Dean Potter

Dean Potter was born in 1972[4][1] to an Army officer in a military hospital at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas[5] and grew up in New Hampshire. He taught himself to climb when he was in 10th grade in southern New Hampshire. He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he rowed varsity crew. Potter quit college and pursued his passion for climbing.[6]

Potter climbed many new routes and completed many solo ascents in Yosemite and Patagonia. He free-solo climbed a small part of El Capitan in Yosemite, where he pioneered a route he called "Easy Rider" by climbing down the slabby upper pitches of the route Lurking Fear (hardest moves rated grade 5.10a) and then traversed Thanksgiving Ledge to complete the last six pitches and six hundred feet of the route Free Rider (hardest pitch 5.11d, two pitches of 5.10d, 5.10b, 5.10a and 5.7). This was the first major section of El Capitan to be free soloed, but his path avoided the significantly more challenging climbing on what is the easiest way up El Capitan below (several 5.12 pitches, with difficulty up to 5.12d on Free Rider).[7][8]

In July 2006, Potter climbed '"The Reticent Wall", one of the hardest routes on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, in 34 hours and 57 minutes with Ammon McNeely and Ivo Ninov, slashing five days off the existing time.[9] Potter and Sean Leary set a new speed record for climbing up The Nose of El Capitan in November 2010. They ran up the 31-pitch route in 2 hours, 36 minutes, 45 seconds. This was twenty seconds quicker than the existing record, set the previous October by Yuji Hirayama and Hans Florine. The record was later surpassed by Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell.[10]

Potter was known for his exploits in highlining and BASE jumping. He was introduced to slacklining by Charles Victor Tucker III, known as "Chongo",[11] one of the first three people to highline across Lost Arrow Spire. Potter completed a variety of highline crossings without benefit of a safety lanyard, backup line or BASE jumping parachute. Some of these crossings included lines suspended as much as 3,000 feet (910 m) above the ground in Yosemite National Park.

On August 6, 2008, he completed the first "freebase" ascent of "Deep Blue Sea" on the north face of the Eiger.[12] Potter is credited with the invention of freebasing, a combination of free solo climbing without the assistance of ropes and – potentially – BASE jumping with a parachute rig attached on the climber's back. In the event of a fall, a climber can revert into a base jump and survive.[13]

In 2014, he released a 22-minute-long film, When Dogs Fly, that chronicled the extreme adventures of his hearing dog, Whisper.[14] The film became a viral phenomenon, but also attracted criticism from animal rights activists.[15]

Controversy surrounded Potter after his 2006 climb of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, for which he lost his sponsorship from the Patagonia clothing company. "There wasn't any legal reason for me not to climb it," Potter said of Delicate Arch, despite well-established tradition forbidding climbing named features in the park. This incident resulted in a blanket ban on the activity within Arches National Park. Potter had previously created conflict with Park authorities by slacklining between the Three Gossips.[16]

"I didn't see any moral reason not to climb it. I didn't hurt it,"[17] he said, though rope grooves in the soft sandstone were later found, possibly created or enhanced by the professional photographers Potter brought along to publicize the climb.[16]

Potter said he would not climb Totem Pole, the spire in Monument Valley that Navajo imbue with religious significance. Delicate Arch, despite its prominence on Utah license plates, did not have the stature of the sacred Arizona tower, he said: "I didn't see a reason why it's wrong, why we shouldn't mesh with nature."[17] An account said: "At first Potter's handler at Patagonia spread the word of his climb by calling the Salt Lake Tribune. Public outrage was immediate, though, especially in Utah, where many see Delicate Arch as a symbol for the state's wild beauty."[16]

On May 16, 2015, Potter and Graham Hunt died[18] while attempting an illegal[3] proximity wingsuit flight from Taft Point above Yosemite Valley. They had made this flight before, but it required precision to make it through a small notch. Hunt hit a side wall. Potter cleared the notch but then crashed. They both died on impact.[19] Neither of them had deployed their parachutes.[20][21][22] This was the fifth BASE jumping death in U.S. national parks since January 2014.[23]

• 2002 Supercanaleta, Cerro Fitz Roy, Patagonia. First solo of route.[24]
• 2003 Concepcion 5.13+ (67m), Day Canyon, Moab, Utah. First ascent.[25]
• 2006 Heaven (5.12d/13a) Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley. First free solo ascent.[26]
• 2006 Southern Belle (V 5.12d R/X), Half Dome, Yosemite Valley. Second ascent with Leo Houlding.[27]
• 2008 Deep Blue Sea (5.12+), Eiger, Bernese Alps, Switzerland. First FreeBASE ascent of the Eiger.[28]
• 2010 The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite. Fastest ascent at the time (2:36:45), record later broken by Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell.[10]

• Dean's Online Memorial
• Outside Magazine feature
• Dean Potter's climbing profile on Climbandmore.com
• The New York Times article
• Video interview about Potter's childhood dreams of flying, wingsuit piloting and BASE jumping
• "Dean Potter's Extreme Life in 7 Hair-Raising Videos"