Kristoffer Watson

Our party of four hiked up Ha Ling in the morning. The weather was cold but otherwise the best conditions we’d had in some time, and Kris (Watty) was really excited to get out. This is our most flown local site and very familiar to all of us. Winds were light up the face. We did have some cloud threatening visibility, but it cleared completely as we got set up.

We launched in two groups of two, and Kris was the last to go.

We unfortunately did not get a visual on him during the flight. The three of us landed without incident, and when Kris wasn’t behind us we assumed he had aborted his launch. Upon returning to our vehicle, we found emergency vehicles already present.

Hikers nearby had witnessed Kris clipping a tree mid-flight and then impacting the mountain. They called 911 immediately and the rescue was initiated. Kris was heli’d down from the mountain in under two hours from the time of the crash, which is incredible given the alpine terrain.

He did not survive his injuries.

Kris had been involved in air sports for more than 30 years and was an experienced, competent, and not particularly aggressive speed flier. On the hike Kris had mentioned that he’d been working on a “tree” line, which did not raise any alarm bells at the time since Kris was generally very conservative. However, having reviewed recent videos, we believe we understand his intended line, which did follow a path in proximity to trees and is consistent with where he was recovered. We wish we had a better understanding of what occurred, but for now we can only hope for his camera to be recovered.

We are devastated but thankful to everyone involved in the rescue. We know he had the best chance possible because of the quick thinking of the hikers and the amazing SAR we are fortunate to have.