BASE jumping accident in Utah canyon kills athlete Andy Lewis, one other

Even elite jumpers with years of aerial experience can be killed in a matter of seconds when a BASE jump goes wrong, and the danger is magnified in a remote canyon where help has to travel by air. That is what authorities said happened in Mineral Bottom, a sparsely reached stretch of Grand County, Utah, where Andy Lewis, the Moab-based slackliner known as Sketchy Andy, and another man died after a tandem BASE-jumping accident.

The incident happened Sunday, June 14, in Mineral Bottom, about 30 miles northwest of Moab along the Green River. Grand County deputies, search-and-rescue crews, EMS personnel and two Intermountain helicopters responded after the sheriff’s office was notified of the crash. Authorities said both men died at the scene from their injuries, underscoring how little margin for error exists when a jump turns catastrophic in a place far from road access and hospital care.

Lewis was 39. He had built a reputation in extreme sports through slacklining, highlining and tricklining, and he drew wider public attention with his performance on a 1-inch line during Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Sheriff’s officials identified him as one of the victims, while the second man was described as a 50-year-old whose name had not been released in the early reports.

Local accounts described the accident as a tandem BASE-jumping incident, a detail that adds another layer to the sport’s risks because two people are linked in a single jump and both depend on timing, equipment and precise execution. In a canyon setting like Mineral Bottom, the physical terrain and distance from immediate medical support can turn a failed jump into a fatal one before rescue teams arrive.

The deaths put a stark focus on the enduring appeal of BASE jumping and the kind of athletes it attracts: people such as Lewis, who built careers around balance, altitude and precision, and who kept returning to disciplines where the reward is inseparable from the risk. In Grand County, the outcome was immediate and final, with both men pronounced dead where they fell.