The life and legacy of excessive climber and BASE jumper Dean Potter can be explored in a brand new four-part HBO docuseries airing Tuesday night.
“The Dark Wizard” is described by Warner Bros. as an “up-close and unflinching portrait” of Potter, who created a reputation for himself by his infamously treacherous free solo climbs, BASE jumps and highline walks, particularly in Yosemite National Park. The collection was directed by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen, who additionally directed the Emmy-winning climbing documentary “The Alpinist.”
Potter grew to become a fixture in Yosemite’s climbing group within the Nineteen Nineties and shortly constructed a profession out of his record-breaking speed-run solo climbs of landmarks like Half Dome and El Capitan. His stunts shortly expanded to highlining — a sport by which he walked on a slackline suspended between cliffs at excessive altitudes, usually with out security gear — and, most notably, BASE leaping. Potter is credited with inventing freeBASE, a sport by which a climber free-solos a dizzyingly excessive wall whereas geared up with a parachute, in response to Time Magazine.
He was additionally identified for his wingsuit flying, a kind of BASE leaping by which webbed wingsuits are worn, permitting jumpers to glide by the air earlier than deploying a parachute. Famously, Potter as soon as BASE jumped in a wingsuit with his dog.
“At his peak, Dean Potter was a figure similar to Alex Honnold—the leading free-soloist in the game,” mentioned Daniel Duane, a San Francisco author and psychotherapist who was interviewed in “The Dark Wizard.” “But he was also a much more enigmatic and eccentric character than Honnold. It is also true that Potter remains one of the all-time great culture heroes of American rock-climbing.”
Duane knew Potter personally, and he joined him on a number of climbs when Potter lived in Moab, Utah.
“Potter was a famously difficult guy but I liked him a lot and cared about him even more,” Duane mentioned. “He was capable of great kindness—he wore his heart on his sleeve in a way that resonated with me—and I felt always how hard Potter worked to live a life that felt authentic to him. I had a lot of respect for that.”
Potter died whereas wingsuit flying in Yosemite in 2015, when he and his climbing associate, Graham Hunt, collided with a granite wall at excessive speeds after BASE leaping from Taft Point. Hunt additionally died throughout the tragedy.
“The Dark Wizard” makes use of interviews, archival footage and Potter’s private journals to look at the climber’s life and his motivations for taking such excessive dangers. It additionally explores Potter’s rivalry with fellow climber Alex Honnold, who’s interviewed within the challenge. The first episode of the collection airs on HBO Tuesday at 6 p.m.
