On May 16, Dean Potter and his partner and friend, Graham Hunt, were killed in a wingsuit BASE-jumping accident in Yosemite National Park. I heard the news almost immediately from a mutual friend in the park and spent the next day in shock and disbelief. Dean, who was 43, had been one of the most well-known and creative rock climbers in the U.S. for almost 20 years, and his death was widely covered by both mainstream and social media. Almost everyone in the climbing community posted some kind of tribute to Dean, since we had all been touched by him in some way. He was a hero of mine growing up, representing everything badass about the climbing world.

I first saw Dean in Masters of Stone V, an old-school climbing film that showed off his new style of speed-soloing big walls. Here was a wild-looking man charging up the…