Daredevil Dean Potter Killed in BASE Jump
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif., May 18 (UPI ) — Dean Potter, one of the best known extreme sports athletes in the United States, died during a wingsuit BASE jump in California’s Yosemite National Park.
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Potter, 43, and Graham Hunt, 29, died after attempting an aerial descent from Taft Point into Yosemite Valley, a descent of 3,500 feet or more.
Both are believed to have jumped together. Their bodies were found by a helicopter at about noon on Sunday in different locations.
Potter was known to push the limits of possibilities and danger, at times controversially. Famous for high-line walks and high risk parachute jumps, he also made a “free solo” climb of Utah’s Delicate Arch, which led Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company, to drop its sponsorship of him.
“When I was a little boy, my first memory was a flying dream. In my dream, I flew — and I also fell,” Potter said in a video interview with Outside published online last year. “I always wondered as I got older if it was some premonition of falling to my death.”
“I started free-soloing harder and harder routes, kind of proving to myself that I could take control of this, pretty much the biggest fear I had — falling to my death,” he said.
Potter also took his dog, Whisper, on many of his adventures.
Miss Whisper and #YosemiteFalls atop the #SentinelDome just a 20-minute drive up the #GlacierPointRoad from our home in #Yosemite. This little doggie has the good life. Her only worry lately is keeping enough skin on the pads of her paws… @Ruffwear #Stickeen #JohnMuir #NeverLeaveTheDogBehind #Freedom A photo posted by Dean Potter (@deanpotter) on Apr 21, 2015 at 9:06am PDT
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