Dean Potter
| Dean Potter | |
|---|---|
Dean Potter
|
|
| Born |
April 14, 1972 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | May 16, 2015 (aged 43) Yosemite National Park, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Wingsuit flying crash |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Rock climber |
| Known for | Rock climbing, alpinism, BASE jumping, highlining |
| Height | 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) |
| Spouse(s) | Steph Davis (m. 2002–10) (divorced) |
Dean S. Potter (April 14, 1972 – May 16, 2015) was an American free climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, BASEliner, and highliner. He was noted for hard first ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. Potter died in a wingsuit flying accident in Yosemite National Park.
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 high school in southern New Hampshire. He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he rowed varsity crew and the coach urged the team not just to beat the competition, but to "own" them. Potter decided that he didn't want to "own" anyone and he quit college and pursued his passion for climbing.
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.
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