Shane McConkey

This is one that I really would have preferred to write while the dude was alive: Shane McConkey, probably the greatest skier of his generation, who was killed in an accident in Italy in March, at age 39, leaving a wife and three-year-old daughter, and lots of very sad friends.

Shane was a guy to whom the usual "daredevil" clichés did not apply. He was just a funny, laid back family guy who liked to jump off cliffs. Yet by all accounts, he was meticulous, and extremely careful, relatively speaking. He'd always be the guy who backed out if conditions weren't right.

And while the stunt he was attempting—a combined ski-wingsuit-BASE jump—certainly sounds crazy, it was also the product of more than a decade of step-by-step progression. From where he stood, it made perfect sense to ski off a cliff, pop off your skis, open up a wingsuit and fly around for a little while, and then throw a parachute. Why not?

Think of it this way: If you're an idiot or just hasty, you die on your 10th BASE jump; he'd survived more than 700. Yet in his POV videos, everytime his chute opens, you hear him let out a relieved "Yeah!" He knew that everything he did was a gamble, and no matter how well he'd massaged the odds, it's hard not to wish that he had quit while he was ahead.

My full feature on Shane and the cult of extreme appears in the July/August Men's Journal—but it's not online yet. For now, "Juke Box Hero" is going to have to suffice: