Dean Potter: BASE Jumper Who Died In Yosemite Remembered In Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Investigators say a pair of BASE jumpers found dead in Yosemite National Park were trying to clear a gap in the granite cliffs near Taft Point, but instead smashed into rocks.

The deaths of Dean Potter and Graham Hunt were the talk of a rock climbing gym in Downtown Sacramento.

Abnormal doesn't describe the things Potter has done. He started out climbing, scaling the unforgiving granite faces of Yosemite without a safety line, earning him worldwide fame.

"Dean is like a larger than life figure," said Alex Honnold. "He's been a hero of the climbing community for 20 years."

Honnold, who is from Sacramento, is considered one of the best rock climbers in the world. He watched Potter as a kid with wonder, eventually following in his footsteps. Honnold says Potter's death has left the entire climbing community stunned.

"He had so much confidence and competence, and so much experience, I'm a little surprised something happened," he said.

In the past decade, Potter got away from climbing and into something even more extreme, BASE jumping—going thousands of feet up a cliff and jumping off without a parachute.

Potter was known for using his wing suit, a full-body suit with fabric to form wings that allows the user to catch air and glide through it at speeds of 100 mph.

It was a wing suit jump over the weekend that killed the 43-year-old Potter and his climbing partner, Hunt. There's no evidence the parachutes deployed, meaning they likely smashed into the cliff side.