Brian, who along with Mike Pelkey, were the first two persons to parachute from Yosemite's El Capitan in 1966. Those jumps became the catalyst for the sport later to become BASE jumping. Last year they both came to Bridge Day (2005) and spoke to the assembled jumpers. The recounting of their El Cap experience had us laughing, clapping, and yes, crying a bit too. It was the closing of circle in the history of BASE and I consider myself very lucky to have had the chance to become friends with both men. Up until that Bridge Day neither man had kept up their BASE jumping or skydiving, but that year (2005) Mike Pelkey made a successful jump from the bridge. Brian deferred saying he wasn't ready, and he spent the following year getting ready and dreaming of next year's Bridge Day. Prior to his jump Brian received refresher training from several qualified people. Video shows Brian struggling to move the trapped pilot chute from his chest for 2 full seconds. While Brian did unintentionally perform one backflip shortly after a non-vertical standard (20 degrees forward) launch, he became stable and deployed his pilot chute in adequate time. He did, however, fail to deploy his pilot chute into clean air. Brian deployed his pilot chute into his chest at the 5 second mark where it became trapped against his body until being released at the 7 second point. Brian's parachute began to deploy, but the slider had just started down the lines when impact occurred at 8.5 seconds. I would be remiss in not mentioning what kind of man Brian was ?? he was generous to a fault and as big hearted as they come. Mike Pelkey lost his best friend at Bridge Day 2006 and we lost a gentle man who unconditionally and genuinely loved us all . .
Joe Lathrop