Topic: Have you guys seen these crazy climbers? - page 2. (Read 3303 times)

I saw that too! Makes me thrill when he just stand ad the top ... guys are fearless. Extreme mfckass :-)

that's nothing man, I'v seen a yt video of a guy climbing the 2nd tallest building in the world
Shangai Towers motherfucker

it's bloody awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U

insane indeed~insane!

extreme guys isn't?

That is insane!

Videos of this nature are crazy! There was the one that did the rounds online the other week with the two guys who climbed Shanghai Tower. That made me anxious just watching.

Thanks for a good response. I see where you are coming from, and I can also agree with your conclusion. Youngsters are always seeking out more dangerous stuff to do than elders. And it might be natures way of strengthening the gene pool? And while older people and senior climbers are more aware of their mortality, younger people usually don't reflect too much about that. Now, put in the light where you put it here, I understand you better. And I also agree security should always be number one, when leading any climbing group, doing a rescue operation or whatever involved with climbing.

So, then there are no more arguments from me, and this turned into quite the peaceful bantering. Cheers.

What a spectacular, reasoned and nuanced response! You have some very good points.
I'll try to explain myself a bit. I have a bias against free climbing based on my life experience. When I fist began climbing the sport climbing culture had not yet happened. People involved in climbing mostly considered it an extension of trekking or rescue work, in the milieu of wilderness skills taught by Outward Bound NOLS. I left my job as a park ranger to start leading and organizing wilderness trips when I landed a rare full time/401k career in adventure education. You can imagine the type of mindset I would look for and the attitude toward safety I would expect. An ideal climber tied impeccable knots, never took their hand off belay, and never forgot to check the knots of others. They might come from firefighting or majored in recreation, but always safety was considered a tier 1 concern. And then climbing took off.

Suddenly people were wearing North Face jackets at the mall? The public's fascination with climbing had a strong element of danger. Risk was re-evaluated and pushing the limits of safety became virtuous. I started to hear from people about this idea that the most esteemed climbing must be the true risk of free climbing. Man vs. gravity no holds barred. Even the applications I received for leaders to guide youth into the wilderness sometimes boasted of the applicants fearless and caviler rock skills. At the conferences I was attending, like this one ( http://www.nols.edu/wrmc/ ), it was easy to see the rise in free climbing accidents. I also saw it locally as an W-EMT and steep angle rescue instructor.

Deceleration trauma is nasty stuff. Stuff you don't think about when your young and very capable. Until the day you blowout that flake you had a ringlock on and it all goes down. This is why free climbing is outside of most climbing circles and considered reckless. Having said that, I do believe people are free to make their own choices. Someone might be a fully knowledgeable climber who has done his/her homework and still decides it's worth the risk. But I don't want them belaying me.

In my opinion nothing is gained and everything is risked in detaching from a belay system. It's not like the rope is cheating. A good belay escorts you up with a little slack, it's all you. The only thing different is the very real possibility of a fall to the ground vs. a fall to to your first holding anchor. I just think it's unwise.  

I guess we should let adrenaline junkies street race too since they do it at night usually and there's probably not many people around so it's unlikely that they'll hurt anyone. The odds of dying in a street race are very low so it's ok according to you. They're endangering themselves as well as others. Stop trying to make irrelevant moronic excuses for this behaviour.

It's cool and all, but everyone makes simple mistakes every once in a long while. And in this case a simple mistake would be deadly. So I would love to see them at least where a parachute.

I'm on my phone, are those some guys climbing the 2nd tallest building in the world?

Yes, however the odds of that actually happening are very slim. You are more likely of getting killed by a large amount of melting snow falling down on you, or by getting a heart attack. I See your point but let's say that happens one out of every thousand fall (for fun, not actual correct numbers), should we take away joy from the 99.99% that doesn't fall (again made up number). With that logic we should also stop talking in public places since the saliva you accidently spat out your mouth infected the one old lady who already had an infection with a virus because you know what? She died. (Harsh example but hopefully the point is delivered, otherwise I'll make up another example for ya.
My 2 cents on the matter.

Um, because if you fall off. Every time I walk around I'm not looking up thinking I wonder if an irresponsible thrill-seeking idiot is going to fall on me. You won't even see them any way. In some of the videos they're higher than the clouds.

02:30 is just insane... It's safer to do a speedball while driving a 20 ton truck in the wrong lane on a highlane... That guy really knows how to focus his muscles - definetly an experienced climber, or at least something similar.

Totally crazy people.

Now I am not a climber to those extremes myself but I respect those guys as much as that Alex freeclimber guy - with small the exception that they may fall and hit someone, but when they are out on the crane and if there are people around they ought to crowd they propably see them and doesn't walk right below them. Sure there are a small small chance that happens, but other accidents happens as well that hurt other people so the chances are slim enough for it to be good in my book.

It's entertaining either way and I've talked about climbing a crane for over a year now (not doable during winter and not a smart move when you are under some influence which I am pretty much all the time).

I don't think they look at regular climbers and think 'pussies'. I don't think arrogance has any place in such a sport as climbing, that might easily become the downfall of a lifter. If there's any arrogance, that's probably in very young lifters, but the challenge of it all I would think quickly humbles most climbers.

Aye you are right... I only watched the 2nd video.

Not to get in your face. So let me try to philosophize over this. You mention climbing is safe when done 'correctly'. I understand what you mean by that, by following best practices and being responsible, ensuring gear is top notch, and not take unnecessary risks. No matter how you twist or turn it, it won't be as safe as playing snooker, but I get where you're headed at. Considering you've done this for 12 years, you should have a lot of knowledge about the driving forces behind why people climb. For those who stick around for a long time,  I can only imagine that the strongest driving forces are those of internal nature.

But it might seem from your post that you're belittling Alex Honnold and his achievements. You call him 'some kid who decides he does not need a rope and falls to his death'. Did you watch the 60 minutes documentary about him, and how he got started? He started by climbing 3 hours six days a week, in a climbing facility, then he has proceeded from there, gaining a lot of experience, and constantly expanding his skills. While being high risk, what he does is also a huge testament to the human strength, and then I look at both physical and mental capabilities.

Instead of talking down on him, why not draw inspiration from it? There are a very little percentage of climbers that do free climbing, because it's rather high-risk, and most people are not willing to take that risk. And chance is that most recreational climbers does not train as much as him. He live for this.

If he were a fool, he would probably be dead already. Clearly he's not a fool. What appears for the bystander to be something incredibly dangerous, might not seem that dangerous to him. I've seen him go a route with rope first to prepare it for free climbing, chalking up where it's safe to go, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't climb if the weather forecast is not to his advantage, and I'm pretty sure he's very much prepare no matter where he goes.

While any man or woman that takes on incredible feats, or high-risk sports could easily be brushed of as stupid silly risk takers with a death wish, the fact is that a lot of the people that do engage in such sports does not take unnecessary risks, but their perception of risk, is quite different from that of a normal person.

If you look at America, a lot of people eat themselves to death, they come by McDonalds every day, and load up on sugar and fat. Those are risk takers, as what they will do might shorten their lifespan, and lead to an early death. And then you have smoking, alcohol and drugs. Lots of people do 'dangerous' things, but all of that's easy.

What Honnold does is not easy, and it's quite clear that he does not do it for the fame, he does it because this is what he does. Look at the happiness in his eyes, there's no insanity in there. This is what he does.

Claiming that he has no credit among serious climbers is a weird statement to give. Clearly what he does gives him some serious credit, or else he would not be known and be featured on 60 minutes and the like.

Most skilled athletes concentrate on what they're doing themselves, and does not spend much of their time to criticize other athletes.

Calling him a fool and claiming he has no cred among lifters seems to indicate jealousy. Sorry if I'm wrong on that part. I just do not understand how anyone criticizing him is not able to acknowledge the incredible things that he's actually doing. He climbs difficult mountain walls that even climbers with ropes have a big problem of doing. This is his lifestyle, and he does it 100%. I don't see him complaining about anyone else. He seems 100% focused on what he does.

And if he dies young, makes a wrong move, so what, he dies, having lived a short life to the fullest extent possible. That's more than can be said about most people. I look at him with awe as a symbol of what human determination and will is capable of. If for nothing else, I think we should draw inspiration about this - something we could use in our daily lives, perhaps sometimes just going for what we want, instead of always 'being safe'.

I'm pretty sure he's aware of the risks, and the consequences to any error he might make. But this is his life, this is what he chooses to do, no matter who criticizes him or what these people says.

He's on an entirely different level than most climbers will ever be. I guess a lot of climbers have a hard time swallowing that fact.

While I think his climbing is truly inspirational, I at the same time recognize the dangers, and I don't have any desire to attempt anything like it, nor do I have the desire or drive to climb as much as he does to develop a skill set like his, and even if I tried, starting at a young age, I would probably never be able to achieve what he has achieved.

In conclusion, it's easy to talk shit - but please recognize that there's hundreds and thousands of hours of practice to be able to reach his level. While average people never having done anything athletic at all easily can spew uneducated shit talk towards his achievements and his lifestyle, I would most certainly expect something else from someone with a lot of experience from climbing.

How about: "What he does is quite incredible, however my personal opinion is that this is quite risky, and I would never do it myself, or encourage anyone to do this kind of free climbing". Completely dismissing his achievements and calling him a fool, only reflects negatively on the sender of that message.

You might not agree RodeoX , but I would think a man with 12 years of experience with climbing would be able to recognize his talent and achievements as something extraordinary, albeit risky.

Looks like the same video the OP posted.

Can't see the video in my country, any alternative link?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fa5_1357857447 - WOW. Google Crane hanging for more sick videos like this one.