A 28-year-old newlywed woman Saturday after her parachute failed to open during a BASE jumping attempt.
Though BASE jumping is illegal inside Zion National Park, Amber Bellows and Clayton Butler, her husband of two weeks, climbed 7,276 feet to the peak of Mount Kinesava with the intention of leaping off. According to Butler, Bellows jumped first, and her parachute failed to open properly. He leaped after her but was unable to reach her. Butler then hiked out to find help.
Rescue teams found Bellows’s body the next morning and airlifted her out. Her death is the first BASE jumping fatality in Zion.
“BASE jumping is so dangerous,” acting park superintendent Jim Milestone said in a statement, “even for those that are experienced, like Amber Bellows. That is one of the reasons it is not allowed in the park.”
