january 2007 › a living history › edmonton

Tower jumper lands in hot water on a cold and clear night >permalink<

Was it a bird? Was it a plane?

Whatever it was, it caught the curiosity of two police officers who were circum-navigating the Bonnie Doon traffic circle at about 3:00 a.m. on January 5th, 2007.

As they scanned the clear skies under a just-waning full moon, police spotted what looked like a parachute coming down in a field near 83rd Street and 90th Avenue.

Police questioned a 29-year-old male parachutist after he landed who told them he had just jumped out of a plane.

However, there wasn't a plane to be seen and it soon became plain the man had just jumped off of something very tall ... like the 320-foot/90-metre Telus communications tower behind the fire station at the traffic circle.

The man, whose name wasn't released, was taken in for questioning and later released. He may face charges of trespassing and vandalism.

"This is an uncommon experience," a police spokesman said. "We're going over what charges he might be facing."

Police would have to prove how the man got onto the tower. "There's any number of things we're looking at right now," the spokesman said adding that Transport Canada – which regulates tower sites – and the owner of the tower are being consulted.

Telus officials said they would be reviewing security measures at the nearly forty-year-old orange-and-white steel tower which is surrounded by a two-metre high chainlink fence with an equally-high cage at its base.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had something like this happen on one of our towers,” a Telus spokesman told the Edmonton Sun.

“We’re not yet sure how he accomplished that,” he added.

“Obviously the individual was very determined. It’s extremely dangerous to access one of our sites – there’s any number of things that could happen.”

The man could have been electrocuted or gotten his parachute snagged on one of the tower's smaller antennae, he said.

Bernie Cyr, owner and operator of the Edmonton Skydive Centre, told local media he was shocked to hear of the incident because BASE (Buildings, Antennae, Spans and Earth) jumping is rare in Edmonton.

Cyr said the ride would have been short.

"From that height he would have but a second or two – and then he'd be landing."

A drop that just lasts seconds would require a special parachute.

"His chute would have to deploy as he leapt," said Cyr, whose organisation doesn't condone BASE jumping.

"Where would they go? It's not like there's mountains or cliffs to really jump off of. It's a second-long ride."

"Certainly not in Edmonton. It's not that uncommon elsewhere. But no one I know locally actually BASE jumps."

"Skydiving as a whole is a very – strangely enough it's actually a very conservative group of people. We like to have fun but obviously there's a lot of safety built into skydiving."

A Calgary-area BASE jumper, who seemed reluctant to speak with the Edmonton Sun, said there are very few people involved in the sport. "I didn't think there was anybody in Edmonton," he said. "I don't know who it is."

In spring 2005, a 42-year-old British Columbia BASE jumper landed in hospital with non-life-threatening pelvic, abdominal and back injuries.

The man tried to parachute off a 33-storey office building in Calgary, but a wind gust sent him smashing into a window on the 24th floor. He later fell through an atrium.

Over one hundred people have died in the sport and there is even a web site that tracks fatalities.

On January 10th, 2006 police charged Shawn Wilson, 29, with stunting and trespassing. The offences carry maximum fines of $402.00 for the first charge and $287.00 for the second.

A Shawn Wilson is credited at the Eden North Parachute School web site with taking gold in intermediate accuracy in the 2006 Alberta Provincial Skydiving Championships.

The height of the tower posed a challenge for media attempting to get a picture of the entire structure.

The Edmonton Journal broke the tower into two images when the story first appeared on their web site. They later printed the tower intact.

When the Journal later updated the story on their web site, they offered this dizzying picture.

CTV Edmonton resorted to placing reporter Dan Kobe in a field in an attempt to indicate the scale of the tower (that's Dan at lower right).

Global Edmonton used Google Earth to locate the tower, and two camera angles and a slow zoom to impart its height.

It wasn't the biggest story of the year but it will likely be the tallest.

Blow Winds Blow >permalink<

It was about 3:00 a.m. on January 8th, 2007 when Environment Canada clocked winds in the metro region gusting up to 82 kilometres an hour.

And it was about that time when occupants of an Ottewell home heard a thunderous crack outside their home near 93rd Avenue and 52nd Street.

By the time it took to get out of bed and open the curtains, their once-prized 50-foot twin spruce tree had come crashing down, missing their house by inches.

The gusty winds that hit the capital region were in advance of a low pressure system that promised to plunge the city into a cold snap the likes not felt since the winter of 1989. And there was also a blizzard warning out for added enjoyment.

But before the storm struck, there was a shower of sawdust as a local tree-cutting company dealt with the biggest buck-job they had seen in twenty years.

The Richards family was rocked out of bed when their once-mighty spruce came down. There was no damage to their home but crashing branches ripped Christmas lights off the eavestroughs.

The cutting firm figured it would take two days to remove the tree, using some of it for firewood and giving the rest to the City which would recycle it as mulch for use in parks.

Wanting to avoid the expense of the removal, the man of the house had another idea.

"I was thinking the City could come by and pick it up – it is Christmas tree pick-up time isn't it?"

Environment Canada's immediate forecast called for 15 centimetres of blowing snow with temperatures dropping to the mid-minus 30s.

All that wood could have been put to good use as a giant neighbourhood-warming bonfire.

Related Pages

deadmonton
The murdered and the missing in the metro area.
edmonton history and museums
The Last Link guide to local history.
final credits
Reflecting lives that have contributed to Edmonton and area culture.
it's our heritage
The Last Link guide to Lawrence Herzog's articles as published in Real Estate Weekly.

edmonton - a living history - january 2007

it will be a nice town once they finish building it

Tower jumper lands in hot water on a cold and clear night >permalink<

Blow Winds Blow >permalink<