Dean Potter RIP

Sad, indeed. I first heard of Dean when he was a world class climber. I really wasn't aware of his later stage BASE jumping career. Even as a climber, he pioneered extremely fast and risky climbing, so it's not a surprise that he went on to even crazier stuff. Unfortunately. Here's hoping for better luck for everyone out there.

Because honestly, taking risks like they do is pretty much an art form, and they suffer like artists. But a lot worse. Guys like Alex Honnold and Dean Potter support an entire industry - they're living out of vans and climbing/adventuring with such commitment that it fuels the imagination and lubricates the wallets of the millions of weekend warriors and gym rats out there. And when they do something big enough, they get dropped by their sponsors for representing unsafe climbing. Forget that. But the fact that they keep going (or, kept) shows that they do what they do for personal reasons - I just hope the rewards for him were worth it.

And I'm glad his dog didn't go with him this time. Poor guy.

Dean Potter lived on his own terms, that's for sure.

Even among extremists, Potter was a little bit closer to the edge. Like a much more talented Dan Osman.

I wouldn't put Honnold in the same category, he seems much more safe (and is likely turning away from hard soloing to...running (at least as part of his climbing craft). More like Peter Croft, who is still alive and kicking.

Potter has always been my candidate for the all-time most extreme athlete, so very gifted. RIP.

anybody with knowledge of this have any idea how this happens? 2 guys so unlikely faulty parachutes. Do they hit the cliff before they deploy? Sad news

They wore wing suits .

Too close to the Sun. Re: Icarus

How??? wrote:

anybody with knowledge of this have any idea how this happens? 2 guys so unlikely faulty parachutes. Do they hit the cliff before they deploy? Sad news

No personal knowledge, but according to news reports they were aiming to shoot a gap between the rocks while flying in wingsuits at dusk. I'd guess that a sudden gust of wind blew them both off course at the last second. What are wind conditions like in Yosemite up against the cliffs in the evenings? That's my guess for what caused the accident.

Not far from where Dan Osman died while jump-lining. Also Derek Hersey soloing. Yosemite can be a seductive and dangerous playground.

I also have no knowledge of the particulars of this accident but do have some knowledge of wingsuits, basejumping, and the combination of the two.

A just of wind is pretty unlikely to be the cause of the accident. If it was involved it would be the most minor sort of contributing factor--and then more a factor of failing to exercise proper judgement. Wind would have to be really howling to have a significant effect. The most likely cause of wingsuit base jumping accidents is a failure to accurately estimate the flight angle needed to clear the terrain. This is possibly because the line these two guys were trying to fly was not well known (possibly) or because they overestimated their ability to fly the right glide angle needed.

I would guess, but do not know, that wingsuit base jumping in Yosemite is pretty rare. People have been jumping there a long time but not in great numbers due to the illegality and relatively close surveillance. Just about all of those jumps have been at night. Don't know if this would have been at night, but that certainly would not have made it any safer.

Wingsuit base jumping is extremely dangerous wiht very little margin of error. The ratio of practitioners:deaths is very high.

Thanks. It's helpful to hear an informed opinion.

Even though BASE jumping is not allowed in Yosemite, there's a lot more of it, and a lot more wing-suit flying, in Yosemite than you might think. According to Mike Gauthier, chief-of-staff at Yosemite, Potter had jumped this particular route 20 times.

Potter thought about the risks, and talked about them openly. Here's what he said last summer:

"About 30 BASE jumpers and wingsuit flyers died last year, and this year has been very similar. I just felt uncomfortable with what was going on. And though I felt like I was always safe—I’ve never had a close call—I realized I must be missing something....

"Sean Leary—one of my best friends and the guy that I jumped with more than anybody else—died recently. Though I’ve known a lot of BASE jumpers who have died, I’ve sort of isolated myself from the community because I don’t want to risk developing a pack mentality. But when Sean died, it hit home hard. It made me question even more the safety of our system."

The interview's short, but worth a read. It gives a fuller picture of the guy doing all of that crazy stuff:

http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/dean-potter-what-ive-learned

http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/dean-potter-life-at-the-edge-of-realization

I wonder what Steph Davis is now thinking. She has lost her husband, and now her ex, to a sport she pursues professionally.

A cliff I climb on has had at least two fatalities, and I almost witnessed another (landed in a tree, only a broken ankle). The fatality rate is off the charts compared to even free solo climbing or ice climbing. One jumper I know lost three friends out of a group of five that regularly jumped together over the years.

It appears they were trying to "shoot the curl." In this case the curls are the massive granite fissures (gaps) below Taft Point.

These types of things.

http://c8.alamy.com/comp/E493K7/view-of-the-taft-point-fissures-yosemite-national-park-california-E493K7.jpg

http://loomisadventures.com/sites/default/files/images/gallery/yosemite-fissures-taft-point-06.22.11.jpg

Here's a picture from Google earth showing their likely route and the notch:

http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=Ojk5NzkoISMgIw

,,

There's a good documentary on wingsuit jumping on Netflix. Most of the people in the documentary later died. It's unbelievably dangerous, particularly the "proximity jumping". People didn't like jumping out of airplanes in a wingsuit. too boring. They liked jumping off a mountain and skimming over the ground.

Some more crazy shit.

As a former Yosemite climber myself (late 70's through the 80's) this is not surprising. I recall back in the day John Bachar, free soloist of the day doing unheard of climbs in both Yosemite and Tuolome. Sadly he fell to his death in a free solo effort in his early 50's. At some point it catches up to you unless you realize that, as you age, reaction time decreases, reflexes and strength are not as they used to be. I recall seeing a documentary on Potter a year or so ago and thinking to myself "its only a matter of time". Too bad, RIP.

Although the exit point was the same, the line was apparently a new one:

Mike Gauthier, the park’s chief of staff, said photographs show the two men jumping off Taft Point and then flying for about 30 to 45 seconds until they reached the pass with rock ridges on each side about a half mile away.

He said Hunt had clipped the right side of the ridge as he entered the notch. Potter immediately cut left, possibly to avoid Hunt as he tumbled, and made it through the pass. He somehow lost altitude and hit the lower end on the left side of the notch. Both men were killed instantly.

“It could have been an evasive maneuver,” Gauthier said, trying to explain why Potter had crashed after it appeared he had made it through. “Someone else said they saw a clipped piece of a tree up there, so we don’t know for sure.”

OLD SMTC SOB wrote:

As a former Yosemite climber myself (late 70's through the 80's) this is not surprising. I recall back in the day John Bachar, free soloist of the day doing unheard of climbs in both Yosemite and Tuolome. Sadly he fell to his death in a free solo effort in his early 50's. At some point it catches up to you unless you realize that, as you age, reaction time decreases, reflexes and strength are not as they used to be. I recall seeing a documentary on Potter a year or so ago and thinking to myself "its only a matter of time". Too bad, RIP.

I agree. Several times since learning of his death I've caught myself in mid-sentence: "Man, I can't believe he's dea... Oh wait." Nobody can really be surprised by this, unfortunate as it is.

I wonder if this will impact Honnold's future solo stuff. Dean didn't die climbing so there's no real connexion, but it's still a matter of seeing your hero die doing something at which he had a lifetime of experience, and 100% confidence in his judgement and ability.

Honnold is already dialing back the solo stuff.

frogs wrote:

[quote]OLD SMTC SOB wrote:

I agree. Several times since learning of his death I've caught myself in mid-sentence: "Man, I can't believe he's dea... Oh wait." Nobody can really be surprised by this, unfortunate as it is.

I wonder if this will impact Honnold's future solo stuff. Dean didn't die climbing so there's no real connexion, but it's still a matter of seeing your hero die doing something at which he had a lifetime of experience, and 100% confidence in his judgement and ability.