[title_words_as_hashtags
THIS is the horrifying moment a base jumper shattered his legs and was stuck on a mountain for 17 hours.
TikTok user known as ‘Infinite Adventures’ took to the social media platform to recount his distressing story to his 1.1million followers which happened outside Cape Town, South Africa in February 2020.
6
6
6
The footage starts with the daredevil wearing a crash helmet seemingly stuck on a cliff edge as the voiceover says: “This was the worst day of my life and probably the luckiest.
“I was really seriously injured after this one. It took me a year to recover.”
He adds: “I’m going to tell you how it all happened.
“Mostly it was my fault but you know you try and learn from mistakes. You can’t promise they’re never going to happen.
The TikToker said: “I flew into South Africa with my wife and had three weeks vacationing around.
“And then she went home and I have another two weeks to jump off as many things as possible.
The footage then switches to shots of a helicopter.
“After several successful jumps, one of the locals decided to organise a helicopter to take us up to a jump we’d jumped a few days before.
“It was a five-hour hike and it’s always fun to get a helicopter so we split the money and booked one in.”
He continued: We were the last load of the day and everybody else had already jumped so it was just us.
“The helicopter pointed us in the direction of the jump but we got lost for four hours.”
The footage then cuts to the previous time he jumped off and he describes there being an overhang so “you can fly away from the wall and open really safely”.
However though, after “hiking around” looking for possible exit points and found himself on one which he says “wasn’t ideal”.
But he added, having climbed up and down, he found himself “in a position where I couldn’t go up or down any more safely – and I decided to just go for it.
‘A TERRIBLE MISTAKE’
“Which was a terrible mistake.”
The footage then cuts to the images of the injuries he suffered.
He said he broke his femur – thigh bone – and his ankles and needed to undergo a couple of surgeries.
The man added: “It took a year of personal training and physiotherapy to even be able to walk.”
He says though that the worst part was that “I was stuck on the mountain for 17 hours waiting for rescue.
He then shares footage of the terrifying accident as he is seen jumping off the cliff.
The man says: “You can see my shadow, how close I come to hitting that wall.
“As soon as I see I’m not going to make it a good parachute… and it opens a bit sideways and I smash straight into the wall.
“That’s where I sit for 17 hours.”
The man revealed that it took 40 people and two helicopters to bring him down.
‘I NEARLY DIED’
He said in the caption: “This was the worst day of my life! I nearly died on this day three years ago.
“I’m still not over the trauma of this day.”
The man, who has not identified himself, added: “Since then I’ve become a father and travelled the world living an amazing life but this does still come back to me sometimes.
“I’m really lucky that I walked away from this and I’m so grateful to the team of people who rescued me and nursed me back to health.”
The clip has been viewed around 49,600 times, picking up nearly 950 likes as well as generating 50 comments.
One person wrote: “17 hours!!! Damn why was it so long? I’m curious! Is it to find you?”
The TikToker replied: “They can’t do a rescue like this at night.”
Another commentator asked: “So calmly told. What was going through your mind after you crashed?”
‘Infinite Adventures’ said: “That I was going to die.”
A third person summed up the feelings of many people by writing: “Nasty! Glad you’re around to tell the tale.”
In June last year, a British base jumper died after his parachute reportedly failed to open as he plunged to the ground in the Italian Alps.
Experienced base jumper Dylan Roberts, 33, who was from the UK but living in the US, was the second of a group of five friends to launch himself off Mount Brento in a wingsuit.
In March the same year, a British tourist was killed in a base jumping accident in France.
The 34-year-old man, from Newnham, West Northamptonshire, was on holiday with three British friends – one of whom witnessed the horrific accident.
6
6
6
