I do not understand the unnecessary risk taking. But I assume those who take the risks understand the danger involved.
Posted on 05/17/2015 8:37:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Yosemite National Park spokesman says extreme athlete Dean Potter and another man have died in a BASE jumping accident.
The spokesman says Potter and Graham Hunt died late Saturday after attempting a wingsuit flight from a 7,500-foot promontory called Taft Point.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcbayarea.com ...
I visited Yosemite for the first time yesterday. I can’t imagine anyone being stupid enough to attempt something like that there... but members of the human race like to prove me wrong.
He was an extreme idiot.
If the Good Lord had intended for humans to fly by jumping off a cliff, he would have given us wings. Just a thought.
Gravity is a killer.
He must have jumped from the pinnacle, instead of the base. /s
I do not understand the unnecessary risk taking. But I assume those who take the risks understand the danger involved.
Collision, maybe?
...no old, bold base-jumpers.
Accident? It appears to me that they did it on purpose.
Adrenalin junkies tend to die early. :-)
That is interesting. They said one thing that was unusual, is that the bodies were far apart.
Which might mean they collided and swung a part.
They had a “spotter” who listened for when their shuts opened. Instead they thought they heard two impact noises.
Maybe he was in a wing suit, and thought it’d have enough glide to clear the rock before he deployed his ‘chute?
Ed
Flatter too.
Brilliant!
They were trying to shoot a “notch” in a slanted ridge line. I’ve seen a similar feat on TV. The thing is that you are totally committed to making it once you attempt the approach. You would have to deploy the parachute very early on to bail out, so in effect, there is no bail-out.
I looked at Taft Point in Google Earth, and there is an open line of descent to the valley floor, but there are flanking ridge lines, and I think they must have been trying to traverse one of these instead of following the open path of descent.
From what I saw in the successful version of this feat, the stunt can only be done with confidence if you can maintain a flight line comfortably above the target passage of the “notch”. In that case you can angle to pass through it in thrilling fashion by edging lower as you approach. Of course, if you get too low, you are toast. You do not have any afterburners.
I did a little further reading after seeing your comment and it sounds like they both missed the notch and slammed into a wall.
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