National Post (National Edition)
MAKING A BASE JUMPER’S FINAL WISHES COME TRUE.
B.C. ADVENTURER ASKED TO GO ‘BACK INTO AIR’
Mike Racicot kept a letter with one request should he die: “I want to be put back into the air.”
The five-page handwritten missive the elite BASE jumper had left at his home in British Columbia had instructions on what to do with his possessions and his beloved dog, a 10-year-old boxer called Taco.
The 37-year-old — known as “Treehouse Mike” — died on July 26 while on a wingsuit flight in Switzerland.
“We were always worried about him, but he was so good about taking care of himself,” said Racicot’s sister, Rachel Polite, who has spent the past few months fulfilling her brother’s wishes. “Now we’re taking care of him.”
As per his final wishes, Racicot’s body was cremated and the ashes were sent to family and friends who were to take them on more adventures. A big “ash jump” was held in Squamish, B.C., in late August when more than two dozen friends jumped off a cliff. When one opened his parachute, Racicot’s ashes burst forth in a giant plume.
His ashes have also been spread on jumps off the Kuala Lumpur Tower in Malaysia, the massive Balinghe River Bridge in China and Trump Tower in Vancouver, among others. Another jump was due to take place in Mexico on New Year’s Eve, and some of his ashes will be taken back to the Swiss mountain where he died.
Racicot earned his “Treehouse” nickname for living off-and-on for years in a secret tree house he built on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, B.C. He became a journeyman carpenter, a bee-keeper — you had to donate money to a local charity to get some honey — and worked for a time at Tim Hortons. He hitchhiked across the country several times and rode freight trains for fun.
He spent his early years in Quebec before the family moved to Arnprior, Ont., in the Ottawa Valley, when he was four years old.
That’s where he started to skateboard, at age nine, because he felt more comfortable gliding then walking, said his 40-year-old sister. People made fun of his walk due to problems with the arches in his feet.
His adventurous spirit couldn’t be contained, his family said. He jumped out of trees and soon began jumping off bridges, some 35 metres high, into the water below.
“The first time I really met him he was doing flips off the roof of the community centre into the snow,” said Adam Myers, his childhood friend.
On his 18th birthday, Racicot asked his father for a skydiving session.
At 20, Racicot dropped out of college.
Most of all, Racicot wanted adventure. So at 23, he packed up everything he owned, including his skateboard, stuffed it onto a small Yamaha scooter and headed west.
About 10 years ago, Racicot got into BASE jumping, which involves jumping with a parachute off buildings, cliffs, or bridges. He moved to Squamish, considered by many to be among the most important areas for BASE jumping in Canada, where he’d often start his day with a jump off the Stawamus Chief, a mountain 700 metres above Howe Sound where BASE jumping is legal.
“He was the chief of the Chief,” said Philip Moessinger, a jumper who also learned under the tutelage of Racicot. “Everyone knows Treehouse in B.C.”
Racicot jumped 969 times in his life, his sister said, with more than 500 jumps at the Chief.
His peers say Racicot was one of the best all-around BASE jumpers in the world. He could also perform aerials and flew incredible distances with a wingsuit.
“You’re literally flying,” said Moessinger. “The feeling you get out of it, the joy, the high, is unbelievable. Treehouse felt that too.”
On July 26, Moessinger and Racicot stood at the top of Chaserrugg mountain with the Swiss town of Walenstadt sitting below. The pair had just jumped off the mountain that morning and were back up to fly another line in their wingsuits.
Moessinger jumped first with Racicot in tow. They flew between three-to-10 metres off the steep ground. At one point, Racicot flew underneath his friend and took the lead.
“It was a great flight,” Moessinger said.
But as they approached the zone where they would pull their parachutes, Racicot didn’t pull his.
“He just disappeared in the trees,” Moessinger said as he fell silent.
No one knows what happened to Racicot in that flight.