Daredevil jumpers at Yosemite add to dangers during government shutdown | Opinion

News that legendary Yosemite rock climber Dean Potter had died stunned the mountaineering community.

Potter suffered a brutal death in May of 2015. He and partner Graham Hunt were attempting to parachute at nightfall from Taft Point, about 3,000 feet above Yosemite Valley. Both men were wearing wingsuits, which allowed them to spread their arms and legs out to create a parachute for descending while flying like a bird.

Their goal was to soar through the air toward a notch in the granite mountain. But they slammed into the rock wall instead, park officials said in recounting the tragedy. Their bodies were found below Taft Point.

“Base jumping in and of itself is a high-risk activity,” Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told the Los Angeles Times. “You’re jumping off a cliff with a parachute.”

Both men were beloved in the tightknit Yosemite climbing community. “I can’t emphasize enough how tragic this is,” Gediman said. “Dean just loved Yosemite. He loved the park and everything it stood for.”

Now a decade later, daredevils like Potter continue to jump illegally from Yosemite’s high landmarks. The dangerous activity has increased in boldness with the current federal government shutdown, as jumpers are not trying to sneak in leaps in early morning or evening hours, but are doing so even in the middle of the day.

As a Washington Post story puts it about jumpers off the landmark El Capitan: “The rash of illegal BASE jumping — greeted by cheers and whoops from the climbers suspended at various stages of the 3,000-foot monolith — has become a symbol of the overstretched defenses of the National Park Service” during the shutdown.

BASE stands for buildings, antenna, span and earth — fixed points from which jumpers can leap to go soaring through the air.

Illegal jumping convictions

It is illegal to make such jumps anywhere in Yosemite and all of America’s national parks. The federal government recently won three convictions for jumpers who took off from spots in Yosemite.

Two of the convictions involved men who last year jumped from near North Dome, which is close to Half Dome. The third conviction was of David Nunn, whose equipment malfunctioned when he leapt off El Capitan in 2020. He crashed into the granite wall and landed at its base. Park Service personnel came to his rescue.

Two of the men received jail time and surrendered their jumping equipment to the government. The three were fined and put on probation; two of them are banned from Yosemite until their probation ends.

Nunn already had a 1998 conviction for BASE jumping.

End the shutdown

Risk-taking is part of the draw for people who like to rock climb and hike up high-elevation mountains. As Potter’s example shows, however, death can be the result of a dangerous sport. Illegal BASE jumping becomes all the more unreasonable when park staff are reduced due to the government shutdown.

“When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” Dustin Weatherford, a climber and former member of Yosemite Search and Rescue, told The Washington Post.

The National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that lobbies for America’s parks, estimates that half of Yosemite’s staff is on furlough.

Accidents and medical emergencies are a fact of life at Yosemite. Staff stay busy tending to out-of-shape tourists who try to hike up steep trails on either side of the valley to see the sights. The last thing the staff needs is for BASE jumpers to add to the stress.

To keep Yosemite safe in this challenging time, the climbing community should police its members and demand that BASE jumping not be done. It is illegal, after all.

The real solution is for Republican leaders in Congress to work with their Democratic counterparts to end the shutdown and resume full operations at Yosemite and elsewhere in the park system.

Compromise is the answer, not political stalemate or self-centered pursuits.

This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 5:30 AM.