Dean Potter – on the line, solo at Taft Point
Photographer Jeff Cunningham <LINK> sent us these shots on Dean’s most recent solo walk at Taft Point in Yosemite.
In Jeff’s, words, “it was a beautiful day in Yosemite. Dean had a high line set up there that he measured as somewhere between 99 to 100 feet. He had walked the line leashed a few times when I saw him untying from the tether. I figured he was just taking a break. Instead, he stepped up to the line and started walking it with confidence and determination. It’s hard to imagine what it must feel like walking across a rope with over a thousand feet of air below, but it was obvious to me that Dean was exactly where he was supposed to be…”
Tags: dean potter, highline, Slackline, Taft Point, yosemite
May 26th, 2009 at 4:42 am
[...] Jeff Cunningham of Dean Potter’s recent solo highline work at Taft Point in Yosemite. The prAna blog has plenty more [...]
May 26th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
…I’m a climber and a huge fan of potter. been following his progresses for a long time…But this goes too far. People like this give the rest of us a really bad name. This is exactly why people die, and why many people say climbing and slack-lining is dangerous. It’s not dangerous at all….that is, if you exercise the proper safety measures. The pictures above display a perfect ignorance to these safety guidelines.
I hope he stays safe and gets back to his senses. I’d hate to add him to the list of once phenomenal climbers now dead due to stupidity.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
There is no reason to untie yourself. Why the hell would someone do something like this unless they just wanted to die? And why did this have to be written as if he is some sort of great person? He is an idiot, that can happen to climb a rope.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Mans crazy,,,,, but you dont get anywhere without doin the extreme
May 26th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
dustin, yikes and for all others like sharing your views: because people like you we can tell greatness from mediocrity.
You are crying your own incapacity to overcome your little people condition in the best classic way – trowing stones at those trying to push their limits whichever way they understand to do so. I pity you fools!
May 26th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
[...] More pics linked here [...]
May 26th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Wow, this dude rocks!
May 26th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
It’s amazing when you look at the shadows, the sun is vertical for the man and behind the photographer for the rocks and the mountains in the background
May 26th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I’m all for pushing your limits, but this is a bit out there. The risk/reward seems to be skewed too much. I couldn’t slackline a 2X4 over a pothole so I might have no idea what I’m talking about here.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:18 am
“because people like you we can tell greatness from mediocrity.”
I’ll gladly take mediocrity over being dead. The stunt shown above is not an example of greatness. It’s just simple stupidity.
I don’t really know why you would pitty me….I’m still alive, well, and happy. I’d think about giving some of your pitty to those too stupid to take care of their own lives, and safety.
and finally, the dude’s got a wife. It’s one thing if you want to risk your life for a few moments of adrenaline, but when other people in this world depend on you and love you, there is absolutely no reason for you to throw your life away by engaging in such risky behavior. This stunt is immature at best, and very simply shows his disregard for life. Patagonia was right to drop him as an ambassador.
May 27th, 2009 at 11:16 am
holy crap..this is amazingly terrifying. Is Mr. Dean a yogi? Surely he must have some intense ritual for focusing. wow.
May 27th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
While still involving a high element of danger, one has to keep in mind that many accomplished highline walkers rarely hit their leashes when falling. The majority of times people like Dean Potter fall off a slackline, they use their arms and legs to arrest their downward progress.
Silly for users like jck and yikes to comment on something they have no experience with.
Darrin Carter did the first leashless walk of the Lost Arrow spire in 1995. Others have walked it leashless since.
From an interview with Dean Potter:
Buildering.net: Regarding your tetherless high-lining, Chongo once said, “Dean’s a big strong guy. If he falls he’s going to grab onto that line, and there’s no way he’s letting go.”
Dean Potter: “That’s pretty much the truth of it. The slack-line is the biggest jug ever for a climber. It’s quite scary being out there unattached, but I feel quite confident that I can grab the line if I fall. I don’t grab it with my hands though, I grab it first with the back of my leg and then my hands. So it’s a whole body catch.
I practice it a ton, and that’s the only reason why I can go out there leashless.”
May 28th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I would like to see the RAW camera files. And where is the video?
May 29th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Potter is surely a great slackliner, no doubt about that, and he risks is life if he is happy too, nobodyelse buisness!
but something looks wrong on these images??? it looks a bit fake, i hope not…
May 29th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
[...] Dean Potter highlines at Taft Point untethered [...]
May 30th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Viewing the filesource it was clearly edited in Adobe Photoshop but that could be simply to crop or to convert to jpeg. EXIF data shows f2.8 which explains the difference in contrast between subject and background…depth of field plus a little Yo haze. I don’t think the shadows are inconsistent.
Pic #3 = a whole lot o’ HOLY CRAP! My palms are sweating just looking at it. I’m going to have nightmares tonight.
June 1st, 2009 at 8:12 am
[...] noticed our most recent post on Dean’s freesolo at Taft Point <LINK> had a lot of readers concerned and a few skeptical. We asked Dean to share with us a little about [...]
June 1st, 2009 at 8:24 am
Thanks for the conversation. Since a lot of you were concerned about Dean’s freesolo, we asked him to share with us himself. Here are his thoughts and words: http://www.prana.com/blog/?p=1056
(And for those who are wondering about the validity of the photos, there is also a video from a prior freesolo).
June 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am
Who is the guy in the background? The way he is standing there… so close to the edge… Scary shite!
June 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Challenging yourself to a difficult goal makes life rewarding. This is just like climbing. Dean is at the point where his challenge is this, far above what many people consider reasonable. Props to Dean for pushing himself, and making a living, living his dreams.
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
[...] Okaaaay http://www.prana.com/blog/?p=1014 [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:03 am
look at his feet in the second pic – totally wrong – hummmm?
June 4th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
You guys realize he has soloed lines before. Just ’cause you dont read about his sh*t in “Urban Climber” or whatever doesnt mean this is a recent stunt that is somehow inappropriate.
Dean does all kinds of crazy stuff, half of it we probably will never know because he doesnt showboat and spray like most pro climbers. He does this stuff for himself, he doesnt have a child, or a wife as far as I know. Who is he responsible to other than himself?
The photographer was lucky to witness this, it was most likely just a highline shoot and Dean just took off his harness for a couple goes. He didnt die, so what is your problem?
Dan Osman died pushing himself similar to this, did he go too far? Did his death affect you? The process leading to his departure was probably the most beautiful and fulfilling thing in his life. Live and let live.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:34 am
Makes my palms sweat wow. Incredible pictures indeed.
June 6th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Anyone that thinks that is photoshoped doesn’t know who Dean is or what he’s done. Ya’ll know about his solo’s in Patagonia, right? Cerro Torre, Fitzroy, yeah?
No surprise he unclipped. Just another free solo except this time on a highline.
June 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
He wrote: “I’ll gladly take mediocrity over being dead. The stunt shown above is not an example of greatness. It’s just simple stupidity.
I don’t really know why you would pitty me….I’m still alive, well, and happy. I’d think about giving some of your pitty to those too stupid to take care of their own lives, and safety.
and finally, the dude’s got a wife. It’s one thing if you want to risk your life for a few moments of adrenaline, but when other people in this world depend on you and love you, there is absolutely no reason for you to throw your life away by engaging in such risky behavior. This stunt is immature at best, and very simply shows his disregard for life. Patagonia was right to drop him as an ambassador.”
————
Whoever wrote the above forgot to preface it with, “In my experience . . . ” Some people favor security and control over adventure and the unknown. Others are natural risk takers. Each orientation renders a different take on the world and on living, adding to the richness. Smearing security-minded folks is small minded, likewise dissing those who do what we are afraid to consider for “rational” reasons.
JL
June 7th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Hey Largo, if his wife was anything like you, he’d probably never solo. I’m sure his wife got into the marriage knowing very well what makes Dean go. “This stunt is immature at best, and very simply shows his disregard for life.” What is immature about this? If he had never hopped on a line, yes this would be immature, hell STUPID. But he leads a very different life. Everything he knows and does in life helps him with moments like these. Most ‘normal 9-5′ people, are wired differently. It’s all perspective. Get off his case.
June 7th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Hey James, Largo was quoting “Yikes” from above. Those are not his words. It’s ok, it’s hard to see who’s responding to what on this type of forum. Besides, do you know who you were talking to …*gasp*!
And in my own words: It seems to me that the more people know about slacklining, with or without a leash, or the more people personally know Dean, the less sh*t is being talked. It’s the absence of knowledge that creates the fear and sometimes anger. Which, I think, is true throughout life.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Yikes (see his comment above) is an idiot. If everyone were as narrow minded as he is, the world would still be flat, the Kitty Hawk would still just be a field, and the Grand Canyon would still be unmapped. He should definately preface every thing that comes out of his mouth with, “in my opinion” to avoid appearing like such a dolt. Dean Potter is an explorer and an artist and just like every other explorer and artist before him that pushed the limits of conventional wisdom he is controversial.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Dudes. Try, for just a minute, to imagine how awake and aware you must be to do what Potter has done here. There is zero room for your attention to be anywhere at all, except completely right there, right then. Imagine it, because it is unlikely you have experienced it. He is living, for that moment, Jerzy Kosinski’s acclamation: “Be here now.”
A problem with the internet is that it gives the illusion of showing something, without really being able to show it. This doesn’t show Potters LIFETIME of tuning himself to be able to do this, nor the specific skills he has invented, nor the earlier trips, with a leash, across this line. That is a limitation of the medium.
Take from this just the knowledge that it has been done, and think about that. You don’t have to do it yourselves, but now, you can, if you wish, imagine what it might be like to be that completely present in your own life for a few moments. Then you can go back to whatever else it is that you do.
Cheers.
P.S. Idiots like the guy responding to Largo should be ignored. They are a time suck that takes everyone away from any other useful activity in life.
June 11th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Well said “The Internet”. If you people want to be safe, stay at home and watch TV. There is no “risk” if you are in control.
Potter is my favorite climber and Prana should be proud of supporting him.
June 17th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Potter has sadly always seemed to be missing the essence, and the second picture sums it up – he lacks grace. On the verge of tumbling into the abyss. Whether soloing, mountaineering, etc. the stunt aspect always seems foremost. Gee, a photograper just happened to be there? Desperate for publicity as always, pandering to a new sponsor, there seems to be a core identity missing in him. People found out about Croft and his genius, whereas Potter always seems to have alerted an agent beforehand. As to his “guru” status, well, in the film on the Huber brothers his rambling incoherent “zen master” philosophy makes Carlos Casteneda sound like the Dali Lama. I know I will get ragged, but behind-the-scenes tales of Dean and his wife Steph Davis (who I used to know as a reasonable grad student at CSU) portray them both as increasingly arrogant, condescending to the inferiors who get in their way while attempting various projects, presuming they should automatically live a la “Ayn Rand” b.s. , ie as superior beings they get to make their own rules, and screw everyone else.
Black Diamond surely dumped him just for the bad P.R. his Delicate Arch stunt bought them, but it really irks me to see he’s still getting money for his crap. Tommy C. and Beth – really nice genuine kids, and both happen to be doing more interesting things, because they apparently love climbing.
Deans story only points out how money, sponsors, etc so easily poison the pure endeavors. If you want to do it, OK, just DON’T tell anybody, and only then will you get to gaze deep into your own true self; see if you can resist the temptation.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:49 am
It people like you,,that should stay home and kint pot holder’s.. stay on the 5.2 kid wall. At the fair. dean is one bad ass climber. have a nice day.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
That means you, yikes
June 19th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Let me say this, people have been doing what they want for years. things they love . Don’t be a mommy…..yikes
September 14th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
it is obvious that all you doubters are jealous! dean is a great man and his wife backs him up
the photos are not doctored! that is exactly what the 13 year olds say about dan osman on youtube
there really are people this awesome in the world!
September 15th, 2009 at 10:45 am
The thing is; he is doing what he desires to do, lives for and is willing to die for. I respect him greatly. If you don’t like it dont read it. His wife clearly understood who he was when she married him and accepted that he is high risk, so leave his family out of it. In this world full of sh!t there are somethings that keep some us sane. If you don’t understand it don’t knock it. In a world of messed up sports figures I find it amazing that you would knock this guy. We have football players mutilate dogs and are rewarded for it, we have baseball stars beat their wives and are excepted for it…..etc etc….
If you have a problem with this deans beahvior you are clearly in the wrong sport.
All climbing is inherently dangerous and perception of the danger is a reality, this reality keeps some of us sane in an insane world. -DFialko-
November 17th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I am far more inspired by Sharma than Potter.
January 9th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Didn’t mean to call Largo out like that, it was supposed to be ‘yikes’!
January 31st, 2010 at 9:47 pm
I just think that if he wanted to die, he’d probably just shoot himself, or just jump to to his death.
Everyone that have never even climbed solo has no idea what soloing is about. It’s all about mental power and centering. Nothing that everyone can do at that level. All my respects to Mr Potter