BASE jumper rescued from Squamish, B.C., mountain after dangling off cliff face

A BASE jumper says she's feeling grateful after rescuers managed to extract her from the face of a Squamish, B.C., mountain after her parachute was caught on Wednesday.

Alenka Mali was attempting to do a BASE jump — when someone jumps off a fixed place, like a bridge or cliff, and deploys a parachute to slowly descend — at the Stawamus Chief mountain, whose peak soars 700 metres above the ground.

But Mali says her parachute got caught on a rock or tree on the cliff face. Rescuers say she was 200 metres from the ground.

"I was pretty much just waiting for that final impact that was going to either kill me or break all my bones — until I came to a complete stop," Mali told CBC News.

She was then left dangling precariously for hours, as emergency responders and Squamish Search and Rescue made plans to help extricate her.

Mike Teske, who was incident commander on the rescue with Squamish SAR, said they initially intended to use a helicopter to rescue Mali.

"The problem that we encountered was we were worried about the downwash that the helicopter creates, that it was going to inflate her parachute and cause her to dislodge from her position," Teske said.

"So although this would have been a significantly quicker option, it wasn't going to be a safe one given her situation."

More than 30 rescuers were involved with the operation, and one of them eventually had to be lowered down using ropes to extricate Mali from the cliff.

Teske said Squamish SAR is involved with around 150 rescues a year, and one or two of them involve BASE jumpers.

Despite her fall and the hours-long wait for a rescue, Mali was mostly uninjured from her fall. She said she's grateful to her rescuers for an efficient rescue, and plans to get back to BASE jumping soon.

In a Facebook post, Squamish SAR said calls like Mali's have "unfortunately, become more frequent in the past year, and we're thankful this one ended well."