Key takeaways:
- The jumper died Sunday at Leetham’s Hollow after launching from a 700-foot height.
- A Cache County sheriff’s deputy said the experienced jumper did not get enough lift from his wingsuit.
- Two other BASE jumpers died in Utah in June, including 2012 Super Bowl performer Andy Lewis.
A 27-year-old BASE jumper died Sunday after launching in a wingsuit from a 700-foot cliff in northern Utah and striking the ground, authorities said. He was jumping with a group in an area known to attract BASE jumpers.
Search-and-rescue crews were called at 9:10 a.m. to Leetham’s Hollow, a steep, cliff-lined area near Hyrum, east of Millville in Cache County. They pronounced the man dead at the scene. Authorities withheld his name pending notification of his family.
“On today’s jump, something went wrong and he did not have enough lift with his wingsuit,” Cache County Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Doyle Peck said. “He impacted the ground at a high rate of speed resulting in his death.”
Peck said the man was “experienced in this type of activity” and was among a group of as many as 10 people who appeared to be making wingsuit-assisted BASE jumps, according to NBC News. Peck also described the area, about 45 miles north of Ogden, as popular with BASE jumpers.
A medical transport helicopter sent to assist with the initial search carried the man’s body from the area, NBC News reported. The Guardian, citing the Salt Lake Tribune, reported that search-and-rescue personnel helped transport him out of the hollow. The Guardian also reported that, according to local outlet KSL, the sheriff’s office expressed its “deepest sympathies to the family and friends of this individual.”
The death follows two other BASE jumping fatalities in Utah in June, according to NBC News. One of those killed was Andy Lewis, an athlete who performed onstage with Madonna during the 2012 Super Bowl.
BASE is an acronym for the types of fixed objects from which participants jump: buildings, antennas, spans and earth. Photographer Carl Boenish helped coin the term in 1978 while filming early jumps from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, NBC News reported. In a 2019 report cited by The Guardian, National Geographic called wingsuit BASE jumping the world’s “deadliest sport.”
The two accounts gave different historical totals from the BASE Fatality List, an online record of deaths in the sport. NBC News reported that it had logged 541 deaths worldwide since 1981 before Sunday’s accident. The Guardian put the figure at 548. Both reported 15 deaths on the list in 2026 before Sunday.
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