Extreme athlete dies in US jumping accident
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Extreme athlete Dean Potter, renowned for his bold and sometimes rogue climbs and BASE jumps, was one of two men killed while attempting a wingsuit flight in Yosemite National Park, a park spokesman said Sunday.
Someone called for help late Saturday after losing contact with Potter, 43, and his climbing partner, Graham Hunt, 29. They had jumped from a 7,500foot promontory called Taft Point, park ranger Scott Gediman said.
He said a search-and-rescue team looked for the men overnight but couldn’t find them. On Sunday morning, a helicopter crew spotted their bodies in Yosemite Valley.
No parachutes had been deployed.
BASE jumping is an acronym for fixed objects in which someone can parachute from: building, antenna, span, and Earth (such as a cliff). The sport is illegal in all national parks, and it was possible the men jumped at dusk or at night to avoid being caught by park rangers.
Potter and Hunt, who lived near Yosemite, were prominent figures in the park’s climbing community, Gediman said.
“This is a horrible incident, and our deepest sympathies go out to their friends and family,” Gediman said. “This is a huge loss for all of us.”
Potter was famous for pushing the boundaries of climbing by going up some of the world’s most daunting big walls and cliffs alone, using his bare hands and without ropes. He took the sport to an extreme level with highlining — walking across a rope suspended between towering rock formations while wearing a parachute for safety in the event of a fall.
He drew criticism in May 2006 after he made a “free solo” climb of Utah’s Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Though the climb was not illegal, outdoor clothing company Patagonia dropped its sponsorship of him, saying his actions “compromised access to wild places and generated an inordinate amount of negativity in the climbing community and beyond.”
Potter defended his ascent, saying his intention was to inspire people to “get out of their cars and experience the wild with all their senses.”
Last year, Clif Bar withdrew its sponsorship of Potter and four other top climbers, saying they took risks that made the company too uncomfortable to continue financial support.