Insanity or Serenity? Defying Death

I just couldn’t resist–three videos that make me cry Mama!

Dean Potter solos “The Nose” on El Capitan, almost all free. Height = 2900 feet. Average time to climb route = 5 days. He has climbed it in less than 4 HOURS (partnered), and this solo was a bit over 4.5 hours (I think). Check out the pendulum action. - YouTube

Dan Osman collection of free solos-- - YouTube

Dan-o on speed-- I think this style of climbing is called “repressed deathwish” - YouTube

The exact word that came to my mind: “fuckingshitmonkey!”…It’s like he’s doing the 100m dash.

Shit.

bump, bump, bump for people who missed the vids.

I don’t know shit about rock climbing, except that I got nervous climbing one of those bullshit walls down on the boardwalk at the shore.

But that’s fucking awesome!

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
I just couldn’t resist–three videos that make me cry Mama!

Dean Potter solos “The Nose” on El Capitan, almost all free. Height = 2900 feet. Average time to climb route = 5 days. He has climbed it in less than 4 HOURS (partnered), and this solo was a bit over 4.5 hours (I think). Check out the pendulum action. - YouTube

Dan Osman collection of free solos-- - YouTube

Dan-o on speed-- I think this style of climbing is called “repressed deathwish” - YouTube

The exact word that came to my mind: “fuckingshitmonkey!”…It’s like he’s doing the 100m dash.

Shit. [/quote]

absolutely awesome. i have seen some of the ‘… of rock’ videos and am in complete awe of those guys.

Some of the best displays of athleticism anywhere, no doubt.

oh man, i didnt even make it all the way through. when they showed the really long, steep (almost vertical) crack he was climbing at around 4:30 with nothing but blue sky and shher rock face all around him … oooggh, my stomach and nerves couldnt handle it. then he talked abotu how thin the rope was and swinging from it!!! thats when i had to turn it off

(just so nobody misunderstands, that is cool, no doubt.)

im preety sure Dan Osman died a few years back, he fell.

Yeah. But he didn’t die climbing! He died in November 1998 when the ropes he was using for a controlled free fall/bungee melted and snapped. The cause was never confirmed per se, but the investigators came to the conclusion that a last-second jump position change caused two ropes to cross and melt under the friction.

Edit: he was going for a world record free fall jump.

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Yeah. But he didn’t die climbing! He died in November 1998 when the ropes he was using for a controlled free fall/bungee melted and snapped. The cause was never confirmed per se, but the investigators came to the conclusion that a last-second jump position change caused two ropes to cross and melt under the friction.

Edit: he was going for a world record free fall jump.[/quote]

Isn’t he the guy, or was it someone else, who would try to measure the bungee for length and stretch so precisely so that when he jumped the bungee would stop him merely a few feet short of hitting the ground? And ummm…he eventually mismeasured?

I’ve done top rope climbing, and that was enough to pull my nuts into my abdomen. I’ve seen guys on capitan in person (from the ground of course) - they’re fucking nuts.

I’m happy to stick with monkeying around on little boulders and some of the local rock faces, and with all due respect, those dudes are fucking nuts.

Holy crap.

My 2 year old is saying “spiderman!”

Stupidity.

The first link made the palms of my hands and bottoms of my feet sweat. Total adrenaline response.

That was awesome.

I’m okay with heights… but not like that.

Freaky, freaky stuff.

Ever wonder though: what about the freakin’ camera guy?

[quote]katzenjammer wrote:

Isn’t he the guy, or was it someone else, who would try to measure the bungee for length and stretch so precisely so that when he jumped the bungee would stop him merely a few feet short of hitting the ground? And ummm…he eventually mismeasured?
[/quote]

Nope, I don’t think that’s him. There’ve been a number of crazy bungee guys.