Legendary climber, BASE jumper and highliner Dean Potter has died at the age of 43 after a wingsuit jump from Taft Point (7,500ft) in Yosemite Valley went wrong, killing both Dean and his BASE partner Graham Hunt, 29. Their bodies were found on Sunday 17th May by a police helicopter. Neither of the pair had deployed their parachutes and the causes of the accident are currently under investigation.

Dean set multiple speed records for climbing The Nose on El Capitan and made the first "freeBASE" (soloing with a parachute) ascent of Deep Blue Sea 7b+ on the Eiger. In 2001, Dean and Timmy O'Neill became the first climbers to link Yosemite's three biggest walls—Half Dome, Mt. Watkins, and El Capitan—in one day. Dean's talent for climbing transferred into other disciplines, completing some of the most extreme BASE jumps and highlines in the world and often choosing to jump with his dog. He was famous for completing a highline on the Lost Arrow Spire - also in Yosemite - without any security.

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More information to follow as it becomes available.

Source: The Guardian.