The mood was sombre at Skydive Big Sky in Innisfail, Alta. this weekend, as staff remembered Kristin Renee Czyz, the Calgary BASE jumper who was killed Friday after leaping from the Perrine Bridge in Idaho.

Czyz was an accomplished skydiver, "better than a lot of the guys," according to David Withrow, manager of the company. She had more than 1,000 jumps to her credit.

"It's a male-dominated sport, and for a woman to be in there and giving it really hard to everything, it's really cool to see."

"There were a few skydives yesterday that were in celebration for her," said Withrow, who taught Czyz how to be a tandem jump instructor this year.

BASE jumping different from skydiving

He said friends will organize a more formal memorial jump for Czyz in the coming days, once the grief subsides.

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We would basically organize a jump in her memory, probably her close friends, and do a style of jump that she liked to do - David Withrow , manager of Skydive Big Sky

"We would basically organize a jump in her memory, probably her close friends, and do a style of jump that she liked to do. Sometimes people take pictures of people and put them inside their jumpsuits or something like that."

Withrow said Czyz was a relative beginner when it came to BASE jumping, which has inherent dangers not always encountered in skydiving.

"BASE jumping, there's only one parachute and it's a lot lower, it's in the hundreds of feet, so you literally only have a few seconds to activate your parachute," said Withrow, who has never BASE jumped.

Plans for a tribute

He said Czyz was on vacation with friends when they stopped to BASE jump at the bridge in Twin Falls and that she had already taken the plunge five times that day.

"She received medical attention pretty much immediately [after] impacting the water, because there was a guy standing right beside her," Withrow said.

"He pulled her out of the water, and then EMT arrived within a minute or two and they tried CPR but she was pronounced dead at the scene."

Czyz is the first person this year to die at the Perrine Bridge, where BASE jumping is allowed.

Last spring, a 73-year-old BASE jumper died after he intentionally set his parachute on fire and leaped from the same bridge.