BASE jumping is one of the most dangerous recreational activities in the world, with a much higher risk of death or serious injury than skydiving or most other extreme sports. Even when done by experienced jumpers with proper gear at popular sites, the chance of a serious accident is significant on any given jump.

How risky is it numerically?

Studies from major BASE sites report roughly:

• Any injury in about 0.05–0.5% of jumps (around 1 injury every few hundred jumps).

• Death in about 0.02–0.08% of jumps at some sites (around 1 death every 1,000–5,000 jumps), with one large study finding about 1 death per 2,300 jumps.

These rates are estimated to be roughly 5–40+ times higher than those seen in skydiving, depending on the study and what is being compared (any injury, serious injury, or death).

Why it is so dangerous

Several factors make BASE jumping inherently high risk:

• Very low altitude, which means little time to fix problems if the parachute opens late or badly.

• Close proximity to cliffs, buildings, antennas, or spans, so even small errors in body position, wind, or heading can cause an impact.

• Small or awkward landing areas, often in valleys or urban spaces, increasing the chance of hard landings or collisions.

• Highly variable conditions and human factors such as wind shifts, poor judgment, fatigue, peer pressure, and limited formal regulation or oversight.

Common causes of serious accidents

Serious injuries and deaths in BASE often involve:

• Impact with the object (cliff, wall, structure) shortly after exit (“object strike”).

• Parachute malfunctions or off‑heading openings that leave too little height to recover.

• Hard or uncontrolled landings, including into trees, rocks, or power lines.

• Environmental hazards such as changing winds in narrow valleys, poor visibility, or obstacles not seen from the exit point.

Ways experienced jumpers reduce (not remove) risk

Risk can be lowered but never made “safe” in a normal sense. Common harm‑reduction steps include:

• Building a large skydiving background first (often 150–200+ skydives before starting BASE) and training with experienced mentors or schools.

• Using discipline‑specific equipment, doing thorough gear checks, and practicing emergency procedures intensively.

• Choosing more forgiving objects and conditions (good weather, clean exit, clear landing area) and being conservative about saying no to marginal jumps.

If you are considering it, it helps to treat BASE as a high‑stakes, lifelong commitment rather than a one‑off thrill: understand that even with skill and caution, a non‑trivial risk of life‑changing injury or death remains every time you jump.