Andy Lewis Dies in Utah Tandem BASE Jump Incident
Andrew “andy lewis” Lewis, a 39-year-old Moab slackliner and BASE jumper, died Sunday, June 14, in a tandem BASE jumping incident in Mineral Bottom, Utah. Another man in his 50s also died after the jump in a remote canyon near the Green River.
Mineral Bottom response
Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins said the two men were conducting a tandem BASE jump when the fatal incident occurred. Deputies, a rescue team, EMS personnel and two Intermountain helicopters responded to Mineral Bottom after officials were notified of the incident.
The Grand County Sheriff's Office said the approximately 50-year-old man died of his injuries. Lewis of Moab also succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
Andy Lewis records
Lewis owned BASE Jump Moab and helped popularize competitive tricklining. He won multiple championships in the early 2000s and held the record for the longest free solo highline until August 2015, after crossing 180 feet at a height of 197 feet with no leash.
He also appeared in 2012 at Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, where he was filmed conducting a trickline while Madonna sang on stage. In a 2012 interview with Outside, Lewis said BASE jumping was the “most dangerous” of the high-risk sports he participated in.
Grand County aftermath
In the same interview, Lewis said, “A lot of people die doing exactly what I did,” and described his backflip as part of what pushed modern tricklining forward. The sheriff's office said, “The Grand County Sheriff's Office extends its deepest sympathies to the families, friends, and all of those affected by this tragic incident,” as investigators and rescue crews cleared the scene.
For people in the Moab area who knew Lewis as “Sketchy Andy,” the loss reaches beyond one jump. The incident ends the life of a figure tied to record-setting highlining, tricklining and a sport he had already described as deadly.
