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17. 09. 12. - 13:00

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17. 09. 12. - 13:00

Pregnant Base Jumper Dies on Last Jump

Marija Andric

An adventure loving Swedish woman who pledged to give up base jumping after getting pregnant has died after deciding to make one last jump before retiring.

Wioletta Roslan, 37, from Sweden, became an adrenaline junkie after she started skydiving when she was just 19-years-old.

She later started wing walking strapped to the wings of a biplane and then became addicted to base jumping, and had carried out hundreds of jumps by the time she had decided to hang up her parachute when she discovered she was pregnant.

But she had also wanted to do one last jump and travelled to her favourite spot in the spectacular Swiss mountains last weekend while already four months pregnant.

Her mother Halina Zaniewska-Pettersson, 68, said: "I was always terrified every time I knew that she was doing the sport again and I kept expecting the worst – when she said that she was going to do one last jump while pregnant I begged her not to go.

"But she always wanted to carry on. I couldn't force not to do it – she was old enough to make up her own mind about things."

Wioletta had managed to build a successful career in a male dominated area as an inspector working on oil rigs – and in her spare time travelled the world as a professional base jumper.

She said in a recent interview for Swiss television that base jumping made her feel alive and made her feel that there were no limits in life.

In an interview in 2009 in Malaysia, when she had already completed 600 base jumps, she said: ""Even if the things l enjoy doing may be seen as high and scary, I love it. Every level of height gives a different kind of excitement to jumpers.

"If I had to pick a favourite, it would be the wingsuit flying I did in Switzerland — it made me feel like I was flying with wings attached to me."

She was referring to the Lauterbrunnental which with its spectacular scenery was the location that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to create Rivendell in his book the Lord of the Rings.

She had lived in the region for two years doing whatever job she could find in order to spend every spare moment jumping from local cliffs. She said it had been the happiest time in her life and she wanted to go there for a final visit before retiring.

She had travelled to the country with her boyfriend Aleksander Domalewski and as soon as they had arrived the pair had gone straight to their favourite spot - the Via Ferrata.

After that everything happened very quickly. Halina said: "Aleksander jumped at the same time as her and could only watch what happened. He told me that she desperately tried to get her parachute to open without success. It did not open and in the last moment she realised she was not going to succeed. He told me that she had simply spread her arms and waited for the impact."

The young woman had been killed instantly and local emergency doctor Bruno Durrer (59) could only confirm her death. He said: "Every death in the mountains is tragic but this one was particularly so because I knew her and also because she was pregnant."

Her mother Halina said: "I am totally devastated and shocked. I picked so often to give up jumping but she just didn't listen and now it's too late. When she was in Switzerland she was only there for base jumping – every spare moment she was climbing and jumping.

In 2008 Swiss television dinners short documentary about her together with her friend Ueli Gegenschatz, a fellow base jumper who died in 2010 during a failed attempt to jump from the Sunrise Tower in Zurich.

She is shown shoving her parachute into her backpack and laughingly told the cameras: "Others tell me that I'm a really rubbish packer but I think I do a really good job."

Later when she goes to jump she discovers that she has forgotten her helmet but jumps anyway. In the short documentary her mother also arrives and is clearly shocked at the dangerous sport her daughter is involved in, and is shown crying when she lands safely.

Later the young woman tells the TV: "I try not to tell my mother too much – I know it worries her. Most people don't understand anything about base jumping anyway and what its all about – sometimes it's just better to keep quiet."

Her mother said: "All that is left for me now memories but my daughter lived her life to the full – she was a true adventurer travel to France and Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and America to do with her sport. She was full of life and was a wonderful girl. But she couldn't imagine a life without base jumping."

In the conclusion to the Swiss film Wioletta says: "I only feel alive when I jump. I find normal life boring. I know that death always flies with me but we only have a certain amount of time on the earth. When the sun goes down then it's game over whoever you are."

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