The ledge he’s standing on looks like its already detached and ready to fall
Nope!
Why? Why would you do this?
And to quote Gwen on Galaxy Quest:
Well fuck that!
“Well
fuckscrew that!”Is my memory failing me and she actually did say “fuck that” and they dubbed it over with “screw that”?
I have a fear of heights, so this is terrifying to me. I also wonder why people do this.
I have a fear of heights.
I broke my ankle in a life altering way falling down two stairs unto a sidewalk. That, to me, justified my already reasonable fear of heights.
I don’t understand why this is the “Thank God” ledge rather than the “Oh My God!” or similar ledge.
My guess would be “Thank God I can take a little break here, my hands and arms had started shaking with exhaustion… I wonder if a helicopter could come close enough to drop a rope to me?”
Apparently it’s 1800 feet up and “only” another 200 feet to get to the top of that climb.
Or so I’m reading from safe in my bed!
That’s a fair interpretation, I suppose.
Still, I think the only thing I would be thinking there would be some variation of “why the hell did I come up here and how soon can I be safely back aground!”
I’m very far from doing something like this, but I do have quite a bit of experience hiking/climbing in exposed terrain, so I can do my best: People usually start off enjoying relatively light hikes in the mountains, because it feels good to be hiking in cool terrain with awesome views. As you get more experience, what seemed scary a couple years ago doesn’t look scary anymore. You like hiking, so you go for the hike, without thinking much about the fact that you thought it looked scary and dangerous a couple years ago.
Keep repeating this cycle, and you might suddenly find yourself tied into a rope, with crampons, an ice pick, and skis on your back, on the top of some frozen mountain that looked insurmountable some years ago. It doesn’t even feel scary, just really awesome.
Add some brain damage (slight joke, but Alex Honnold does have a smaller “fear center” than most people), and you end up in situations like the one in the photo.
My point is that it isn’t really about adrenaline seeing like a lot of people think. It’s about going for awesome hikes, and your limits for what you feel safe doing shifting over time as you gain experience.
I can feel my perineum clench when I look at this
Remember kids, it’s not the fall that kills you…it’s the sudden stop at the end.
Just completely miss the ground and you’ll be fine, duh
Today I fell off a ledge into orbit.
True, good luck breathing
/c/majorlyterrifying
That’s a nope for me, dawg.
He’s got a harness on but it doesn’t look like it’s connected to anything.
This is a well known picture of Alex Honnold free-soloing the route. Free-soloing means he is climbing without a rope. He has a chalk bag on a belt, but no harness or rope. There is a documentary that features this called “Free Solo”, if you could imagine. It’s worth a watch if you don’t have anything pressing going on.
I don’t think that’s a harness I think it’s a chalk bag. You can see the bag just behind his hand.
Isn’t the chalk bag connected to the harness?
Just a belt I think. That guy is a big-time freeclimber
He’s actually known for free soloing.
To the contrary: You can sometimes recognise beginners by observing that they have their chalk bag attached to their harness with a carabiner. Usually, you attach the chalk bag with a strap around your waist. The harness is reserved for protection gear (nuts, cams, etc.)
This guy is Alex Honnold, famous for free soloing (climbing without a rope). He has a movie called “Free Solo” where he solos El Capitan, it’s a good movie if you’re interested :)
I always wear mine on my harness but I usually sport climb and rarely trad climb where I’d need nuts and cams.
I was maybe a bit rough when saying “beginner”, I’m probably should have said “people with little outdoor-climbing experience”, sorry about that.
But, if you care what others at the gym think (you shouldn’t, just let your climbing speak for itself), it’s definitely a thing that people with their chalk bag attached to their harness with a carabiner (even worse, a safety carabiner), are quickly assumed to be beginners. At least it looks like they’ve done little or no outdoor climbing. But again: Don’t give a shit what people think, just have fun climbing :)
Same.
“Thank God Ledge” is an iconic feature on the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. This narrow granite ledge, approximately 35 feet long, varies in width from about 5 to 12 inches and is situated roughly 1,800 feet above the valley floor.
Never, never, never… Never
It’s Alex Honhold. He’s wired differently than most people. Definitely not tethered.
Wired very differently. Free-climbing El Capitan is certified bonkers.
It’s amazing to me that he’s still alive, and lives in Las Vegas with a wife and kids. Like somehow he has a “normal” life on top of his climbing insanity.
Seriously. Doing that shit when you have a kid is nuts to me.
Irresponsible with an inevitable conclusion.
I think there’s some credit where credit is due for all the effort he puts in to minimising risk. There’s plenty of people that do various hiking/climbing that is at least as dangerous as what he does.
When you consider the climbing level this guy is at, him soloing a 6a route is probably comparable to someone “ordinary” going for a 20 km hike in exposed terrain: It has risk (rockfall, possibility of slipping, etc.) that could kill you, but it’s not generally considered an excessively foolish thing to do.
“Minimizing risk”, if you’re not psychic, involves safety gear.
Yeah, thank god I’m nowhere near that damned thing, and never will be.
This picture makes my feet tingle, and not in a good way. You can keep that, good sir. AAll yours.
For a minute I thought it would be a false perspective thing.
But nope.
It’s not as bad as it looks, the photo is at an angle. Look at the horizon or the trees. The actual ledge leans back
