What the hell is it with K2 skiers dying. Shane was one of the coolest people I ever partied with. Makes me think that the last words I ever said to him were, "What the fuck do you know"
On March 26, 2009, Shane was Ski-BASE jumping in Italy. He was working on a new line variation off the Val Scura couloir on Sassongher with JT Holmes and a film crew from Matchstick Productions. One of his skis failed to "quick release" after leaving the ground during his jump, sending him into an uncontrolled free-fall. The idea was to jump and continue with a squirrel-suit flight, but the single non-release sent him into a spin that didn't allow for parachute deployment.
I read that yesterday but was too stunned to post much. Shane was truly one of the good guys. He's a huge loss in the action sports world. We all watched his antics in awe.
He was wearing a wing suit. Not 100% sure on the dynamics of those, but there are a couple of things that probably contributed to this. In the video he does a double flip, but as soon as he comes out he throws his chute. With a wing suit, you have a bit more drag, so to fly it the skis need to eject. He was probably laid out when he pulled the release for the skis. One didn't come off, the wind drag hung him upside down and caused him to go into a death spin. He was not going to get out of the spin unless he got the ski to eject. Pretty much fucked. It really sucks and we lost a great.
Very sad news, but at least he died doing what he loved instead of like a car accident or something. Condolences to his family left behind.
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