Just this month, Dean Potter ascended Half Dome in 2:17:52—the fastest known time up the 5000-foot Yosemite icon—and created “ultra climbing” in the process. Between this new sport hybridization and the others he had pioneered (like “freebasing” and “highlining”), Potter showed no signs of slowing down.

Sadly, Potter and climbing partner Graham Hunt died this past Saturday while BASE-jumping (an extreme sport that involves leaping from a building, antenna, bridge, or natural feature) off the 3,000-foot high Taft Point in Yosemite. This jump wasn’t new for the climber: he’d performed it at least 20 times, reported the LA Times. And Potter knew BASE-jumping was risky (in addition to being illegal), saying as recently as two weeks ago on his Instagram account:

“There have been consistent fatalities in the [wingsuiting] world during the past few years. I don't fool myself thinking I'm any better than my fallen brothers and sisters… [I] stack the odds in my favor and focus everything in my power to [fly] conservatively.”

Despite Potter’s attempts to fly safe, both Patagonia and Clif Bar stopped sponsoring him in recent years, on the grounds that his free climbing and freebasing expeditions were too dangerous. Still, the climbing community saw Potter as an inspirational “force of nature,” and as essential to the progression of the sport.

 “Dean Potter [is] carrying the torch of that rebel spirit established 60 years ago,” Valley Uprising director Nick Rosen told Sierra in January.

Inevitably, Potter was a controversial figure, but there’s no denying his enormous contribution to the outdoor community as well as the evolution of climbing. His death is a great loss, but he died doing what he loved most: pushing limits.

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