Placer County Sheriff's Capt Dennis Walsh said Erik Roner, of Tahoe City, died during a skydiving accident yesterday at a golf course in Squaw Valley, about 5 miles from Lake Tahoe's northwest shore.
Witnesses told deputies Roner, 39, was part of a group conducting a skydiving performance before a golf tournament when he hit a tree while trying to land and became entangled high above ground, Walsh said.
Authorities were not able to remove him from the tree, and Roner was pronounced dead at the scene.
Walsh said the investigation was continuing and the Federal Aviation Administration was notified.
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Roner's death comes four months after world-famous wingsuit flyer Dean Potter and fellow adventurer Graham Hunt fatally crashed after the pair leaped from Taft Point, 3,500 feet above Yosemite Valley, attempting to clear a V-shaped notch in a ridgeline.
"Erik was a beautiful man, great father, wonderful friend and the love of my life," his wife, Annika Roner, said in a statement.
Roner, a professional skier and avid BASE jumper, was known for being part of "Nitro Circus," an MTV show centered around freestyle motocross rider Travis Pastrana and his crew of extreme sports athlete friends. He also hosted the TV show "Locals" on sports network Outside Television.
"Erik was an amazing person who made everyone and everything around him better," Pastrana said.
Roy Tuscany, a friend of Roner who witnessed the accident, said he watched as two other parachutists landed safely on the golf course's fairway for the ninth hole but then looked on in horror when Roner slammed hard into a tree about 25 to 30 feet above the ground.
He said Roner's parachute got caught in the tree and Roner dangled there while many on the ground scrambled to find ladders and other means to get to him. At one point, several people attempted to stand on one another's shoulders to reach him.