Report: Santa Cruz Man Dies Wingsuiting In Arizona

PAGE, AZ - A Santa Cruz man died Tuesday while wingsuiting with friends in Arizona, and authorities are presently working to recover his body in steep terrain and icy conditions.

29-year-old Mathew Kenney, of Santa Cruz, was located in the steep canyon walls approximately 15 miles north of Lee’s Ferry in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness area, according to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office. The area is in northern Arizona, north of Grand Canyon National Park.

A Coconino County Sheriff’s Team and an Arizona DPS Air Rescue helicopter responded Tuesday to recover the body, but were unsuccessful due to the steep terrain and icy conditions on top of the canyon walls.

-image of mountains via Coconino County Sheriff’s Office; image of wingsuiting over Nevada via Richard Schneider and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.