Murray/AP Extreme skier Shane McConkey in a rare moment of rest in Milford Sound, New Zealand.
Influential and daring skier Shane McConkey died Thursday after falling from a 2,000-foot cliff while performing for cameras in northern Italy. He was 39.
McConkey was unable to deploy his parachute during a 12-second freefall from the Saspardoi cliff in the Dolomite Mountains, according to a news release from Colorado-based ski-film company Matchstick Productions.
An innovator of ski-BASE jumping – in which athletes ski off massive cliffs with a parachute in their hand – McConkey starred in dozens of ski films, as well as the 2007 mainstream release "Steep," a documentary about the history of daredevil skiing.
The grisly accident occurred while McConkey was performing on a trip sponsored in part by Red Bull energy drinks, the company whose logo was often emblazoned on McConkey’s parachute.
A former ski racer who hailed from a prominent skiing family in California, McConkey’s exploits in exotic mountain ranges and his innovations in ski technology are credited with for skiing’s resurgence in the late 1990s, after snowboarding had made the sport look moribund.
"You could almost go so far to say he was the Michael Jordan of skiing," said Scott Gaffney, a filmmaker who worked with McConkey for the past 15 years. "He has left a lasting impression, and he was still going. He still put in an incredible year last year."
McConkey was also a risk-taker who clearly relished the sport’s rebellious roots and often cracked jokes about the dangerous situations he put himself in.
A witness to the fatal accident was J.T. Holmes, a ski-BASE jumper who often collaborated with McConkey – including in a 2007 jump off the Eiger, one of Switzerland’s iconic peaks.
Holmes, who had reportedly just jumped the same cliff, described the accident to the author of a news release distributed Friday by Matchstick Productions.
"McConkey performed a double backflip from the cliff and planned to release his skis and then fly in his wingsuit, a stunt he's executed a number of times," said the announcement.
"But when both skis failed to release upon tugging on straps leashed to his legs, McConkey went into an upside down position as he manually attempted to release his bindings."
According to the announcement, McConkey ultimately succeeded in detaching his skis but didn’t have time to adequately slow his descent with his parachute.
McConkey is one of the only big-mountain skiers (the term "extreme skiing" is outdated) to have an entire ski film dedicated to him alone. The 2001 film, directed by Gaffney, is called "There’s Something About McConkey."
In his films and in ski magazine he occasionally inhabited the role of "Saucerboy," a clownish persona that seemed to make fun of uncool skiers. He also recreated a famous James Bond skiing scene.
