Goodbye to one of the GREATEST EVER

omg this is terrible i have so many videos with shane in them he was so awesome i cant believe this. shane man you were awesome
 
He truely was the greatest ever. Not only an amazing skier but a dedicated family man. He will be missed greatly.

RIP Shane.
 
He was the reason I started freeskiing. I'm super bummed out. An inspiration to an entire community.
RIP
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Here is the last cliff Shane successfully BASE jumped, posted on Red Bull's website yesterday. A pretty amazing finale to remember him by.

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I am so terribly sad to hear this because he was one of the first skiers i knew when i entered the freeskiing movement. When I watched Push, he and dumont inspired me to love the sport that i still love today. R.I.P.
 
Atleast he was stoked on one of his last days, this is from the redbull site the day before:

We nailed the Sassongher line today!

Today was quite cool! We finally nailed that line variation off the Val Scura couloir on Sassongher. This was extremely satisfying getting to ski such a unique line. Conditions in the couloir were still very hard and icy in places so the skiing was slow and careful. Traversing/hiking the ramp out of the couloir did not present much of a problem and it was a very cool feeling knowing what we were heading out to. The snow on the slope above the cliff was firm and icy and not much fun but it was only about 3 or 4 four turns long before the jump. We spent a lot of time on a rope looking over the edge of the cliff in a few different spots and throwing rocks to figure out how big the cliff was and how to manage this jump. I must say that it seemed a bit more spicy than we were expecting. The cliff bulged out further than we were hoping at the bottom and this made for a very intimidating looking jump. There was a minimal amount of snow at the edge of the cliff due to melt back so the best spots to ski off from were not doable. JT threw some rocks and we got a few 9 second rock drops and then we knew it was on! I had opted to not even bring my wingsuit today so I geared up for a standard slider up ski base jump. JT had brought his wingsuit and was feeling the wingsuit ski base. We called the MSP film crew on the radio and they fired up the heli and it as time to charge off this sucker! I went first and punched it hard into a big ol front flip with as much speed as I was comfortable taking in those conditions. Everything went great and I had an on heading opening. I flew down completely stoked and landed high up on the hillside so I could watch JT from a good angle. No more than 30 seconds after I landed I see JT flying off the cliff with a lot of speed. He yanked his skis off right away and began to fly immediately. It was a perfectly executed wingsuit ski base. Skis off quick and stable and into forward flight with no potato chipping or instability. I was jealous. Today was a good day!

Shane

Ill said it before and Ill say it again RIP dude! You where a HUGE insperation!
 
Ummm I am spechless, have been all day. This guy was the shit. Always amped to be alive. RIP SHANE, thanks for all the inspiration and good times!!!!
 
This sucks he was my idol i have skied with his huck doll in my pocket for three years for good luck and i swear if i find some selling R.I.P. Shane shirts they should burn in hell for how dare they try to make a quick buck off the death of the greatest skier ever

 
He definitely went doing what he loved, but it's still pretty tragic. From early reports it sounds like one of his skis didn't come off when it was supposed to. He uses old Tyrolia bindings from the 80s to ski base with because they're the only ones with the vertical release needed, and I guess it just didn't work out this time. That put him into a spin, and the pilot chute can't be launched like that because it will get caught up in the ski. Just couldn't recover in time I guess. Clearer details will probably come out, but right now it's just like... whatever happened, it wasn't supposed to happen to Superman.
 
Shane was great, he always looked like he was having fun and basically made every movie he was in by his antics, characters, skiing, and most of all his positive attitude. He made me fall in love with ski movies and without him I and the sport would not be where we are today. He will sorely be missed. RIP he was one of the greats.
 
He was a true hero, RIP Shane.
does anyone else think that Andy Parry's humor is like that of Shane's, I dont know about you guys and gals but i think so,
RIP Shane
 
A sad day in our sport. The man was a legend and pioneer in everything he did. So many memories and I can guarantee that "Something about McConkey" is playing in many homes tonight.

Thank You for everything you've done for us. Thought to everyone who's left behind

RIP Shane
 
Definitely one of the people that got me into this sport- right from the beginning.. and still one of the best.

Such sad news, rip mcconkey
 
THATS NUTS. And scary. And sad. Ive been watching him since I was little. I still can't get over how crazy this is. That sucks majorly. RIP
 
I remember when I first started skiing probably more then a year ago. I didn't know anything about park, tricks, twin tips, and I definetly didn't know what newschoolers was. I did used to go on freeskier though and this was the man I would always see in articles. Very slowly he started to become not only my favorite skier but my inspiration. He did something so unique but it pushed the sport in great ways. I could only hope that one day I could do what he did. As I discovered newschoolers I sort of forgot about him in the midst of all these new skiers I was being introduced to. When I first read this thread it brought back so many memories of how I first started out. If it hadn't been for shane mcconkey I would have never had a dream which created a passion for the sport of skiing. So here is my thank you to you. You changed my perspective on skiing and how you could push a sport with hard work. Rest in peace, I will always remember you as my favorite skier, my inspiration, and my friend.

 
can someone try to get those pictures up ^ im not good with that shit.

Skiing willl never be the same without saucer boy.
 
Fuck. I can't believe this. At least he went doing something he loved.

Shane McConkey, 1969-2009

Legendary skier, innovator, friend and all-around superhero Shane McConkey passes away.

March 26, 2009, 5:46 PM

By: Tim Mutrie

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Graeme Murray/Red Bull Photofiles

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big mountain skier and BASE jumper Shane McConkey was killed earlier

today in a ski-BASE accident in the Italian Dolomites.

begin whole table

begin top part

Shane McConkey

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begin table

Hometown: Olympic Valley, Cali.

Family:Wife, Sherry; Daughter, Ayla

Nickname: Cliff Huckstable

Sponsors: Red Bull, K2, Sessions, Nordica, Marker, Oakley, Squaw Valley USA

Accolades:
  • 1996, 1998: IFSA World Tour of Freeskiing, World Champ
  • 1999: Winter X Games Skier X, 2nd
  • 2001: Skiing Mag Top 25 Skiers in N.A., 1st
  • 2002, 2005, 2006: Powder Mag Reader's Poll Awards, 1st
  • 2005: Laureus World Sport Award, Nominee

Film Parts:
  • 1997-2008: Matchstick Productions
  • '95, '99, '00, '02: Scott Gaffney Pictures
  • 1999: Teton Gravity Research
  • 2005: Warren Miller Films

end table

end whole table A member of the Red Bull Air Force and

pioneer of the ski-BASE-ing phenomenon, McConkey experienced problems

in the air after launching off a cliff with the expectation of

deploying his parachute canopy and then gliding down to the ground—as

he had done successfully some 700-plus times before.

"He did a

double backflip off the jump and he has these releasable bindings so

they come off in the air and then he flies off in his wing suit,"

filmmaker Scott Gaffney, a longtime close friend of McConkey's, told

ESPN Action Sports in an interview this afternoon via phone.

"But

one ski did not come off. And when that happens the drag on the skis

causes you to flip over, so the skis go over your head. So he was

struggling with the one ski. Then he also got into a bad spin. So he

may have never even pulled his pilot chute. And that's coming from JT

Holmes, who Shane was with in Italy and who reviewed the footage of the

accident. So the combination of the ski, the spin and the pilot chute,

apparently. Because you can't throw the pilot chute like that; if you

throw it while you're upside down and it wraps around the ski, you're

done."

McConkey was filming with Matchstick Productions and Red

Bull at the time, according to Gaffney, who said McConkey apparently

died on impact with snow on the ground below the cliff. Gaffney was not

clear about the size of the cliff. "But it had to be a sizable cliff,

at least 400 feet, for him to be planning on flying his wing suit away

from it," Gaffney said.

McConkey, 39, of Olympic Valley, Calif., is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their 3½-year-old daughter, Ayla.

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Graeme Murray/Red Bull Photofiles

This

afternoon Gaffney was at home in Squaw Valley, Calif., with his

brother, Robb, also a close friend of McConkey's, reeling from the

news. "With what Shane does," said Scott, "it's a call you always

picture getting at some point, but you realistically don't ever expect

it to happen."Added Robb Gaffney, "Shane's been a part of our lives

for quite a while now. I'm just sitting at Scott's house processing the

whole thing. The texts and calls are coming in, and you can really even

feel it in the air in Squaw right now. I'm thinking about Sherry and

his little girl. But in this area people have always loved Shane, so

Sherry and Ayla, they're going to have an immense amount of support

around them. That's one thing for sure; that's Shane's legacy."

Also See: Retallack Rip-Fest, a 2008 photo gallery featuring McConkey and friends.

Complete Coverage: ESPN Freeskiing Homepage ESPN Freeskiing Blog

 
I couldn't believe it when I read it... chills literally went down my spine. Easily one of my favourite skiers out there. His general hilarity in films like Yearbook will be missed...

R.I.P. Shane
 
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