‘I Had a Little Mishap’: Man Survives BASE Jump Gone Very Wrong

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BASE jumper Andrew Kalinyak survived “a little mishap”—a BASE jump gone wrong—in Moab, Utah a couple of months ago, and it nearly killed him. Thankfully, it didn’t, but the road to recovery has been a long one. After leaping from a cliff, Kalinyak ended up striking the cliffside and then spiraling toward the ground, bumping into the cliff several more times until he crumpled on the rocks far below.

“I had a little mishap about 2 months ago and I’ve been in the hospital ever since,” wrote Kalinyak in an Instagram post sharing a video of the accident and the aftermath. “I had a 180 and a cliffstrike causing a broken femur, broken tailbone, fractured pelvis, 7 fractured vertebrae, 9 broken ribs, a broken wrist, a broken nasal cavity, a full rotator cuff tear, and a collapsed lung.”

Though a lot went wrong with that fateful jump, Kalinyak says a lot of things also went right, which is why he’s still alive. He shared the video of his journey this week, saying his last planned surgery was Friday, and he hopes to be back BASE jumping soon.

See footage from Kalinyak’s BASE jump gone wrong here: