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Heyzeus
climber
Hollywood,Ca
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Mar 26, 2014 - 03:34pm PT
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^^^ Good shot and story Dean. The picture you posted up thread is really great.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
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Mar 26, 2014 - 06:24pm PT
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I've been pondering what I could say & what I feel about losing Stanley. Once again, words fail to convey. We hung out quite a bit in the waning days of the last "Golden Age" of derelicts & rock monkeys. I always thought his secret bivy arrangements were genius, & told him so. A fun and gentle man, though freaky & wild where appropriate. I'll miss you Bro.
I'm weary of losing my friends.....especially before their time.
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Heyzeus
climber
Hollywood,Ca
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Mar 26, 2014 - 08:07pm PT
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Capt. Kirk, the bivy comment jogs my memory- if I remember correctly for a while he was bivying in his car, took the front seat out, and didn't he pull a car cover over the rig? No? Or was that my plan? I do remember he had a Datsun 510 wagon later on (being a 510 owner myself).
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Yafer
Trad climber
Chatsworth, California
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Mar 26, 2014 - 10:57pm PT
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it could have been me or you...the price of the pinnacle of exhilaration...looking for that bigger rush of adrenaline. I understand. I know so many of the tribe that have gone over doing what we love...selfish bastards that we are..with the illusion of being invincible. See you over there Sean. Peace Yafer.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Mar 26, 2014 - 11:28pm PT
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"I've been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free.
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.
You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I raise above . . . and I'll never know the same about you . . . your holiness or your kind of love.
And it makes me feel so sorry."
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snakefoot
climber
cali
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Mar 27, 2014 - 12:14am PT
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fluffy
Trad climber
Colorado
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Mar 27, 2014 - 11:05am PT
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From today's Chronicle...see article for some great pics.
Extreme athlete from California dies in Utah base jump
Peter Fimrite
Sean Leary knew the dangers associated with climbing El Capitan or flying off a cliff in a wing suit, but like many extreme athletes, the excitement and freedom somehow made him feel more alive.
His pursuit of that intense adrenaline rush is what made him one of the country's greatest climbers and base jumpers.
It is also what killed him.
The body of Leary, 38, of El Portal in Mariposa County, was recovered Monday in the mountains of Zion National Park in Utah after he apparently clipped a rock outcropping during a base jump in a wing suit, which allows the jumper to steer through canyons before opening a parachute.
Friends said he had gone to Utah to work as a rigger and guide on a climbing film. On March 13, the day before the shoot, he decided to do a lone wing suit jump off West Temple formation in Zion a few hours after sunset with a bright moon above.
Dean Potter, his friend and climbing partner, said he apparently didn't see a notch in the mountain and clipped it at high speed, plummeting 100 feet down the mountain, where he was killed instantly.
Nobody knew he was missing until his wife, who is seven months pregnant, checked his e-mail and saw a message from the film company wondering why he hadn't shown up. Potter and eight others recovered his body Monday with help from a National Park Service search-and-rescue team.
His death sent shock waves through the Yosemite climbing community, where Leary was a hero not only for his climbing ability but for being humble and friendly.
"I'm just so terribly sad," said Nick Rosen, a friend and the producer at Sender Films, which specializes in documentaries about rock climbing and extreme sports. "It is hitting the community and Sean's friends so hard not only because he was one of the great unsung heroes, but because he was uniquely humble and caring and was just as incredible as a human being as he was as a climber."
A celebrated career
It was a tragic end to a celebrated career climbing some of the most daunting big walls and cliffs in the world.
Leary, who was known as "Stanley," and Potter set the speed record in 2010 climbing up the Nose route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, an athletic feat that climbers characterize as roughly equivalent to sprinting a marathon.
The record was broken two years later by Hans Florine and Alex Honnold, but Leary continued pushing limits on the vertical granite walls of Yosemite. He set a speed record with Honnold on what is known as the Salathé Wall, another route on El Capitan. In 2012, he and Mayan Smith-Gobat set the mixed male-female speed record for the Nose.
Leary climbed on Baffin Island, Patagonia, and, with another climber, established a new never-before-been-climbed route on Ulvetanna in Antarctica.
Ironically, Leary began wing suit and base jumping in 2006 after the woman he loved, a Brazilian climber named Roberta Nunes, died in his arms after a car crash, also in Utah, according to Rosen, who made a film about it called "Patagonia Promise."
'Affirmation of life'
"Right before she died she made him promise her that he would keep pursing adventure," Rosen said. "He was really, really low and base jumping became this affirmation of life for him. He wing suited off of El Mocho, a peak in Patagonia, and scattered her ashes. It's really tragic because, in a very real way, he had since risen from the ashes and had found love again and was looking forward to family life."
After his record-setting climb with Potter, Leary said he understood the risks.
"There are definitely risks we are taking, but we are trying to be safety-conscious," Leary said. "No one wants to die doing it."
In a video by aerial filmmaker and photographer Chad Copeland, Leary described the feeling of the takeoff in a wing suit.
"There's a second of absolute freedom. You're floating in the air," Leary says. "It's just magic when the wing suit pops open and inflates and you start to take off. Then you feel like, this must be what birds see, you know?"
Potter, in a phone call Wednesday as he returned from Zion, said that he will miss his friend, whom he spent many hours with talking about life as they walked their dogs together.
A multifaceted man
"Sean was a combination of things - a professional athlete very much at the top of his game - but also a man who loved the peace he found in the mountains and the focused energy he found while pushing himself," Potter said. "All the friends dropped everything and came here to look for him when we found out he was missing. It's fitting that Sean was found by his friends."
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velvet!
Trad climber
La Cochitaville
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Mar 27, 2014 - 01:17pm PT
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I can only echo the sentiments of everyone else in my interactions with Sean...
In 2011, Stanley was climbing the Nose for Sean Villanueva and Nico Favarese helping to rig/climb for the Belgium camera crew that was filming the badass Belgium duo's ascent...The day prior had been hot and long for them as they climbed and hauled all their crap to Dolt. With three climbers, two photogs, two portaledges and all the other assorted wall necessities, they had pretty much taken over Dolt Tower for their bivy.
Enter Chantel and I...it's 5AM and we are on a NIAD run trying to break the woman's speed record. I top out onto Dolt into the dark, I yell down to Chantel in a pathetic attempt at a wall whisper trying in vain not wake folks up, then begin digging through their piles of kit to find the water jug we had stashed days earlier.
Sean wakes up and, despite having had a long day and uncomfortably short bivy that night, is instantly stoked for us. He eagerly helps move their gear so I can get to the water all while giving us encouragement for the rest of the climb. When Chantel gets up there and I need to lower her but all the anchors are commandeered, Sean's immediately up again and helps brace me as I lower her off of my waist.
He had to have been exhausted and our NIAD time that day was a leisurely cruise compared to what he could do but he was so nice and supportive and excited for us - even as it interrupted his last few moments of precious rest.
Stanley really was the best of us.
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Jesster
Sport climber
Amador
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Mar 27, 2014 - 02:05pm PT
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Via Erin's Facebook page (Sean's sister):
There is a memorial account set up for Mieka and the baby now.
Mountain America Credit Union
Sean "Stanley" Leary Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 9001
West Jordan, UT 84084
Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and amazing support for all of us.
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saa
climber
Bleau, cham, pink granite coast
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Mar 27, 2014 - 02:59pm PT
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Rip.
Sh#t,
Mnkys r sndng.
Even in wingsuit.
Even in this moment.
Condoleances to all touched.
Sorry , this is not well formulated at all.
Sabine.
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BrentA
Gym climber
Roca Rojo
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Mar 27, 2014 - 03:10pm PT
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You can feel the void Sean has left in this World.
I hope his unborn child can taste the passion Sean embodied.
Golden Jah to all whom are in pain.
I lived .75 orbits out from this level of Monkey.
Hearing the way he is described by those that knew/loved him gives me hope for humanity.
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mcd
Trad climber
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Mar 27, 2014 - 09:32pm PT
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Mar 27, 2014 - 10:32pm PT
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I'm so incredibly sorry to hear about this. I was a very young climber in Tuolumne when Sean showed up in '98 working for the Mountain School and started crushing all the .12's I had been gaping at the summer before. I never knew him that well but his face and his presence are embedded in the fondest memories of my favorite time of my life. It's so ephemeral the life we live and the people that we may touch or be touched by. I am humbled by his life and his passing. My best to his family and his close friends of which there are clearly many.
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LilaBiene
Trad climber
Technically...the spawning grounds of Yosemite
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Mar 27, 2014 - 11:51pm PT
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Having only been around this unbelievably massive, interconnected campfire for a relatively short time, I've been hesitant to post. But my heart wants to speak despite feeling shy.
To never have the opportunity to be in the presence of your dad...it's a journey through life without feeling the presence of his company, his ability to help you feel grounded, the sense of validation in seeing yourself in him, or him within you. There's no tap of common shared experiences or lessons to call to mind when the going gets impossible. No one who will likely know or understand you better than he could have, for better or for worse. It can, at times, be despairingly lonely when the world just doesn't seem to "get" why you are the way you are, and why you do the things you do...especially as it relates to answering that inner call to adventure or to simply following your curiosity wherever it may lead.
There are so many of you here with wonderful, detailed and heartfelt memories and stories -- what an incredible gift it would be to capture these moments in time and shared experiences, especially while they are still alive in your hearts and memories -- so that those who are now grieving, and the precious life about to be born, will be able to carry with them these treasured images in time as they move forward, and grow.
Don Lauria (unwittingly) set the course for me to "find" and get to know my dad through stories about him, which then led me to his friends. His friends are the very best reflection of him, and I find so much comfort in their presence now in my life.
Given all that has been shared with me by this community, from stories, to tears, to keepsakes, to pictures...to generous, warm, supportive friendship...I just wanted to share how meaningful, and unimaginably impactful these experiences have been for me, in the hope that the same will come to pass for Sean's loved ones.
He lives on in the lives of all those he touched.
My heartfelt wishes that Sean's loved ones will find peace, and one day again, joy, in the memories of being touched by such a beautiful soul.
Audrey
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BLD
climber
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Mar 28, 2014 - 12:00am PT
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Audrey,
your post is absolutely incredible.
Thank you...
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Tim Klein
Social climber
Palmdale, CA
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Mar 28, 2014 - 12:20am PT
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Words can't express the shock and sadness.
Sean's psych for others and life was quite remarkable and infectious.
After taking me up our last climb a couple of years ago, he insisted on hanging with my wife and two young boys at Upper Pines CG. Sean had always made comments of how he loved kids and wanted the joy of having one of his own someday. It's devastating to know that this dream will go unfulfilled. Many people spend a lifetime and never come close to exhibiting the generosity and benevolence that Sean demonstrated daily. There will be a distinct hole in The Valley.
Thoughts and Prayers go out to his wife, his family, and friends.
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thebravecowboy
climber
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Mar 28, 2014 - 12:33am PT
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there is no price to be put upon pure inspiration. there is no price to be put upon perfection or beauty.
but we can subsidize that which we find worthy.
this is worthy.
the best part, well there's a lot of best parts, but the first best part
^this man is/was/will continue to be a bodhi^
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James
climber
My twin brother's laundry room
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Mar 28, 2014 - 02:16am PT
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I had a lot of fun adventures with Stanley. He was a good friend and a role model for me. I was in Zion for the search and body recovery. I spent a lot of time with his family. It was super intense. While bush whacking through cactus searching for his body, I cursed him for the spurs in my a*#. I loved him for allowing me meet his family and hear the stories of him nearly cutting his hand off with a wood splitter when he was 15, but through the past few days, I mostly just missed him. What a great person to have had in my life.
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