Free Solo Climbing With A Parachute - Dean Potter
17 Video Views·Apr 12, 2025
Dean Potter died on May 16th, 2015 in a wingsuit accident in Yosemite Valley. For two decades he was the de facto leader of the Yosemite monkeys, and was a pioneer in what he called "the dark arts" -- free solo and speed climbing, BASE jumping and wingsuit flying, and highlining. Dean combined his pursuits to conceive the idea of FreeBASE - free solo climbing up tall, overhanging walls, with a BASE jumping parachute on his back for a marginal degree of safety should he fall. One of the world's first freeBASE climbs was this 2008 ascent of The Rostrum, with The Alien Roof finish (5.12). At the time, it was the hardest long free solo ever done in Yosemite. This is a remastered and extended cut of Dean's historic climb.
Ever since I was a teenager, I've been into ropeless climbing and free soloing,
climbing without any protection. I had been doing that about 20 years
and starting to realize I was reaching the limit. So after learning how to base jump finally,
I came up with the concept of free base, that's what I call it, to climb, you know,
Adding the parachute to the equation allows me to push it further.
Soloing, harder and harder routes. I would never do without the parachute on.
Nice! That's pumping out. Glad I had my little friend.