About Dean Potter
Dean Spaulding Potter (April 14, 1972 – May 16, 2015) was an American rock climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, and highliner, who invented the extreme sport of FreeBASE. He completed many technically hard first free ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and in Patagonia. He won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year award in 2003. In 2015, he died in a wingsuit flying accident at Yosemite National Park. == Early life == Dean Potter was born in 1972 to an Army officer in a military hospital at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and grew up in New Boston, New Hampshire. His parents divorced in 1979, when he was 7. He taught himself to climb when he was in 10th grade in southern New Hampshire. He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he rowed varsity crew. Potter quit college and pursued his passion for climbing. == Climbing career == === Free solo climbing === Potter climbed many new routes and completed many solo ascents in Yosemite (e.g., Separate Reality) and in Patagonia. He free-solo climbed a small part of El Capitan in Yosemite, where he pioneered a route he called Easy Rider by climbing down the slabby upper pitches of the route Lurking Fear (hardest moves rated grade 5.10a) and then traversed Thanksgiving Ledge to complete the last six pitches and six hundred feet of the route Free Rider (hardest pitch 5.11d, two pitches of 5.10d, 5.10b, 5.10a and 5.7).
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.