Not For The Acrophobic

[Daisy]

The holds on that tower are vastly better then an most of the places available on major climbs like El Cap.

Are you sure? I can't tell from the photo's but don't really see any good holds on the tower. Although, it does not really matter if you're tied on and going down.

[guru]

The holds on that tower are vastly better then an most of the places available on major climbs like El Cap.

Are you sure? I can't tell from the photo's but don't really see any good holds on the tower. Although, it does not really matter if you're tied on and going down.

I wouldn't want to be the guy hanging out on the hatch ledge trying to lasso the top of the tower with that first safety line.

[Daisy]

I wouldn't want to be the guy hanging out on the hatch ledge trying to lasso the top of the tower with that first safety line.

I presume he has a safety harness and is tied on to something inside. While you still get the exposure it's not the same as being free.

[DrJay]

I believe it is aluminum.

We have a winner. From wiki:

...it was finally completed, with the 100 ounce (2.85 kg) aluminum tip/lightning-rod being put in place on December 6, 1884.[22] The tip was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time, when aluminum commanded a price comparable to silver. Two years later, the Hall–Héroult process made aluminum easier to produce and the price of aluminum plummeted, making the once-valuable tip nearly worthless, though it still provided a lustrous, non-rusting tip that served as the original lightning rod.[26] The monument opened to the public on October 9, 1888.[27]

[DrJay]

I like photo #3....lots of loops of webbing wrapped around the thing.

I wonder if there's an OSHA description of exactly how, safety-wise, a crew is supposed to go about inspecting the Washington Monument for damage after an earthquake? (Maybe goes like "Section CXLVIII.R.92.a (iv): Post-earthquake inspection of government-owned obelisks")

[Cooter Brown]

Some Russian kids climb the cabling on a bridge...this may be more harrowing than the cell tower...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjAMdbEXSdo

[lonewolf]

Some Russian kids climb the cabling on a bridge...this may be more harrowing than the cell tower...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjAMdbEXSdo

Yep, we have a winner. How the heck did they get down?

[guru]

And then, there's Philippe Petit...


http://static3.slamxhype.com/wp-content ... -petit.jpg

http://superradnow.files.wordpress.com/ ... tit_01.jpg

http://images.suite101.com/982477_com_manonwire_.jpg

On Wednesday, 7 August 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4" 6×19 IWRC (independent wire rope core) steel cable. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.

As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:

I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.

[guru]

60 Minutes this week - the greatest free climber in the world.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id= ... ryMediaBox

[DrJay]

To be precise, free-soloist. Free climbing is when one uses a rope and protection but only as back-up, with progress up the climb made with only the hands/feet (sometimes the knees, hip, elbow, etc). Free soloing is that guy, no gear. Aid climbing is when one weights their protection, to rest or to advance upward.

I'd say young Alex Honnold has a 50/50 chance of living another five years. I've never climbed in the Valley, but the crux pitch of the route he soloed on Half Dome has a few incredibly sketchy moves, pure friction moves with hardly a wrinkle in the granite for the hands and feet. The Phoenix, shown on 60 Minutes, is rated 5.13a and the first time that rating was ever used on a rock climb was 1979. He's soloing what was at the limit of what guys were climbing with ropes thirty years ago.

[guru]

To be precise, free-soloist.

He climbs both ways. His record sub-6 hour climb of El Cap's Nose was not free solo, though his most mind-blowing for the average observer certainly is the free solo stuff.

[lonewolf]

60 Minutes this week - the greatest free climber in the world.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id= ... ryMediaBox

The only way I could watch that was to know he survived since they interviewed him afterward.

[Athleticsimaging]

Toronto had a better tower experience in 1980!

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

[guru]

Frontline this week with an excellent report on cell tower workers and the dangers they face, often due to ignoring safety measures and free climbing

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... er-deaths/

[DrJay]

Wasn't sure whether to put this here or on the Darwin Award thread. Don't think we've had any slacklining posts here. Google "Taft Point Yosemite slacklining" for more photos and videos. I was at Taft Point last Friday with my kids and there were some guys slacklining, but they had on climbing harnesses and a tether to the line, should they fall. And a long fall it would be....3000', no exaggeration. So some people, like Dean Potter, a climber who also solos a lot of rock climbs, have done it without a tether.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwQAVxfQkw

[guru]

Impressive as it was, the fact Nik Wallenda used a safety harness for his Niagara Falls crossing definitely took the edge off it.

Somewhere, Philippe Petit was shaking his head...

[DrJay]

Great documentary about Philippe Petit and the World Trade Center walk, called "Man on Wire." Netflix has it.

[guru]

Great documentary about Philippe Petit and the World Trade Center walk, called "Man on Wire." Netflix has it.

Yep, actually won an Oscar I believe. Sundance runs it occasionally.


No safety harness. No strap to help support the weight of the balancing pole.

http://glencove.files.wordpress.com/200 ... n-wire.jpg

[Conor Dary]

Impressive as it was, the fact Nik Wallenda used a safety harness for his Niagara Falls crossing definitely took the edge off it.

Somewhere, Philippe Petit was shaking his head...

It was NBC who insisted on that. Having a fatal accident on live TV is not a good thing.

[Dutra5]

Impressive as it was, the fact Nik Wallenda used a safety harness for his Niagara Falls crossing definitely took the edge off it.

Somewhere, Philippe Petit was shaking his head...

It was NBC who insisted on that. Having a fatal accident on live TV is not a good thing.

It was ABC and they threatened to pull the broadcast if he removed it.

[guru]

Impressive as it was, the fact Nik Wallenda used a safety harness for his Niagara Falls crossing definitely took the edge off it.

Somewhere, Philippe Petit was shaking his head...

It was NBC(sic) who insisted on that. Having a fatal accident on live TV is not a good thing.

That's part of the deal when you decide as a network to broadcast something like that. And I'm sure dangling from that wire in the middle of the walk would have been a much better situation.

[Daisy]

Moonwalk. Movie doesn't really capture the danger but it's beautiful.

http://vimeo.com/56298775#