Madonna Stage Alum Dies In Canyon Plunge

Madonna on stage with guitar and hat. — MADONNA STAGE ALUM DIES

Utah lost two BASE jumpers in separate incidents within days of each other, and one of them had performed on stage with Madonna — a detail that tells you everything about how far outside ordinary life these athletes lived.

Story Snapshot

Weston Huff, 33, died in Rock Canyon near Provo after a parachute malfunction. Police confirmed he was an experienced skydiver jumping alone.
Andrew “Andy” Lewis, known as “Sketchy Andy,” died near Mineral Bottom outside Moab alongside a second, unidentified man around age 50.
Lewis was a well-known stunt performer, outdoor guide, and owner of BASE Jump Moab. He had performed with Madonna.
BASE jumping kills roughly one jumper for every 2,317 jumps — a fatality rate 43 times higher than jumping from a plane.

Two Deaths, Two Locations, One Brutal Week for Utah BASE Jumping

Weston Huff was jumping in a section of Provo’s Rock Canyon called Bad Bananas when something went wrong in midair. His parachute failed to fully deploy. He died on impact.

Police described him as an experienced skydiver who was jumping alone from the top of the canyon and likely experienced a parachute malfunction. His sister confirmed he died instantly. Rock Canyon, police noted, has seen several BASE jumping fatalities in recent years.

Two people were killed in a BASE jumping incident in Utah, including an extreme athlete who performed with Madonna during the 2012 Super Bowl, authorities said.

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— ABC News (@ABC) June 16, 2026

The second incident happened near Mineral Bottom, a remote canyon area outside Moab. Two men died at the scene. One was Andrew Lewis, 38, owner and operator of BASE Jump Moab and a fixture in the extreme sports world. The other was a man approximately 50 years old whose name was not released.

The Grand County Sheriff’s Office responded with deputies, search-and-rescue teams, emergency medical services, and two medical helicopters. Both men were beyond saving by the time help arrived.

Who Was “Sketchy Andy” Lewis

Andrew Lewis earned his nickname honestly. He was one of the most recognizable figures in BASE jumping — a certified guide, stunt performer, and the kind of athlete who made a living doing things most people only watch on a screen.

He performed alongside Madonna, which placed him in a world where extreme athleticism crosses into mainstream entertainment.

He ran BASE Jump Moab, a company built around guiding others through one of the most dangerous sports on earth. His death hit the tight-knit BASE jumping community hard.

The Numbers Behind the Risk Are Not Subtle

BASE jumping stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans, and Earth — the four fixed objects jumpers leap from with a parachute. A study of more than 20,000 jumps at Norway’s Kjerag Massif found one fatality for every 2,317 jumps. The sport’s fatality and injury rate runs 43 times higher than parachuting from a plane.

About 72 percent of all BASE deaths are attributed to human error. Object strikes account for 38 percent of recorded deaths. Low-altitude jumps under 300 feet carry a 15 percent higher fatality rate because there is almost no time to correct a problem.

Annual deaths worldwide sit between 25 and 35 most years. That number stayed near zero through most of the 1980s and 1990s, then climbed steadily after 2000 as participation grew. Utah, and Moab in particular, consistently appears in that count.

The canyon terrain draws experienced jumpers from around the world, which concentrates both skill and risk in the same geography.

Interestingly, 2023 saw zero BASE fatalities in the United States — proof that the sport is not uniformly deadly, but also proof that the margin between a good day and a fatal one can be razor thin.

Experience Does Not Guarantee Survival in This Sport

Both Huff and Lewis were not beginners making rookie mistakes. Huff was a known, experienced skydiver. Lewis ran a professional BASE jumping operation.

That matters because it strips away the easy explanation that these deaths were about carelessness or inexperience. BASE jumping from canyon walls gives a jumper roughly five to six seconds of free fall from a typical exit point.

A parachute malfunction at that altitude leaves almost no time to react. The terrain itself amplifies every error. That is not a flaw in the sport’s culture — it is the physics of the activity itself.

What Families and the Community Are Left With

Huff’s family spoke publicly after his death, remembering him as someone doing exactly what he loved in the place he loved doing it. That framing is common after BASE jumping deaths, and it reflects something real about the people who choose this life. They are not unaware of the danger. They accept it as the price of the experience.

That is a deeply personal calculation, and it deserves to be treated as one — not dismissed, and not romanticized either. Two families are now left to carry the weight of that calculation forward without the people they loved.