Danger of 'an Act of Meditation'

June 1, 2006 — -- Twin Falls, Idaho, is home to one of the most-popular spots in the world for BASE jumping.

It is also the site where this Memorial Day weekend Shannon Dean, a fearless practitioner of the sport, died.

The tragedy highlights once again the risks BASE jumpers take to participate in this extreme sport, and why they continue to do it.

Dean, like many BASE jumpers worldwide, came to Twin Falls for the thrill of free-falling 486 feet off the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Canyon.

It is one of the most-popular sites not only for its spectacular beauty, but because it is legal to jump there 365 days a year. At many sites, local authorities limit when people can jump.

Before Dean's jump this weekend, the veteran skydiver had been out of commission for several months following back surgery. On her Myspace.com page, she said, "I'm finally back in the air now."

Because of her passion, Dean couldn't stay away. Even after back surgery, she was still seeking more chances to jump.

On her fourth jump that day, Dean's parachute failed to open, leading to the 34-year-old's death. The tragedy was caught on multiple video cameras by fellow jumpers on the scene, and the recordings will be analyzed to determine what exactly went wrong with the jump. It was described as "a total parachute malfunction."

"We get calls like this every year -- no less than people who get lost in the hills in the winter," said Nancy Howell, a spokeswoman for the Twin Falls Sheriff's Department.

BASE jumping -- which stands for the buildings, antennae, spans and Earth from which participants jump -- has been around since the early 1980s. Since then, there have been approximately 100 BASE jumping deaths worldwide. There have been four fatalities in the United States this year, according to dropzone.com.

Tom Aiello, a BASE jumper who has logged more than 500 jumps, offers some insight into the mentality of a BASE jumper. He says the activity is an "act of meditation" and a "calming experience."

"You limit your risk by good training and modern equipment," Aiello said.

It's a sport that despite its apparent dangers, is largely unregulated. The only real controls on it are that in some places, after you hit the ground, you may get arrested.

"There are plenty of things in this country that are illegal," Aiello said.

It is seen as more challenging than the conventional sky diving, because participants jump from lower altitudes as opposed to out of a plane. It also often takes place in close proximity to a cliff or tower, which is used as a jump platform.

Kurt Gaebel, with the National Skydiving League, believes that there's more athleticism and competition in sky diving than there is in BASE jumping.

He maintains that while there is crossover between the two extreme sports, sky divers are competitors and can't afford to be injured, which is why many of them avoid BASE jumping.

The biggest difference he says is that sky diving is "very safety oriented, while BASE jumping takes place in places that aren't meant for falling."

So the question remains, what drives someone to parachute off a building or bridge?

Rebecca Aronson, a graduate student at Northwestern University, has studied thrill seekers and what biological reasons might support their death-defying decisions.

Aronson says neurotransmitters are released in the brain after a thrill-seeking activity, causing someone to crave that rush again.

"I would say that thrill addiction is possible, given the high amount of pleasurable sensation that a person would achieve by successfully completing an exciting, risky task," Aronson said.

In the end, it's unlikely that Twin Falls County will change its policy of allowing jumping 365 days a year without a permit regardless of the death and injuries that occurred this weekend.