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Background: BASE jumping, and especially BASE jumping with the help of wingsuits, is considered one of the most dangerous airborne sports. The valley of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland has become infamous for the large number of BASE jumps and the high rate of accidents and fatalities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the morbidity and mortality of BASE jumping, to determine the severity of injuries and injury patterns of BASE jumping accidents and to compare preclinical assessment with clinical diagnoses to detect under- or overtriage. Methods: This retrospective, descriptive cohort study covers a period of 10 years (2007–2016). The evaluation covered all BASE jumping incidents in the valley of Lauterbrunnen that required either a helicopter mission by the local HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) company of Lauterbrunnen, Air Glaciers, or medical care in the regional hospital, the level I trauma centre or the medical practice of the local general practitioner. Besides demographic data, experience in BASE jumping and skydiving as well as BASE jumping technique(s) and details about the rescue missions were collected. The medical data focused on the severity of injuries, as expressed by the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics (NACA) score in the prehospital assessment as well as the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS) retrieved from the clinical records in the hospital or medical practice setting. Results: The patients were predominantly young, experienced male BASE jumpers. Morbidity (injury risk) ranged from 0.05% to 0.2%, and fatality risk from 0.02% to 0.08%. Undertriage was low, with only two cases. Overtriage was significant, with 73.2% of all NACA 4–6 cases not qualifying for major trauma. Conclusions: BASE jumping remains a high-risk sport and is associated with significant rates of injuries and fatalities. Comparison with previous studies indicated that the injury rate may have decreased, but the fatality rate had not. In this known BASE jumping environment, prehospital assessment appears to be good, as we found a low undertriage rate. The high overtriage rate might be an expression of physicians’ awareness of high-velocity trauma mechanisms and possible deceleration injuries.

Some people, however, go to extremes you may never have imagined. They have nothing to grab but air. They spend their days hurling themselves off buildings or mountains, just for the thrill of it. Correspondent Vicki Mabrey in the spring of 2000 investigated the dangerous sport of BASE jumping.

Well before Evel Knievel or Hollywood stuntmen, reality television or the X Games, North America had a long tradition of stunt performance, of men (and some women) who sought media attention and popular fame with public feats of daring. Many of these feats—jumping off bridges, climbing steeples and buildings, swimming incredible distances, or doing tricks with wild animals—had their basis in the manual trades or in older entertainments like the circus. In The Thrill Makers, Jacob Smith shows how turn-of-the-century bridge jumpers, human flies, lion tamers, and stunt pilots first drew crowds to their spectacular displays of death-defying action before becoming a crucial, yet often invisible, component of Hollywood film stardom. Smith explains how these working-class stunt performers helped shape definitions of American manhood, and pioneered a form of modern media celebrity that now occupies an increasingly prominent place in our contemporary popular culture.

The quality and intensity of emotional experiences are important motivators for extreme sport, but surprising little is known scientifically about the feelings of leisure activities that involve high risks. In the current study the emotions of 13 BASE-jumpers and 18 skydivers were measured during and immediately after a jump, and again 24 hour later, during and immediately after watching a film of themselves jumping. Verbal reports, visual reports and heart rate measures were collected. Results showed that feelings like engagement and interest varied more between the jump, the film and a neutral baseline condition, as compared with feelings of pleasure and happiness. During the jump, however, participants experienced huge variation in pleasure, but relatively stable levels of interest. The findings further suggest that extreme sport episodes produce both very intense and very heterogeneous feeling states with a clear distinction between otherwise relatively similar feelings. The results are discussed with reference to so-called eudaimonic and hedonic feeling states, to memory bias, and to the issue of reliability in self-reported emotions during high levels of arousal.