Portland man critically hurt in base jumping mishap

Something went wrong when a Portland man attempted a base jump from a rock outcropping in Lewis County on Monday. He’s hospitalized in Seattle in critical condition.

The man’s two friends went first, launching from the top of 3,300 foot Tower Rock, near Randle, Wash. They landed safely but did not see the third man’s jump. A witness saw the man hit the rock wall several times before his parachute fully deployed, according to Lewis County Sheriff’s chief deputy Stacy Brown.

“He disappeared into the timber after that.”

The other base jumpers found their friend, who was bleeding and had broken bones in his legs. One friend hiked out and called for search and rescue.

“Because of his injuries and because it was a one-mile hike through rugged terrain back to the road, it was just determined that for his safety as well as the rescuers that a hoist would be the best way to go,” said Brown.

A helicopter team from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station lifted the injured man and flew him to Harborview Hospital in Seattle.