Aussie BASE jumper gets parachute caught, dangling on cliff in Italy

An Australian BASE jumper was left dangling over the edge of a cliff when his parachute became caught on a tree above a treacherous cliff, leaving him stranded for two hours.

Rory Allen’s helmet camera captured his terrifying leap in Italy and the terrifying aftermath with the daredevil posting the footage to his TikTok page on Monday, which is dedicated to his his BASE (buildings, antenna, spans and earth) jumping exploits.

The video shows Allen dive off the peak before opening his chute.

But during the freefall a massive gust of wind pushes him back towards the cliff face where slams the rocky ledge and his parachute gets entangled in a tree. 

‘Oh, s***’ then moving on to ‘This is f***ing scary,’ he can be heard saying in the video.

‘I’m hanging from a tree, in a BASE jumping harness and it’s just got windy and I’m blowing around,’ he said.

At one point someone shouted down to Allen and he replied: ‘Dude, I’m OK but I need help. I need the helicopter.’ 

‘If the tree breaks or my canopy breaks, I’m definitely going to break my back and some legs. 

‘I hope these guys come quickly.’ 

Allen ended up being stuck for two hours and 20 minutes before he was rescued by volunteers.

On his TikTok account Allen said he suffered a ‘broken foot but not a bad one’ in the incident, which he said ‘didn’t hurt’ at the time.

The shocking close call has not put him off base jumping, though. 

‘Two more weeks and I’ll be back at it,’ Allen said.

He also explained how he avoided suspension trauma. Also known as harness hang syndrome.

It’s cause by blood being trapped in the legs and not enough of it getting to the heart and brain. 

‘I took it in turns to release each leg and wiggled my feet. Was tricky because I didn’t want to shift my weight on the tree,’ Allen wrote. 

Australian base jumper Rory Allen is pictured free falling before his parachute opened on a dive in Italy

He is very grateful to his rescuers and is raising money for the ‘brave volunteers that saved’ his life.

‘All money raised will be donated to the brave people in the mountain rescue team that saved my life,’ he said.

As well as positive comments about the jump on Allen’s TikTok site, there were also some negative ones.

One poster said: ‘So someone has to then risk their life for you.’

Another advised Allen to take up a more sedate pastime.   

‘My friend, just go home and play some chess. Much safer,’ they said.

In Australia, BASE jumping is illegal in national parks and private property, unless permission is given, which is one of the reasons people such as Allen sometimes go abroad to get their thrills.