Michael Pelkey (born March 28, 1940) is considered one of the first individuals to influence the mass practice of

BASE jumping BASE jumping () is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend to the ground. BASE is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antenna (radio), antenna ...

as a sport, together with fellow skydiver Brian Schubert. Pelkey and Schubert's first jump was made on July 24, 1966, from the summit of

El Capitan El Capitan (; ) is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granite monolith is about from base to summit alo ...

mountain. Pelkey made his second jump on October 15, 2005, at the 26th annual

Bridge Day Bridge Day is an annual one-day festival in Fayetteville, West Virginia, Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia, Fayette County, West Virginia, United States The event is coordinated by the New River Gorge Bridge Day Commission, and i ...

event where he and Shubert were attending as guest speakers. Pelkey's planned third jump at the 27th annual

in 2006 was unperformed due to the death of Schubert, from a parachute malfunction, moments before Pelkey's jump.

BASE jumping

On July 24, 1966, Pelkey and Brian Schubert made the first parachute jumps from the top of the

mountain in

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The p ...

. El Capitan is among the world's tallest sheer monoliths, ascending more than straight up from

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about long a ...

. It is the second-highest unbroken cliff in the world, the highest being

Mount Thor Mount Thor, officially gazetted as Thor Peak (Inuktitut syllabics: ᙯᕐᓱᐊᓗᒃ, "huge bedrock", or ''Kigutinnguaq'' "tooth-like"), in Nunavut, Canada, is a mountain with an elevation of located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Is ...

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada, the second-largest island in the Americas (behind Greenland), and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is (slightly smal ...

in the

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...

. In 1980, the idea of fixed object jumping was expanded by

Carl Boenish Carl Ronald Boenish ( ; April 3, 1941 – July 7, 1984), considered the father of modern BASE jumping, was an American freefall cinematographer, who in 1978 filmed the first jumps from El Capitan using ram-air parachutes. Biography Boenish repeat ...

into the concept of

(buildings, antennae, spans, and earth), including an exclusive club made up of those who made at least one jump from each of the four categories. Members of this club are awarded a number based on the date of their qualification. The sport of BASE jumping, practiced worldwide today and one of the original extreme sports, was inspired in part by Pelkey and Schubert's El Capitan jump.

Later years

Pelkey and Schubert were honored as guest speakers at the 26th annual "Bridge Day" event in

Fayetteville, West Virginia Fayetteville is a town in and the county seat of Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,887 at the 2020 census. Fayetteville lies adjacent to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and is directly south of th ...

, on October 15, 2005, where 175,000 spectators converged over the course of the day to take part in the festival. Approximately 450 BASE jumpers from all over the world made more than 800 parachute jumps off the

New River Gorge Bridge The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge long over the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. With an arch long, the New River Gorge Bridge was the world's longest ...

into the New River Gorge, below. The New River Gorge Bridge is the second highest span and one of the few places in the United States where BASE-jumping is legal for six hours, one day a year. Pelkey made his second BASE jump at the 2005 Bridge Day event from the New River Gorge Bridge. He and Schubert planned to jump together at the 2006 event, a few months after the 40th anniversary of their first El Capitan jump. Schubert died jumping at that event, just minutes before Pelkey was scheduled to jump.

Footnotes

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelkey, Michael 1940 births American skydivers Living people