Andy Lewis Dies in June 14 Base Jumping Accident at Mineral Bottom
Andy Lewis died in a base jumping incident at Mineral Bottom on June 14, and another man died with him in the remote Grand County area. The two men were killed during a tandem jump that used one parachute.
Mineral Bottom And Grand County
Lewis was 39 and one of the best-known names tied to Moab's jumping scene. He also owned BASE Jump Moab and had run commercial tandem BASE-jumping operations in the area since 2018.
The second man was later identified by his family as Danny Joe Kregle, 68, of Arizona. Sheriff’s office officials first described him as approximately 50 years old before his identity was released.
Grand County dispatch was notified on June 14, and deputies, Grand County Search and Rescue, Grand County EMS and two Intermountain helicopters responded to the scene. The sheriff’s office said Mineral Bottom is in a remote part of Grand County.
Lewis And BASE Jump Moab
Lewis was originally from Santa Rosa, California, and was widely known by the nickname Sketchy Andy. He helped popularize tricklining in the mid-2000s, set a Guinness World Record in 2011 for the most side surfs on a slackline in one minute, and performed a slackline routine during Madonna’s Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in 2012.
Moab’s red-rock cliffs, including the area around Mineral Bottom, have long drawn BASE jumpers from around the world. BASE Jump Moab was one of a small number of outfits offering the experience under a Bureau of Land Management authorization in Grand County.
Grand County Sheriff’s Office
“The Grand County Sheriff’s Office extends its deepest sympathies to the families, friends, and all those affected by this tragic incident,” the sheriff’s office said in a release about the fatal incident. The office has not said whether the jump was a commercial outing.
The deaths leave a local operation and a widely known athlete tied to the same fatal jump, with the sheriff’s office still framing the event as a June 14 incident in the Mineral Bottom area. For people connected to BASE Jump Moab, the immediate fact is simple: the jump ended with two deaths at the scene.
