I can think of more selfish and worse ways to die in the backcountry.
Like drinking and driving with an off-road vehicle which is a fairly frequent occurrence here.
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Dean Potter dies in yosemite
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BASE jumping is illegal in Yosemite National Park. These guys committed a stupid and illegal act and died doing it.
If nothing else, maybe this will convince others to follow the law. Park Rangers have enough crap to deal with already.
Yeah, I'm gonna follow the law now, cause this guy died.
Good idea, Scott.
Jeff, I meant the law about BASE jumping. Not sure what was unclear about that.
Them dying won't deter anyone. My stepfather is part of a SAR group, and they have to deal with idiots every week.
Like I said, I can think of a lot more selfish and worse ways to die based on the stories he tell me. Not to mention a lot more environmentally-destructive ways.
Not advocating for lawlessness, but the castration of the dead is kind of silly when one considers that the individual is only one in thousands who died before him and thousands more after him.
The only good thing about Potter's career is that the very nature of it excludes 99.99% (deliberate exaggeration) of the population since it demands certain fitness and mentality the majority don't have.
You never speed?
NEVER??
People die speeding illegally
Cops are busy
I bet you still do it
"I really don't understand the judgmental people. What do you think life's about? Scoring as many birthdays as you possibly can with the objective of dying at 105, demented and incontinent?"
For me, a "good life" is defined only by whomever is living it. Maybe that means living to be 105 surrounded by great grand kids & dying in their sleep, or it could mean dying at 44 going splat on the side of a mountain. Both can be a terrific, fulfilling life IMO. I don't think the old or young have the monopoly on it.
Ryan
"Seriously? He's already had twenty lifetimes of interesting experiences."
No, he's had about half of the lifetime he could have had.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r3rhz
BBC radio talked about this. Starting at about 45:00. Doing high risk activities produces some of the same brain chemical things as drugs. You can get desensitized and require more risky acts to get the same effect.
I'm not being critical of him so much, as of people that worship him and wish they could be more like him.
He's definitely an interesting character.
I get the feeling Alex Honnold is a little more careful and not just into adrenaline rush. I like his attitude about the 7 day stay limit in Yosemite. He has his van set up so he can park on side of road just outside park boundary. He says he understands they have to have limits because there are so many people that want to visit…
Hi Ken,
How are you?
Nice picture of a lighthouse!
TTFN.
its interesting how these kinds of threads devolve …
lets keep it civil for once shall we …
to put it simply the folks here are alive and mister potter is not … he took certain risks most of us dont
of course when the history of climbing is written again, hell probably get some space, and plenty of folks will remember his name … not to mention theres sufficient media on the things hes done …
because hes done things no one on this thread has … or ever will … do
I need some clarification on the Richard weed line and the rules associated with it. Anyone who posts after the line is a Richard weed? And Dave beat me to it? Seems hardly fair as I've been workin my arse off all day!
And for the record, some of us live a perfectly fulfilling demented incontinent lives at 44 years of age thank you very much!
wasn't Potter, arguably, the best climber on the planet?
"wasn't Potter, arguably, the best climber on the planet?"
I don't think that he can defend the title.
–B.G.–
wasn't Potter, arguably, the best climber on the planet?
it depends on what you call "best" jerry … theres so many types of climbing that one can never say "best" these days
at one time potter was one of the best big wall climbers in yosemite … and indeed hes set many nose speed records …
indeed heres a short clip of him setting a new nose record with sean leary not too long ago …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi2L4eUFzos
it is interesting to note that mr leary himself perished from a base jumping accident last year
note that they didnt die climbing, where they took risks and are most famous for
its not until you see some of these top notch athletes in action that you realize how beyond the average joe like us they really are in their physical and mental fortitude …. they basically solo things that we wouldnt get off the ground … and for the most part they solo or run it out fairly "safely"
of course when you push the limits sometimes it comes back to bite you
yeah, "funny" they didn't die from free soloing
Here's what Alex Honnold, a climber and good friend of Potter, had to say: "It's one of those things that in some ways is not so surprising, but at the same time, you don't expect it to actually happen". In another thread I wrote about my ambivalent attitude towards free soloing; this quote, spoken by a climber, expresses one aspect of that ambivalence. Most people admire climbers, as I do, with reservations precisely because a small mistake can have such serious consequences. Of course, climbers/flyers are aware of this and make their choices.
I must say that the often expressed notion that climbers pack more living into every instant than the rest of us is not true. Yes, some climbers are entirely remarkable athletes and achieve brilliant levels of competence. This is why we all respect them. But the same could be said about people in all walks of life. Coleridge writing Kubla Khan; Einstein realizing e=mc2; Curry hitting a basket from 64 feet; a jockey riding American Pharoh, however it's spelled; Segovia playing a concert: on and on, and yes even us civilians watching a child graduate from college have experiences of equal or more value as someone climbing up a rock face. Part of the tragedy of an extreme sporters' early death is in knowing that the growth into other aspects of life that would normally occur has been cut short. If you play basketball and miss a shot, you move on. Not so much with some extreme sports.
I also find the "we all gotta die get used to it" argument nihilistic. Again, you could say this about any unwanted death. And sure there are risks in anything that people might do, but as a matter of pure statistics, extreme sports are off the charts in the category of life threatening risks. Maybe this is the crux of my ambivalence: I admire people who risk it all for their passion, but can even get angry when things go wrong and everything comes to a sudden an premature end, with suffering all around. but this is built into the sports Potter was involved in. big ups, big downs.
I'll admit that I haven't followed Potter's career, but I'll happily accept that he was a good man, a great friend and brilliant climber and sportsman. It' always horrible when these things occur. "But not surprising". I sometimes think that climbers rush past the tragedy in order to get on with the climb.
I don't believe anyone can judge who has had a "fuller" life.
Dean Potter experienced things that I can only imagine. And I have, and will continue to, experience things that he never will. Can we compare the rewards of jumping off a cliff with a wing suit to holding my children's hands and teaching them to surf? To try would be foolish. They're completely different in the spectrum of human experience. Just because I'm not jumping cliffs does not mean I'm not living to the fullest. And because Dean will not grow old with his loved ones or children does not mean he wasted his life.
In the end the point is not who lived better than who, but more a question of whether or not we're living the lives we want to live.
Well said Craig.
Craig, you nailed this.
Now please write a book. Really.
What Craig said …
thank you.
"In the end the point is not who lived better than who, but more a question of whether or not we're living the lives we want to live."
Excellent post, Craig.
The problem of the ages, "Why do we exist?" What is our purpose?
The purpose is to live a good life. Each of us must define the 'good life' for ourselves. It would be a pity if Dean or anyone else tried to define that based on what others think. That is the realm of philosophy.
Only each of us can determine whether or not we have lived a good life.
So we cannot speak for Dean Potter, we cannot criticize him, nor can we say he lived a good life. Only he knew the answer.
"In the end the point is not who lived better than who, but more a question of whether or not we're living the lives we want to live."
Timeless wisdom. Well said, Craig.
"Last year [in 2013], more than 25 people died wingsuit flying in same region I was in [the Alps], which was quite a huge die-off for wingsuiters—like 5 percent of the worldwide total."
"As I’ve gotten older, I have realized that just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should do it. Now I think, is this really true to what I want to do, to how I want to use my one chance at living?"
I think many people are so worried about the person they will become that they forget to live now: people working at jobs they hate so that they can make enough money to retire comfortably someday for example. That someday might never come. At the other end of the spectrum are people who go for it completely now with little regard for the consequences for their future lives.
I agree with people who say that only Dean Potter could answer the questions of whether his choices are/were good ones.
"In the end the point is not who lived better than who, but more a question of whether or not we're living the lives we want to live."
I think it's fair to say that a week ago he would have answered "yes" and that today that answer would be no, both answers the result of choices. Perhaps living the life he lived was still worth it. I don't think any of us know.
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