Aussie killed in BASE jump off a Norway cliff
Its been a terrible week for Australian extreme sports people with news coming in from NineMSN that an Australian BASE jumper has been killed jumping from a 1,100-metre cliff in Norway.
Tony Coombes, 30, slammed into a cliff face after leaping from the popular BASE jumping site Trollveggen, also know as Troll Wall, on Saturday afternoon, Norwegian time.
Trygve Leren, who owns the Trollveggen camping ground, was quoted by media reports as saying that Mr Coombes ended up on the cliff face about 300 metres above the ground with his parachute still attached. The report said Mr Coombes was a professional skydiver who grew up in NSW and lived in southern Queensland. The Norway Post said Mr Coombes was declared dead at the site.
His precarious position made rescue attempts to retrieve his body difficult, it said.
“The first rescue attempt had to be stopped as they (rescuers) feared heavy winds from the helicopter would cut the parachute from the mountain wall,” the newspaper said.
Tony Coombes was a member of a team that won the 2004 world BASE jumping championship and was the Australian champion in free-flying in 2000-2001. He was said to be the “seventh victim of Trollveggen”.
Norway is a popular destination for BASE jumpers. Last July it claimed the life of another Australian, 39-year-old Darcy Zoitsas. He was killed jumping off the 1,000-metre Kjerag cliff in western Norway.
Source: NineMSN
June 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 pm
What a way to go though - living life to the full doing what you loved best. Sympathy to his family and friends, bet there’s a huge hole in their lives now he’s gone. Live life xxoo
August 18th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
I have just found out about Darcy’s accident (over a year after it happened) Darcy and I along with other friends jumped at several sites. Best of all was doing CRW with him at Kinnel in north east Scotland. He was a great guy, alway laughing and full of fun - one of life genuine good guys.
So sorry Darcy