Rock climber Dean Potter in Yosemite

 

Rock climber Dean Potter in Yosemite

Dean Potter, one of the world's top rock climbers who pushed the limits of his body and the sport with daring exploits in Yosemite National Park and around the world, was one of two men who died Saturday in a BASE jumping accident in the park, officials said.

Potter and Graham Hunt jumped around nightfall from Taft Point, an overlook about 3,000 feet above Yosemite Valley, said park spokesman Scott Gediman.

Neither responded to radio calls or arrived at a preset meeting point in the park, and around 9 p.m., their spotter informed park officials of their disappearance.

A search-and-rescue operation was launched early Sunday morning, with up to 100 people, including park rangers and volunteers, surveying the park for the men, Gediman said. Crews in a California Highway Patrol helicopter spotted their bodies at two locations along the wall of rock along Yosemite Valley, and both were flown out, Gediman said.

Potter was 43. Hunt was 29.

It was not immediately clear whether either deployed his parachute, and Gediman said a full investigation by park officials into the deaths was underway.


Both were well known within the tight-knit climbing community that has proliferated around Yosemite, and their deaths struck a blow.

“I can't emphasize enough how tragic this is,” Gediman said. “Dean just loved Yosemite. He loved the park and everything it stood for.”

The dangers of BASE jumping, which entails leaping from the relatively low altitudes provided by ledges, buildings or antennae with a parachute, have prompted the National Park Service to ban the sport.

Ever the daredevil, the 6-foot-5 Potter pursued rock climbing, slack lining — which entails walking along a length of nylon rope across chasms — and BASE jumping as a form of art, regardless of park regulations.

“The attractive thing about rock climbing,” he told The Times in 2001: “There are no rules.”

His mother, Patricia Dellert, told The Times that his affinity for climbing began at a young age when his father, a U.S. Army colonel, brought his family on assignment to Jordan.

At the age of 5, Potter tried to climb the stone wall that surrounded his family's temporary Jordanian home — but fell on his head, she said.

By his mid-20s, Potter, a college dropout, had solidified his reputation as one of Yosemite's finest climbers. He was the first person to free climb three-quarters of the way up the face of Half Dome, a feat that took him just over four hours, shredding the previous record by more than 16 hours.

He later became the first person to free climb in less than 24 hours both Half Dome and the towering granite monolith El Capitan, scaling both with only his hands and feet, using ropes to prevent him from falling. This year, two men became the first in history to free climb the Dawn Wall of El Capitan.

Off the rock, Potter continued to test boundaries and draw controversy. He was kicked out of Yosemite several times — for staying beyond the park's two-week maximum, for sleeping in the meadows and, The Times reported in 2001, for snapping the stems off a head of broccoli in the park's Village Store.

His 2006 ascent of Delicate Arch, the most recognized natural landmark in Utah's Arches National Park, led clothing company Patagonia to drop its sponsorship of him.

And just last year, Clif Bar ended its sponsorship of Potter and other extreme athletes after renouncing activities like BASE jumping that were “taking the element of risk to a place where we as a company are no longer willing to go,” according to a company statement.

Potter was joined by a new companion on recent adventures: his miniature Australian cattle dog, Whisper. Bringing along his pet made him realize the danger of his calling, he said.

“It wasn't until I started having to think through the likelihood of something happening to Whisper that I finally got it,” Potter told the Denver Post last month. “This is really serious stuff that we do.”

Potter is survived his longtime partner, Jennifer Rapp, and her three children, Rowan, Sabina and May.

Cr.La Time