Eh. He should have done it nude.
Well, of course not. He died falling, and hitting the ground.
That's what happens when you rely on rope.
(4 is apparently true, but he *started out* falling in the fatal instance.)
I love climbing, but I nearly threw up with anxiety watching that clip.
Oh my. The moves where he jumps vertically to get to the next handhold? Wow.
I watched with glee, hoping to see him lose his grip and fall.
The moves where he jumps vertically to get to the next handhold? Wow.
In the lingo, a "dyno"
Osman was a strong climber, but unfortunately he could be kind of stupid. Died setting records for free falls from a rope. He'd already set the record that trip, and tried to break his own record. It had been raining, he shouldn't have gone for it again. Ropes are weaker when wet.
There's some real nutjobs in free climbing. Guys like Dean Potter and Hans Florine, always trying to outdoor each other. Potter, for example, free climbed Half Dome in a bit over 4 hours.
While I recognize that he showed great athletic skills etc., I really find this kind of appalling. Doing stuff that very likely could get you killed may be fun (for some definition of fun), but it is idiotic.
You're right, I can't do that. Because I'm not completely fucking insane.
Actually my sister, who's outdoorsy, used to climb. She's known a remarkable number of people who've died in various sporty type accidents: surfing, climbing, etc. I'll stay safely on my ass, thanks.
You guys are all saps. The camera is on its side, and he's just scrambling along the ground.
I actually agree (mostly) with B and Idealist: there's no way I'd do something like this. I'm not sure it's appalling unless you have a family, which Osman did, as I recall.
How do free falls work?
Like that vid Ogged linked. But the one that killed him was much higher. Off of Leaning Tower in Yosemite as I recall. Over 1000 foot free fall.
Everyone has a family, unless they're an orphan with no siblings.
I mean, it's cool and all, but jesus. I kind of *like* living in America in the 21st century and not having to worry about my physical survival.
That's what happens when you rely on rope.
He had to, since he'd sprained his Chi earlier in the day.
You guys are all saps. The camera is on its side, and he's just scrambling along the ground.
I was just looking for the Monty Python clip where they're scaling the east side of Maple Avenue, or some such, but no such luck.
I saw the video and still don't understand free falls. It's not a bungee cord, because that's got its own name. Is the rope anchored away from where he's jumping so that he's pulled into a parabola? Is there some reason he's not snapped in half?
Everyone has a family, unless they're an orphan with no siblings.
Wife, kids, parents. Other than that, you're not obligated to try to preserve yourself for anyone (unless you have some other obligation to them, etc.)
Is this more or less cool than shooting an RPG at a cow? Jesus, my feet are wet from watching that. It's like couvade, but not.
In the abstract, I support everyone's right to commit suicide.
Is the rope anchored away from where he's jumping so that he's pulled into a parabola? Is there some reason he's not snapped in half?
Yeah, you end up doing kind of a giant swing.
25: It might be a right, but it's usually still a shitty thing to do.
23: Eh. My sister would be just as distraught as my mother if I killed myself or died doing something really stupid and needless, and she has loved me just as much. Siblings are family.
I'm an only child, I don't know from siblings.
27: I don't think suicide needs to be a shitty thing to do, even if we allow that dangerous sports like these are more of a shitty thing to do. I think the difference is that in dangerous sports, you're supposedly willfully ignoring the risk of harm to your family from your death (even if you aren't ignoring the risk of your death in a more limited context) but we assume that most people who commit suicide have taken the feelings of their family into consideration.
I'm an only child, I don't know from siblings.
That explains so much.
Well sometimes they are terrible and shouldn't be accounted for in any life decision, but sometimes they are truly one of the best parts of life. I've been lucky enough to experience the latter, but obviouslly it's not always the case.
we assume that most people who commit suicide have taken the feelings of their family into consideration.
Um, okay. In my thankfully limited experience that has totally not been an obvious thing to assume.
I doubt the risk of death from these activities is that much higher than driving.
33: You mean the risk from the activites as Dan Osman practiced them, or the risk as other people practice them? I would figure free climbing would be much, much more dangerous than normal climbing, and I'd be very surprised to find out normal climbing is much less risky than driving.
I also guess it depends on whether you're talking about death rates per day of climbing/driving, or per year.
I would figure free climbing would be much, much more dangerous than normal climbing, and I'd be very surprised to find out normal climbing is much less risky than driving.
Free climbing is very dangerous. Other types vary a bit. Sport climbing is quite safe, and accidents are pretty much always human error. Trad climbing, where you're placing your own protection as you go is sketchier, as is ice climbing.
oh come on. It's as though you people have never seen an old Batman episode.
It's turning an already-nutty-dangerous activity into a timed event that's the real stroke of crazy here. Like you're in an extra hurry to get your ass killed.
I could almost admire this guy in a "you may be nuts, but at least you're entertaining me" kind of way, until I hear he has a wife and kids. Now, he's just a dead asshole.
Freaking terrifying. I have to go lie down. I'm having an anxiety attack.
North Face of the Uxbridge Road, mate.
I admit that I wasn't really impressed until the vertical leap.
Where hardship and philosophy go hand in glove.
I am with the anxiety camp. I just got a sick feeling watching the guy. Climbing is really fun, but, as bphd said, these modern times sure are nice when we do not have to risk life.
I feel the same way about trapeze artists. Why on earth would they do it without a net?!?!?!? I get a lot less enjoyment knowing they could die.
But wait. This clearly wasn't a single climb done in a single take. We see several shots of him going past a camera that has to be mounted somehow on the rock face. There is one shot where the camera pulls back and he is the only one on the rock face. That has to be a separate take than all the others.
So we weren't really looking at speed climbing there. They probably spent all afternoon on that. I bet this would also let them incorporate more safety procedures, at least for the cameraperson
Trapeze artists are seriously hot.
44. Why can't you mount several cameras on the face?
Yeah, I don't get it, helpy-chalk. He clearly knows the route he's going to take, and I'm sure they had cameras mounted. In addition, when they pan back, I think I see someone (dressed in white) suspended above him. It's an edited clip, as the climb apparently took just under five minutes, but I don't see a reason to think that it was several takes. Not to mention that he's not using a rope or harness in any case.
Watching that gives me the kind of anxiety that feels as though one's spinal fluid has turned to red-hot lava. Ugh.
Each camera follows him as he moves, so it can't just be a camera mounted on the rock, someone is holding it.
Watching again I can see the guy above him, but this actually confirms my suspicions. They have one cameraman on the rocks, with ropes and stuff. He sets up, and then films the climber going past him. The cut and do another set up farther up the rock face.
This doesn't mean that the whole thing is fake, or that the climber isn't doing something incredibly dangerous. But FWIW we aren't looking at a single action.
Okay, so he did it *multiple* times, just so they could get a start-to-finish video. That's *so* much less crazy.
It looks in the big pan-out shot like there might be two people with cameras on the rock face. Which means that with enough helpers they might have been able to hoist the cameramen up faster than he was climbing.
A friend of mine used to do much milder versions of this crazy shit. We'd be walking and he'd decide to take 'that route', where 'that route' would involve 30ft up a straight rock face, rather than walk round. He also used to practice by free climbing a 100ft railway viaduct near our house.
He did turn his lack of fear of heights into a job though -- working as a flyman in theatres, and doing all kinds of cool carpentry such as repairing old rollercoasters.
I, who suffer from such dreadful fear of heights that I once had to lie down in the front row of the circle at Sadler's Wells, cringe in awe at your friend.
ttaM, incidentally, I just upgraded to a Sony Ericsson K800 on the strength of your picture of a snow-bound Oxford in the Flickr pool. Don't, please, tell me that you took it with another phone.
Yeah, that was the K800i. It takes OK pictures I find. It's limited, but the basic image quality is alright. The white balance isn't brilliant so I think I did a slight level adjustment and sharpen in Photoshop, but no major alterations.
I'm also not brilliant with heights. It doesn't really stop me doing things -- I am OK at over-riding the fear* -- but I do feel distinctly uneasy. Really steep spiral staircases, for example, can make me feel a bit odd. I climbed the spire of St Mary's Church in Oxford one winter morning so I could take a picture across the snow-topped roofs. The stairs were icy and very very slippy, and they're also pretty worn and uneven. That did make me feel a bit uncomfortable.
* Quite a few things make me anxious but my fear of looking like a fool or a coward tends to override the other fears.
Put me in the camp of people made physically uncomfortable watching that clip. Holy crap.
If basic image quality is all right, that's fine. It is a camera you can stick in your pocket and have with you anywhere, and, in certain lights, free -- I mean, it doesn't cost me any more than I would pay in any case for something that was not a camera with even acceptable image quality. So that's a relief. It arrived, apparently, at home today, but I am in St Andrew's.
Vaguely topical follow-on to the Aussie butts photos of a few weeks back.
I detect a lot of past tenses in #52. Could it be that this friend's lack of fear of heights led him to an early grave as well?