A search-and-rescue mission began overnight and their bodies were found Sunday in the Yosemite Valley. As was described, no parachutes had been deployed at the scene. Potter has been a fixture on the climbing and BASE-jumping scene in Yosemite since the late 1990s. Dean Potter taught himself to climb when he was in high school in southern New Hampshire. He climbed many new routes and completed many solo ascents in Yosemite and Patagonia, did speed climbing. He performed a few of the most thrilling base jumps in the world and even traversed lines suspended as much as 3,000 feet above the ground in Yosemite National Park without benefit of a safety lanyard or a backup line.
