N. Shore man’s BASE jump lands him in a tree, then jail
By Cathy Locke, Sacramento Bee
A parachutist who took a moonlight leap off the Foresthill Bridge on Wednesday night landed in jail after a Placer County sheriff’s helicopter crew had to pluck him from a pine tree.
Scott Liske, supervising ranger for the Auburn State Recreation Area, said Nicholas Frey, 34, of Olympic Valley jumped from the bridge 730 feet above the American River canyon. Frey intended to land near the east side of the north fork of the American River, but his parachute became caught in a gray pine.
Liske said Frey dangled there for about an hour – possibly while companions tried to figure out how to get him down – before calling 911 shortly after midnight.
Frey was hanging about 60 feet above a roadway, on the end of a branch that extended about 45 feet out from the trunk of the tree.
“It was not an easy rescue,” Liske said.