Ueli Gegenenschatz

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Ueli Gegenschatz at TED 2009

Ueli Gegenschatz (born January 3, 1971 in Appenzellerland ; † November 13, 2009 in Zurich ) was a Swiss extreme athlete . He was considered the most famous Swiss base jumper (object jumper) , paraglider and parachutist .

Life

Sunrise Tower with base construction (right)

The antithesis, which was last located in Speicher, was considered an idol and pioneer of the Swiss extreme sports scene. In 1989 he completed his first parachute jump in the preliminary military course for tele-scouts . Then Gegenenschatz did not become a remote spy, but he remained loyal to jumping: in 1990 he flew with a paraglider for the first time and from then on, as an amateur, was among the world's best. From the mid-1990s on he devoted himself more to jumping, in 1997 he made his first object jump from a 1000 meter high rock face in Norway. Gegenenschatz was a member of the Swiss paragliding team for many years and founded the Red Bull Acro Team in 1995 together with Hannes Arch and Andreas Hediger . He held various extreme sports world premieres. Gegenenschatz completed around 6000 jumps in total. There were around 1500 object jumps, whereby he only injured himself significantly once (broken foot).

Gegenenschatz also worked as an insurance advisor.

On November 11, 2009, Gegenenschatz jumped from the 88-meter-high Zurich Sunrise Tower for an advertising campaign on behalf of Red Bull . A gust of wind caught him, whereupon he first hit an edge of the 25 meter high base of the towers and then uncontrollably hit the ground. He had probably broken his hip when it hit the porch and was therefore unable to control the impact with the asphalt; as a result, he also injured his head. Initially still accessible, Gegenenschatz succumbed to serious injuries on November 13, 2009 at the age of 38 in the University Hospital Zurich . Since just a few weeks earlier, Eli Thompson , another object jumper, had a fatal accident while filming a Red Bull promotional film , public criticism of Red Bull's marketing was raised. The ARD documentary The Dark Side of Red Bull deals with the death of Gegenenschatz and five other extreme athletes who were sponsored by Red Bull, and accuses the group of complicity, as the athletes were deliberately pushed into too risky actions.

Significant leaps

The "mushroom" on the north face of the Eiger
  • 1989: first parachute jump
  • 1990: first paragliding flight
  • 1997: first object jump in Norway from a 1000 meter high cliff
  • 1998: 1st place in the Skysurf Challenge Cup in Perris , California
  • 2000: Extreme altitude jump with oxygen assistance (jump height: 10,000 m above sea level , outside temperature −55 ° C)
  • 2000: first person with an object jump from the "mushroom" ("mushroom rock") in the Eiger north face
  • 2002: first person with an object jump from the Matterhorn (jump height 4200 m above sea level)
  • 2002: 22 object jumps from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
  • 2005: first person who completed object jumps from the Eiger , the Mönch and the Jungfrau (each at the highest possible point) in one day (11 hours and 45 minutes)
  • 2005: 1st place at the Summer Outdoor Games in Interlaken in the "Aerial Disciplines"
  • 2007: first wingsuit object jump from the Eiger and Jungfrau
  • 2007: Wingsuit flight over the Popocatépetl
  • 2008: 1st place at the Winter Outdoor Games in Chamonix
  • 2008: Object jump from the Eiffel Tower in Paris

Web links

Commons : Ueli Gegenschatz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c He was the most famous base jumper in Switzerland , Tages-Anzeiger online, November 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ Today parachute reconnaissance aircraft , formerly parachute grenadiers, cf. 17er.ch
  3. ↑ The flying Appenzeller. (No longer available online.) Redbull.ch, archived from the original on April 29, 2013 ; Retrieved May 1, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.redbull.ch
  4. ↑ a b Profile of Ueli Gegenschatz on his website. Archived from the original on February 5, 2009 ; Retrieved November 15, 2009 .
  5. ↑ This is perverse , article on 20min online (photo gallery 7), November 15, 2009
  6. ↑ We have put the planning in the hands of Red Bull Tages-Anzeiger online, November 13, 2009
  7. ↑ a b The dark side of Red Bull. (No longer available online.) ARD die story, archived from the original on September 15, 2013 ; Retrieved September 2, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ardmediathek.de
  8. ↑ Ueli Gegenschatz is dead , Tages-Anzeiger online Friday, November 13, 2009.
  9. ↑ Death of an Extreme Sportsman: Sharp criticism of Red Bull , diepresse.com, accessed on November 19, 2009


personal data
SURNAME Gegenenschatz, Ueli
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss extreme athlete
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd January 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Appenzellerland
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 2009
Place of death Zurich