Dean Spaulding Potter (April 14, 1972 – May 16, 2015) was an American free climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, and highliner. He completed many hard first ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. In 2015, he died in a wingsuit flying accident in Yosemite National Park.
Free Solo Climbing With A Parachute - Dean Potter
Dean Potter was born in 1972 to an Army officer in a military hospital at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 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.
Free Solo Climbing With A Parachute - Dean Potter
Dean Potter BASE Jumps With His Dog | National Geographic
Dean Potter BASE Jumps With His Dog | National Geographic
Alex Honnold stands at the top of El Capitan after completing its first-ever free solo.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JIMMY CHIN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Dean Potter in His Own Words
Dean Potter in His Own Words
Extreme High-Lining
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).
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. 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. Potter's record was later surpassed by Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds followed by Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell, who completed The Nose route in 1 hour 58 minutes in June 2018.
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. "I didn't see any moral reason not to climb it. I didn't hurt it," 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.
Extreme High-Lining
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." 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."
Dean Potter: Falling To Fly
Potter's Delicate Arch climb was memorialized in hip hop artist Kris "Odub" Hampton's song "Not All Roses," which chronicles the controversy surrounding the climb. Odub's later "Cease and Desist" responds to the cease-and-desist order that Potter's attorney sent the artist in response to "Not All Roses
Dean Potter: Falling To Fly
Potter was also known for highlining and BASE jumping. He was introduced to slacklining by Charles Victor Tucker III, known as "Chongo", one of the first three people to highline across Lost Arrow Spire. Potter completed a variety of highline-crossings without the benefit of a safety lanyard, backup line, or BASE jumping parachute. Some included lines suspended as much as 3,000 feet (910 m) above the ground in Yosemite National Park.
Dare or Die Trying: The Story of Dean Potter
On August 6, 2008, he completed the first "FreeBASE" ascent of Deep Blue Sea on the north face of the Eiger. Potter invented freebasing, a combination of free solo climbing without the assistance of ropes—but with a BASE parachute rig attached on the climber's back. In the event of a fall, a climber can revert into a base jump and survive. In 2014, he released a 22-minute-long film, When Dogs Fly, that chronicled the extreme adventures of his hearing dog, Whisper. The film became a viral phenomenon, but was criticised by animal rights activists.
Dare or Die Trying: The Story of Dean Potter
On May 16, 2015, Potter and Graham Hunt died attempting a proximity wingsuit flight from Taft Point above Yosemite Valley. The route they were attempting, which they had flown before, required them to clear a small notch in a rocky ridge line. Hunt hit a side wall during the flight while Potter cleared the notch before crashing. Both died on impact. Neither of them had deployed their parachutes. Potter's and Graham's deaths brought the total number of BASE jumping death in U.S. national parks in 2015 to five.
Taft Point above Yosemite Valley
Taft Point is a viewpoint in Yosemite National Park west of Glacier Point. It offers wide views of Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Falls and El Capitan. The main attraction of Taft Point is the giant fissures in the mile-high granite rock. The fissures are breaks and cracks in the mountain that drop directly down to the valley floor at some points.The point is named after 27th President of the United States William Howard Taft, who, according to newspaper accounts, came across the point when he visited Yosemite for three days hosted by John Muir in October 1909. The two hiked from nearby Glacier Point down to the valley floor. President Taft planned the trip by horseback, but the horses brought for his use were all too small for his 300 plus pounds. His staff set luncheon for the president's party during the hike, including fried chicken. The lunch spot may have been near the flat ledge that has since become known as Taft Point. Taft wrote of his hike, "While I am tired from the open air exercise, I feel greatly the better for it." He was sweat-drenched when he returned to the Sentinel Hotel in El Portal following the hike.