They are not the same.

In mountaineering, if something goes wrong, you could die.

In base jumping, if you don't do everything correctly, you will die.

A bit like the difference of a car engine failing (it will roll to a stop) vs an airplane engine failing (you will come down hard on the ground)

An engine failing on an aircraft, especially a light aircraft, is not a guaranteed crash landing. It is a serious situation, however aircraft usually glide well. This means you have opportunities to find somewhere that is adequate for landing. Many aircraft with engine failures have landed safely on airstrips. Interestingly this is also the case with helicopters due to their ability to autorotate.

I think base jumping is slightly closer to suicide.

Or that almost suicidal thing with the wingsuits some people do: I get the appeal, I'm sure the rush of feeling like flying must be incredible, but they are playing Russian roulette.

Wingsuits aren’t something I really follow. But my understanding it’s an activity that most serious practitioners die sooner or later from a crash/fall.

It's very dangerous, but I think "most serious practitioners die sooner or later" is an exaggeration. The number I see is 1 death per 500 jumps, which I assume is also biased towards people with less experience.

It might have been true for the pioneers of the sport though.

I (and probably the commenter you're replying to) meant wingsuit BASE jumping, who is considered one of the most dangerous sports in the world. I think it's borderline suicide. I think its practitioners are thrill seekers who want a higher and higher rush, much like an addiction, which has a high chance of killing them.

It's more dangerous than jumping from a plane with a wingsuit.

I'm under the impression that wing suit base jumping is a lot safer than it was 20 years ago due to design improvements, and I believe that's what the 1 in 500 number I see in a few articles comes from. I could be wrong, but it matches the impression I have from watching a few content creators doing it.

Yes, I'm basically referring to base jumping in a wingsuit though, as I say, it's not an activity I'm remotely interested in or have much knowledge of beyond some videos. Of course, serious/elite practitioners do quite a lot of jumps.

I read the fatality comment somewhere presumably somewhat authoritative but it was a while back.

I have been thinking about starting to do air gliding. Is this a dangerous sport? How long does it take to get to glide a few miles? Any pointers pointers (books, videos,etc..) to start up? I live nearby Seattle, WA. Thanks!!!

When I used to do gliding (sailplane, not hang gliding or paragliding) many years ago, it was not classed as a dangerous sport for insurance purposes. Don't know about the other fields of gliding. General aviation was classed as riskier - I guess glider pilots are more used to the fact that they don't have a working engine!

edit:// i thought wingsuit gliding was meant.

hehe a friend wants to do it. He has a trainer. The condition was at least 5000 jumps from plane with parachute . then 3 years training with at least 1000 or more jumps from plane or so….. it was hard and demanding be asured. he is elite lvl in sport. i wouldn’t do it. not because of the danger but because the training to do it safe is to hard.