2 dead after BASE jumping incident in Grand County

MOAB — Two people died Sunday in a BASE jumping incident.

The Grand County Sheriff’s Office said the incident happened in a remote area of Mineral Bottom.

A 50-year-old man, who was not identified, died at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office. The second person who died, a man from Moab, was identified by the sheriff’s office as Andrew Lewis.

Lewis was an experienced tandem BASE jumper who documented his jumps under the name “Sketchy Andy Lewis” on various social media platforms. He owned BASE Jump Moab and had accomplished over 4,000 jumps, according to the Moab Swingers website.

“(Lewis) performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Madonna, judged international slackline competitions and travels the globe as a performer and elite athlete,” the website said.

Lewis also co-founded Moab Swingers, a rope swinging company based in Moab, with co-founder and Lewis’ “lifelong friend,” Jimmy Peterson.

“At this time, we just like to release a statement saying that we are so sorry for the family and friends,” Peterson said in a statement. “It was a terrible accident, and I will be in touch at a later time.”

At news of his death, multiple people across the U.S. recounted what it was like to BASE jump with Lewis in the Moab area.

Ruth Bryson of Asheville, North Carolina, and her son took a trip to Moab during Mother’s Day weekend.

“I needed to do some healing from losing my mother in January, and I definitely went straight to Moab just to BASE jump,” Bryson told KSL. She said she was inspired to try after watching Lewis’ BASE jumps online. During the jump and prior, Lewis kept her calm and void of fear, Bryson said.

“We were laughing and cutting up all the way up the mountain,” she said.

Bryson said Lewis was compassionate and kind. She said she felt free and alive during the jump and mentioned that Lewis was the best at what he did. Bryson said she had a goal to BASE jump with him in the future. “He helped heal my heart, and I was hurting,” Bryson said.

William Cragg, of West Virginia, also BASE jumped with his 14-year-old son and Lewis about three weeks ago and said he found inspiration in Lewis’ TikTok BASE jumping videos.

“I started seeing these heart-wrenching stories of these people in Moab jumping off a cliff … Those stories resonated with me,” Cragg told KSL.

Ultimately, Cragg said Lewis inspired him to start an Accelerated Freefall program, as Lewis’ confidence rubbed off on him.

“Like any extraordinary thing worth doing in life, extreme sports are made up of extreme people,” he said. “All of these people share at least one common characteristic: needing to find an outlet. At the end of the day, we are all broken and just trying to put together enough pieces to survive another day. Although sports like BASE jumping have a high amount of fatalities, I promise you these sports have saved many, many more lives than they have ever taken.”

The sheriff’s office also expressed its condolences to the family and friends of the two victims.

“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.

Contributing: Shelby Lofton

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