Updated at 4:48 p.m., Friday, May 18, 2007
Hawai'i adventurer Hall died doing what he loved
Advertiser Staff
Hawai'i extreme adventurer Jimmy Hall jumped with two others off an icy, snowy cliff a half-mile up in the air the day he died on Canada's Baffin Island above the Arctic Circle, members of his team said in a news conference today.But his parachute deployed slightly after the others, and his trajectory took him out of their sight.
Only a friend standing on a cliff opposite his launch point on May 9 saw him land on the canyon floor, according to four close friends, three of whom were part of the expedition.
His closest friends said Hall died doing what he loved best — participating in an extreme adventure.
"When Jimmy found out about this (expedition) he was like a 3-year-old kid — he just had to go," said his girlfriend, Stefanie Brendl. "You don't get this opportunity to just go to your ultimate place just like that. It takes a lot of effort. Everybody has to be carefully chosen and have the opportunity to train, to plan. It's not just getting there. It's the whole build-up of being with people who understand what you're doing."
Hall was a North Shore businessman who had been preparing for the trip to Baffin Island in Canada's frozen northland for about a year.
Hall's agent, Micah Johnson, said there is a possibility that Hall's life could be made into a special for the Discovery Channel.
