A University of Wisconsin professor was arrested in early August after jumping off of a Seattle building for sport.
As a professor of business administration at UW, James Wade is a model academic, with a passion for studiousness and knowledge.
As a Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth jumping enthusiast, Wade is an unlikely extreme athlete with a passion for thrill and bravado.
It is the latter passion that caused him to spend three hours dangling 200 feet above the ground from a radio-tower support cable near Seattle earlier this summer when a jump attempt went awry.
In BASE jumping, jumpers climb up tall objects and jump off with parachutes to catch their fall. Accomplished skydivers and rock climbers have shown interest in the sport over the last decade, looking to add an extra thrill to their sports of choice.
Jumping off cliffs and radio towers is not itself a crime, but some of the best spots for BASE jumping sit on private property, and jumpers trespass to get to them.
That is what Wade and two of his friends did when they snuck onto the Crista Ministries compound in Shoreline, north of Seattle, on the night of Aug. 4. The trio scaled Crista’s radio tower, used to broadcast the organization’s Christian radio station to the Seattle area, and jumped from a platform 320 feet off the ground.
The first jumper landed safely. Wade went next and became entangled in a wire supporting the antenna. The first jumper fled, fearing an arrest. The third jumper landed safely and called rescue teams to help Wade.
“It was a tense, very intricate, very dangerous rescue,” said Melanie Granfors, spokeswoman for the Shoreline Fire Department. “As far as illegal activity, they trespassed to get onto the property, and then they were charged with reckless endangerment — for the danger our men were in rescuing them.”
Firefighters started the rescue attempt around 1 a.m. without any idea of how long the rescue would take or if Wade’s parachute was securely wrapped around the wire.
“He could have fell those 200 feet at any moment,” Granfors said.
Shoreline Fire Lt. Michael Ryan climbed the tower and swung out to Wade using a harness. Ryan put another harness on Wade and cut his parachute cords, and then the two of them lowered themselves to an extended fire truck’s ladder platform 100 feet off the ground.
Seattle-area television news reports showed a shaken Wade continually apologizing during the rescue.
Komo 4 News quoted Wade as saying, “Well, I’m just glad these guys showed up,” as he was brought to an ambulance for a medical checkup.
“Apologies are fine, and apologies are accepted, but that doesn’t change that this was an extremely irresponsible and dangerous action and the rescue attempt cost taxpayers thousands of dollars,” Granfors said.
The cost of rescues is one of the main reasons BASE jumpers have been targeted by law enforcement in state and national parks across the country. BASE proponents argue their sport is no different than other outdoor activities.
“The main crime in the sport is trespassing,” said Avery Badenhop, a professional BASE jumper who has spent time with Wade on jumping trips to Mexico’s Cave of the Swallows. “I travel all over the world, and if the hotel I’m staying at is jumpable, I’ll go check it out. And if I jump, I don’t see it as trespassing because I paid for a room in the hotel.”
After being treated briefly for shock and hypothermia, Wade was taken under arrest for the misdemeanor crimes of trespassing and reckless endangerment and released on $750 bail.
Badenhop said BASE jumping is a sport enjoyed by a many different types of people.
“If you were a student at Wisconsin and you had a conversation with Jim Wade, you would not immediately expect that he was an extreme athlete,” Badenhop said. “But there’s no typical BASE jumper. There are people who are unemployed and live in tents all the way to doctors, dentists, investment bankers.”
