Duo tried to jump at Taft Point.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Tributes from around the globe have been pouring in for Dean Potter, a renowned extreme athlete and consummate daredevil who died on Saturday during a BASE jump gone awry.
Potter, 43, and fellow daredevil Graham Hunt, 29, were killed during a jump at Taft Point, ABC News said, citing Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman.
The AFP cited other media outlets that said the pair had been attempting a wingsuit flight from Taft Point but smashed into a rocky outcropping when they tried to maneuver their airborne bodies through a narrow gap in the mountains.
Gediman stated rescuers looked for the men overnight but couldn’t find them, but on Sunday morning a helicopter crew spotted the bodies lying prone in Yosemite Valley.
BASE jumping, in which people either parachute or glide via wingsuit from a structure or cliff, is illegal in all national parks. It’s likely Potter and Hunt jumped at dusk or at night to avoid being caught, reported the Boston Globe.
‘‘BASE jumping is the most dangerous thing you can do … every time you jump it’s a roll of the dice,’’ said Corey Rich, a photographer who documented some of Potter’s feats. ‘‘The odds are not in your favor, and sadly, Dean pulled the unlucky card.’’
Chris McNamara, a fellow climber and friend of Potter’s, told The Globe that his comrade was always cognizant of the risks involved: “He always recognized how dangerous the sport was and at the same time, how magical it was — the tension between those two things.”
‘‘Though sometimes I have felt like I’m above it all and away from any harm, I want people to realize how powerful climbing, extreme sports or any other death-consequence pursuits are,’’ he wrote in an October 2014 blog post on his website. ‘‘There is nothing fake about it whether you see it in real life, on YouTube or in a glamorous commercial.’’
Unlike skydivers, who parachute out of planes, BASE jumpers hurtle into space from fixed points like skyscrapers, mountains or bridges. BASE is in fact an acronym that stands for building, antenna, span and earth.
According to California broadcaster KTLA, at least two other people have died this year after attempting BASE jumps, albeit from the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho. Last year, a newlywed BASE jumper died after plunging about 2,000 feet in Utah’s Zion National Park. Meanwhile, Geidman informed the Boston Globe that about five BASE jumping deaths have occurred in Yosemite since the sport took flight, so to speak.