wrong video?

Yep - I accidentally sifted the subsequent video in the playlist. It's fixed now. Thanks!

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by kulpims.

A mountain almost dies. News at eleven.

Get of the playlist parameter in the URL It should be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtJWKfsqrqQ and not http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtJWKfsqrqQ&list=UUJhP3vAriDfw2jCSPGTTkFA .

That was pretty badass.

Not for a million dollars would I try that. No way. I guess my balls aren't that big.

Me? "Almost dies" includes AT LEAST a paramedic.

Well if they were, they'd be bouncing off the mountain.

Wingsuit terrain flying is kinda an either - or sort of thing. If something goes wrong you either have spectacular footage of a close call and you walk away scot free, or you die. There isn't much middle ground where paramedics would be useful.

This guy was incredibly close to dying pulling a turn like that.

Actually, that was some pretty deep powder on a 45 degree slope with no major oncoming obstacles. If you're going to hit something at Mach 6 and survive, it would be powder snow.

Several videos out there of people skydiving and surviving hitting the ground at terminal velocity with only a drag chute deployed. Granted, they are major puckered units, but that is a situation more akin to "almost died".

I guess what I mean is, I don't classify near misses as "almost dying". It's like saying she's "almost pregnant" after pulling away before coitus.

Quick research reveals some stuff about wingsuit flying over snow.

Those wingsuit skydivers are probably traveling about 60-100 mph. During that near miss, when the one skydiver flairs his suit, he probably dropped down to as little as 40 mph.

Ski racers can travel around 50-100 mph. We see crashes at those speeds all the time in snow and the skiier is generally uninjured.

The fastest skiiers, in the aerodynamic suits, are travelling 120-150 mph. Those crashes are obivously survivable, although catastrophic injury happens.

So, it stands to reason that a serious accident involving a wingsuit flyer over snow is very survivable. With some time to flare, there's no reason they couldn't walk away with little more than bruises. In fact, I suspect it's only a matter of time before we finally see a wingsuit pilot land without a parachute. Maybe over snow first, eventually over water and ultimately...why shouldn't we see someone with the skill to land on solid ground. With appropriate advances in equipment.

Wingsuits have already been landed twice without a parachute: once into a giant pile of boxes and another French guy fell into some trees when he stalled out above a forest. Jeb Corliss skipped off a boulder and only broke his legs, which is close enough. However 76 people died - those are pretty shitty odds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEP8juRSBRo
http://vimeo.com/50817449
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFk6hxHIR0Q
http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/Fatality_Statistics

So I stand by the notion that he was pretty darn close to dying - one might say that he was almost there.

But, if you guys really want to be the semantics police, here are some more illicit video titles for you guys to fix:

http://videosift.com/video/Almost-Died-Whoa-that-was-close-WHOA
http://videosift.com/video/Girl-nearly-gets-decapitated-for-a-photo
http://videosift.com/video/Day-9-Story-Time-How-I-Almost-Died
http://videosift.com/video/Near-death-trainspotter-47-secs

I agree that it's only a matter of time before someone survives another crash, particularly if it is into snow, but first keep in mind that those guys are in a dive and flying closer to 130-140mph and they are also flying head first. Taking a hit in that position would hardly ever be survivable.