Yosemite just made an example of three illegal BASE jumpers

One Crashed Into El Capitan’s Wall

On October 24, 2025, the National Park Service announced that three BASE jumpers had been convicted in federal court for illegal jumps in Yosemite National Park.

One of them slammed into El Capitan during his descent and had to be rescued by rangers. Another fled on foot and evaded capture for a year.

The convictions are the latest chapter in a decades-long war between thrill-seekers and park officials at the very place where modern BASE jumping was invented.

The sport was born here in 1978, banned here by the mid-1980s, and people have been dying here ever since trying to do it anyway.

David Nunn Crashes Into the Rock

David Nunn jumped from El Capitan on July 21, 2020, and things went wrong almost immediately.

He suffered a severe equipment malfunction, colliding with the wall of El Capitan before crash-landing at the base.

Park rangers had to rescue him from the cliff.

Nunn pleaded guilty to violating federal regulations that prohibit delivering or retrieving a person by airborne means in national parks.

He had a previous conviction for the same offense in 1998. That made him a repeat offender with a 22-year gap between crimes.

A Repeat Offender Faces the Judge

On September 16, 2025, Nunn received his sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

He was sentenced to 2 days in jail, 12 months of unsupervised probation, and $760 in fines. The court also ordered him to pay $458.77 in restitution to cover the cost of his rescue.

He is banned from entering Yosemite during probation and was ordered to forfeit his parachute and harness. For a man who had already been caught once, losing his gear was part of the price of admission.

Two Jumpers Caught on the Same Day

Christopher Durell and Joshua Iosue both jumped on July 15, 2024.

Rangers located Durell at Mirror Lake after receiving a report that two people had jumped from an area near North Dome.

He admitted to BASE jumping from the Porcelain Wall.

Iosue took a different approach. Iosue fled on foot but was later identified and cited on July 17, 2025, a full year after his jump.

Both men pleaded guilty.

Durell got 18 months probation, $600 in fines, and 40 hours of community service. Iosue received the harshest sentence: 2 days in jail, 24 months probation, and $2,510 in fines.

Carl Boenish Invents the Sport Here

The irony of prosecuting BASE jumpers in Yosemite is that the sport was born on these cliffs. In 1966 Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

But those were isolated stunts.

Carl Boenish was an important catalyst behind modern BASE jumping and in 1978 he filmed jumps from El Capitan made using ram-air parachutes and the freefall tracking technique.

Boenish turned cliff jumping into a real recreational activity, coined the acronym BASE, and published magazines promoting the sport until his death in a 1984 jump in Norway.

The 1980 Trial Period Falls Apart

In 1980, soon after skydiver and BASE pioneer Carl Boenish filmed some of the earliest jumps from El Capitan, Yosemite officials agreed to a trial period, issuing up to 12 daily permits.

It lasted only a few months.

When all the permits were claimed, however, some jumped without them, and a group known as the “flatbed 10” drove a truck up El Capitan to avoid the hike.

On the last day of the trial, Boenish and others jumped from a pogo stick, skateboard, and stilts. “There were just too many free spirits, and we had to shut them down,” Bill Wendt, then chief ranger, says.

Rangers Form SPLATT Patrol

After the ban took effect, Yosemite rangers got serious about enforcement. Some jumpers believe the bad blood stems from the animus of Bill Wendt, Yosemite’s chief ranger in the 1980s.

According to a former park ranger’s sworn affidavit, the park rangers formed a patrol tasked with arresting BASE jumpers, known as Stop Parachutists Leap At The Top, or SPLATT.

Jumpers faced fines up to $5,000, seizure of their gear, and up to six months in jail if they ran. Many spent at least one night locked up.

The cat-and-mouse game became part of the culture.

Frank Gambalie Drowns Fleeing Rangers

On June 9, 1999, Frank Gambalie jumped from El Capitan and landed successfully. Rangers who staked out a landing area on an informant’s tip tried to capture Frank Gambalie III.

He shed his gear and ran. Gambalie, 28, tried to flee, and drowned in the runoff-swollen Merced River.

His body was found a month later, 300 yards downstream. “It was his fatal mistake, not knowing about the rapids,” said the rescue diver who discovered him.

The BASE community blamed the park’s aggressive enforcement for his death.

Jan Davis Dies Protesting the Ban

Four months later, five jumpers organized a protest at El Capitan.

They planned to jump in full view of media and rangers, get arrested, and challenge the ban in court. Jan Davis jumped fourth.

She wore a black-and-white-striped jumpsuit, and anticipating confiscation, a borrowed parachute on her back. The 60-year-old was known as the first woman to jump from Angel Falls in Venezuela.

Ten seconds in, when her parachute still hadn’t released, a man filming from El Capitan tensed up. She fell 3,200 feet and died on impact.

Her husband watched from the meadow below.

Dean Potter Crashes at Taft Point

On May 16, 2015, legendary climber Dean Potter and Graham Hunt launched from Taft Point wearing wingsuits.

They wore wingsuits, with fabric between the legs and under the arms that allows humans to soar like flying squirrels, sometimes within feet of trees and rock.

They jumped after 7 p.m. to avoid rangers. Both men perished when they failed to clear a shadowy notch on a nearby ridge. Potter was 43, Hunt was 29.

A longtime BASE jumper explained why dusk jumps are so dangerous: “As the sun sets, shadows move over the land very rapidly. It can really play tricks on you.”

Why Jumpers Keep Coming Back

Yosemite is packed full of similarly tall rock faces and spires unlike anywhere else in the country.

The cliffs are vertical, the granite rock beneath a jumper’s feet won’t crumble, and Yosemite Valley features large flat meadows for soft landings.

El Capitan offers up to 18 seconds of free fall before pulling the cord. Legal alternatives exist, but they are far more dangerous.

The cliffs on Bureau of Land Management land near Moab are much lower, with sketchier landings. For American BASE jumpers, Yosemite remains the ultimate prize, and the ban makes it forbidden fruit.

The Ban Holds After 40 Years

BASE jumping in Yosemite has been illegal since the mid-1980s.

The park superintendent made the current stance clear: “We do not tolerate illegal activity in Yosemite National Park.”

The three new convictions demonstrate that enforcement continues. The park banned it. And people keep jumping anyway.

But so do the jumps. In recent weeks, several videos and images circulating on social media appear to show BASE jumpers leaping from El Capitan.

The Park Service says it is investigating three additional cases from 2025. Carl Boenish invented the sport here.

Visiting Yosemite National Park, California

Yosemite National Park is located in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, about 170 miles east of San Francisco.

The park is open year-round, though some roads close in winter.

Entrance fees are $35 per vehicle, $30 per motorcycle, or $20 per person on foot or bicycle. An annual pass costs $70.

El Capitan is visible from multiple viewpoints in Yosemite Valley, and you can watch rock climbers on the wall most days. The best views are from El Capitan Meadow along Northside Drive.

BASE jumping remains illegal and will get you arrested.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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