A pair of base jumpers who almost lost their lives in a routine jump last year has decided to give it a go one more time.
The 23-year-old Austin Carey and 25-year-old Jay Rawe spent the greater part of 2014 recuperating in intensive care after plummeting 500 feet onto a riverbank at the Perrine Bridge in Idaho.
According to the base jumpers' accounts, their parachutes got entangled after they made the jump off the bridge.
In a recent interview, Rawe said that he recalled standing on Carey's shoulders, being held in place by their friends. As Carey counted down, Rawe remembered that he started to fall down backwards. He tried to jump onto the bridge's handrail but he missed it. He hit the diving board instead, causing him to flip over.
"I grabbed his pilot chute and tried to unwrap his bridle from around my leg," Rawe said. "I then landed in his parachute, looked up and saw the sky above me and his canopy flapping around. I kicked my feet over my head, fell out, and remember spinning at the ground as it got closer and knowing that we were gonna hit."
Rawe added that he found himself trying to catch the air that was "knocked out" of him. People made sure to keep him stable and conscious as they called emergency services.
During the time, Rawe did not know he suffered a burst fracture of the L1 vertebrae and damaged the T12 and L3 vertebrae. He also sprained his right ankle.
Carey's injuries were more serious, endangering his ability to walk again. He sustained a burst fracture of the L1 vertebrae and an incomplete spinal cord injury. Carey almost split his T12 vertebrae in half.
After undergoing 10 hours in emergency surgery and spending the following months recovering, Carey and Rawe decided to start base jumping again.
In October 2014, Rawe went back to the sport he loves at Fayetteville in West Virginia. He said that quitting base jumping was never really an option for him.
The two are now in the middle of preparations to attempt their failed base jump at the Perrine Bridge again.
"My family would like me to stop out of the fear that I will injure myself again, but life is too short to not do the things that I love," Rawe said.
Photo: Ed Schipul | Flickr
