Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping accident

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Wandering Daisy
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by Wandering Daisy »

People who engage in high risk extreme sports do so of their own free will. Not a tragedy, but sad. More sad for family members who do not necessarily agree with such risk taking. The glory, fame and adrenaline outweighed the risk, in the athlete's estimation. Each of us has a different thresholds. It was bound to eventually happen. To them, perhaps not even a bad way to go. In the old days, these kind of men would be put out front to be mowed down in the glory of battle. The illegality should however, bring up some questions regarding who pays for the body recovery. I hope they had rescue insurance.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by SSSdave »

Looking at the below topo shows they were trying to do something extremely difficult in a flying suit. The notch noted in the news is at 5600 feet or 1800 feet above where they jumped. It is also about 1200 feet horizontally out from the ledge. The first 700 feet off the cliff is about plumb vertical and then the face steeply slopes out dropping about 650 feet over 400 feet before another 400 foot near vertical cliff then slopes out for another 500 feet of horizontal over 400 feet of vertical.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.71551,-119.60613&z=15&t=T

They apparently calculated from familiarity with what their flying suits allowed them to do that they would be able to clear the first slope after dropping the 700 feet and then glide out through the notch by increasing their horizontal angle. Obviously this was a dangerous idea.

It is in the same category as extreme skiers that revel in dropping huge cliffs over 100 feet in height into fresh snow because it impresses others who are into such extreme acts providing public fame. In other words this is not about bragging rights in the traditional sense because in this era extreme athletes don't need to go around vocally bragging about their feats but rather the Internet accomplishes that unspoken. That is why many also have others doing videos so it has more impact on their audience. Thus what is important in their lives become a sequence of Evil Knievel and Shane McConkey type events to impress their audience that keep pushing further until chance fate or mistakes intervene. After each act they likely become totally focused like an addiction on cracking how to do the next amazing feat. Of course Yosemite Valley is a world mecca for such enthusiasts.

Predictably there will be a call from some whiny emotional urban types to prevent such illegal acts in the future. Yes we need vehicle speed limits even on open remote highways in Nevada lest numbers of the unwise after drinking a few beers might accidentally kill themselves. Such is however not black and white and otherwise misplaced as the human spirit ought not be so constrained. Thus we allow vehicles to be ridden at ultimate speeds on race tracks by professionals, and all manner of serious professional level enthusiasts of dangerous sports to pursue their passions in proper arenas freely.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by rlown »

From a recent article:
Their bodies were found in a notch they had already flown through about a dozen times, professional climber Alex Honnold said. No one knows exactly what went wrong. A gust of wind or a slight miscalculation could have sent them off course, hurtling into rock.
This would lead me to believe it was a wind miscalculation that caught them this time around.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by sparky »

They didnt have a death wish...quite the opposite.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by LMBSGV »

they had already flown through about a dozen times,
They had done this and the NPS knew it from the newspaper articles. Had they ever been cited and fined? Ever been told they would be banned from Yosemite because of their refusal to follow the regulations? Do famous Camp 4 climbers receive exemption from the rules the rest of us have to follow? The NPS needs to do a lot of soul searching about how they decide to enforce or not enforce the regulations.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by SSSdave »

LMBSGV wrote:
they had already flown through about a dozen times,
They had done this and the NPS knew it from the newspaper articles. Had they ever been cited and fined? Ever been told they would be banned from Yosemite because of their refusal to follow the regulations? Do famous Camp 4 climbers receive exemption from the rules the rest of us have to follow? The NPS needs to do a lot of soul searching about how they decide to enforce or not enforce the regulations.
Expected someone would offer a response like yours. Yeah some of the Camp 4 enthusiasts have long earned a right to slide some while the rest of us (the lowest common denominator per policy) should not have. Of course those authorities in the park know things like this have been going on for years and much more and are happy to look the other way unless pushed by outsiders. And though they will enforce such policies they are likely happy to look the other way as long as professional level extreme athletes keep such goings on out of obvious daylight public sight and don't excite urban media by accidents and death. In other words extreme athletes ought to be allowed to take any such risks just as they always have. And that includes just as risky free climbing the immense valley walls without protection. On the other hand risky activities also need to be discouraged even to the point of making activities illegal so ordinary fools don't join those who can.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by gary c. »

I'm guessing that you guys didn't watch the Valley Uprising program. The last 30min of the show is about the climbers and free diving. The climbers no longer are allowed to live in camp 4 as in the past. They have taken to living in the rocks and boulders around the valley edge. They all talked about rangers rousting them out of bed by flashlight and arresting them or ejecting from the park. When it came to the free divers both sides spoke about the ongoing game of cat and mouse to catch / arrest when they hit the valley floor. They talked about spotters on the program, they were there to watch for rangers and give an all clear before the jump. One of the climbers couldn't complain hard enough about the injustice of some rangers that chased a diver into a river and then felt it was the rangers fault that he drown trying to get away. I'm sure they turned their back to a certain extent but considering the lack of funding and that the rangers are still responsible for maintaining law and tourist in the rest of the valley it seemed like they were doing what they could for the most part. There are people out there that believe car racing and a lot of other sports are too dangerous and shouldn't be allowed. My thoughts on it are that if you get off coming that close to death be my guest. Just don't expect me to feel sorry for you or pay for it if something goes wrong. I'm betting neither of these guys would want me to. We are all going to die some day but nobody wants to go right now. I think that if someone had told them they were going to die that day and gave them choices on how they wouldn't have changed a thing.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by 87TT »

I guess because I don't like the law about campfires and have been having them my whole life, I should just go ahead and have them anywhere. After all I'm in my 60's and never had a problem. Just because I want to.
Oh, and I live in the mountains.
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by zacjust32 »

There's a difference between building an illegal campfire that causes visual damage everyone can see and jumping off a rock putting only yourself in danger. With limited funding, what would you choose as a priority?
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Re: Extreme athlete Dean Potter dies in BASE jumping acciden

Post by Jimr »

A prior boss of mine used to base jump in Yosemite in the 1970's. He said it was all a cat and mouse game. They'd have spotters on the ground as well. Not only to watch for those who enforce the rules, but also to help quickly wrap up and stow the evidence in bushes, then attempt to blend in with the crowd and disappear.

He had an 8 x 10 glossy of an impression in a grassy field (not Yosemite). It was oddly human shaped. For good reason.
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