back to Washington and not join the load because I did not want to be a part of something I felt so strongly against. Maybe this would have stopped him, maybe it would have led to the same result. The difference is I would not have been there to watch and deal with years of PTSD and guilt for not doing more.

I should also note gary had taken a break from jumping to recover from an injury. I cannot remember the details or how long he had between his break and jumping again.

Over the years I have forgiven myself but it still haunts me. I am adding this information to the incident report for two reasons:

  1. If you find yourself in Gary’s shoes, be humble and allow yourself to say to a group that you want to take a step back and progress at a safer site.

  2. If you find yourself in my shoes, do what you can do to stop the incident and remove yourself from the situation. Do not allow yourself to be part of something you feel so strongly should not happen. Do not allow the excitement of being in a new area to not pay attention to your jump partners. I could have stopped the trip before we left Washington


Original BFL Report, written by Chris Mort

Gary was first to exit. The jump occurred around 10 AM.
The conditions were calm on exit with a slight right to left wind in the LZ.
The face and talus is shaded at this time of day.
Gary exited and started to fly with very little forward speed.
He continued to fly at this speed as he approached the two sets of high tension power lines between the exit and the LZ.
The forward speed decreased as he attempted to fly over the lines.
He cleared power lines and deployed immediately.
The pilot chute opened the container and canopy extraction began to occur as he impacted before line stretch.




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