Did rules, not risk, cause Dean Potter's Base jumping death?

On the 35th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight, artist Oscar Cesare wrote in the New York Times of the obstacles they faced, not just in developing the technology but in overcoming public opposition: “Nearly everybody then was skeptical about flying. There had been a few dreamers in the world – men who did the first real research in aerodynamics – but most people thought those who experimented with gliders and talked of power-driven planes were as crazy as Dedalus.”

Hundreds died in the race for human aviation. In 1900, Wilbur Wright wrote that he believed his obsession with flying would cost him his life. Accidents by Samuel Langley, another aviation pioneer, in 1903 prompted a “storm of derision and abuse” that incited Congress to pull its support for his unreasonably dangerous and seemingly pointless experiments – shortly before the Wright brothers finally achieved human flight.

Similar contempt appeared this week after the death of Dean Potter, a pioneering rock climber who had been Base jumping for over a decade, and who had devoted his life to turning a childhood nightmare about falling into a dream of flying. Potter, who held the record for the longest wingsuit Base flight, had dedicated himself in recent years to studying aerodynamics and trying to improve wingsuit technology. After leaping off Taft Point late on Saturday, Potter and his wingsuit partner, Graham Hunt, crashed into a ridge at California’s Yosemite National Park. Their bodies were found 50 yards apart the following day.

Among the comments from friends and supporters on social media were messages from people who wanted to make it clear that Potter’s death was no great loss. Critics argued that they were reckless to jump in Yosemite at all, because Base – which stands for buildings, antennae, spans and earth – is banned in all 58 national parks.

“It was really ugly,” says Cedar Wright, a Boulder-based professional climber and close friend of Potter’s, who posted a tribute shortly after the news broke. He was at first bothered by the vitriol on his Facebook page, but he came to interpret it as discomfort. “The easiest way for someone to respond to someone like Dean is just to be like, well, he’s an idiot; or he deserved it; or fuck that guy. We all are caught in our own paradigm, and the scariest thing is to encounter someone who shatters it – who forces you to reexamine your own life.”

Navigating in the dark

Potter and Hunt were likely flying late in the day, at a time when visibility is poor, in order to evade the Park Service. Fliers who attempt the jump points at Glacier, Zion and Yosemite often fly in the early dawn or late dusk to avoid rangers, who can arrest, tase and fine jumpers thousands of dollars, or land them in jail for a few months.

It’s too early to determine what factors contributed to Potter’s death. Officials say there is footage that might help explain what happened. But many in the extreme sports community say you don’t need videotape to know that the constraints placed on Base jumpers increase the danger.

In Yosemite last week, Wright talked to Potter about arranging a paragliding trip, so that he could finally fly with his friend. He doesn’t Base jump himself but believes the best way to make it safer for others is to make it legal.

“You go to places like Chamonix or the Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland, where Base jumping is legal and very popular,” says Wright, “and there are fewer fatalities per Base jumper”. In Europe, you have the leisure of waiting for ideal weather and visibility; in some of the best places to jump in the US, you don’t. “That makes an already dangerous activity more dangerous,” says Wright.

He’s not alone in that view. Bryan Kay, who worked with Potter on Yosemite Search and Rescue for several years and has been climbing in the park since the 1980s, says too many deaths have been indirectly caused by the ban. He points to the death of Frank Gambalie, who lept into a river in order to flee park rangers and drowned; or Jan Davis, who jumped with borrowed gear to avoid her expensive parachute being confiscated, and couldn’t find the rip cord in time.

“Dean was one of the most careful guys I knew. But he was jumping late in the day in poor conditions,” Kay says. “The way to make it safer is to just allow it.”

Measuring the footprint of Base jumpers

Those who want it legalized point to much higher-impact recreation that is allowed in the parks: motorized vehicles in some areas, mountain biking and fishing.

Technical climbers and Base jumpers also make up some of the most experienced first-responders in Yosemite. When Wright first met Potter in the 1990s, he was a member of Yosemite Search and Rescue (Yosar), where Potter worked for five years. Wright, who counts Potter as a mentor, also ended up joining Yosar, and the two rescued several hikers together.

Climbers could make more money washing windows at the visitor’s lodge, and that was often what lured members away from search and rescue – that and frustration with the park’s adversarial attitude towards climbers.

After five years of service to Yosemite, Potter had had enough. Wright says: “Ironically, one of Dean’s last search and rescues was recovering Dan Osman’s body.” Osman was a climber and Base jumper who died in 1998, shortly after being arrested by the park service and spending time in jail. His incarceration, friends said, prompted him to fall into a depression that some blame for his death. When Osman failed to check his rope rig on a jump from the park’s Leaning Tower rock, Potter, working on search and rescue, was asked to spend the night with his friend’s body, while the park service waited for a helicopter.

But the majority of search and rescue is not dealing with extreme-sports enthusiasts. According to Robert Koester, CEO of dbS Productions, a search and rescue training company that maintains a database of 50,000 incidents, Base jumpers don’t take up many resources. The most common profile for someone prompting a rescue is a male hiker, in their 20s, typically on their own.

The community of climbers Potter belonged to is an integral part of making outdoor recreation safer. In Yosemite, they make up a big part of search and rescue.

“The irony of all this is that the people who are hating all the risk-takers – those are the people who are rescuing everybody,” says Wright. “Anybody who enters the park is entering a savage mountain environment. It’s mandatory that you’re an expert climber to be on Yosemite Search and Rescue, because a lot of times hikers get themselves into a situation that only a climber can get them out of.”

Last year, 3,467 people required search and rescue assistance in the national park system. The vast majority of incidents involved day hikers, out for a stroll. The second largest group was boaters, then swimmers. Of those calling for rescue, 164 died; 39 were hikers, 20 swimmers, and 19 boaters. Just three were Base jumpers. Search and rescue was called out more times to rescue pets (16) than Base jumpers.

“Base jumping has almost zero environmental impact,” says Wright. “People are allowed to ride their horses in Yosemite Valley – they shit everywhere and tear up the trail. Not only that but people die getting kicked in the head by horses and falling off horses all the time, and no one says: what a stupid, unnecessary risk.”

Matthias Giraud, a French ski Base jumper who has made his home in Bend, Oregon, also considers Potter’s death an indirect result of the rules, because flying in low visibility with diminished depth perception is inherently more dangerous: “I just want to see the witch hunt end. The best honor we could give Dean is to legalize Base jumping in national parks.”

There’s little danger that legalization will result in a glut of wingsuit pilots and parachutists, according to Giraud. It takes hundreds of hours of practice – training and tandem skydiving – to get to the point of being able to Base jump, which disqualifies most potential participants. Giraud says it takes an obsessive personality to get to the point where executing a jump is even remotely possible.

“A lot of us are really in our own heads – we could actually be classified as neurotic.” says Giraud. “We think about things so much that we have to find the one thing that liberates us. For others it’s art or music; for us, it’s jumping off stuff.”

Potter spent a lot of time thinking about his own mortality. Overcoming his persistent fear of falling was a large part of what attracted him to flying. “I love the idea that I can change the worst possible thing to the best possible thing – dying to flying,” he said. But he was pragmatic about the risks. “Life and death is right there for all of us. It’s the most common thing we all share.”

Wright says that behind Potter’s unearthly physical feats was an individual who was deeply selfless with his ability. “Life’s not just about getting old – he touched so many people,” says Wright. “The fabric of our country is built on taking risks. And Dean more than most will live on, because of the risks he took.”