Shane McConkey, Skier and Base Jumper, Dies in Accident

Shane McConkey started as a competitive freestyle skier, but became best known for combining base jumping, which is "an activity that employs a parachute or the sequenced use of a wingsuit and parachute to jump from fixed objects," with skiing.

In today's accident it appears that Shane McConkey had difficulty with a ski becoming caught. As his friend and filmmaker Scott Gaffney told ESPN:

"He did a double backflip off the jump and he has these releasable bindings so they come off in the air and then he flies off in his wing suit.

"But one ski did not come off. And when that happens the drag on the skis causes you to flip over, so the skis go over your head. So he was struggling with the one ski. Then he also got into a bad spin. So he may have never even pulled his pilot chute. And that's coming from JT Holmes, who Shane was with in Italy and who reviewed the footage of the accident. So the combination of the ski, the spin and the pilot chute, apparently. Because you can't throw the pilot chute like that; if you throw it while you're upside down and it wraps around the ski, you're done."

McConkey reportedly died on impact with the snow on the ground beneath the cliff. He is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their 3 1/2 year-old daughter, Ayla.

Watch Shane McConkey's BASE jump from the Silver Legacy Casino in Reno in the YouTube video attached to this post.