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A daredevil climber risking his life for breathtaking views
- huhtenberg 9y agoFor those who managed to miss the "Shanghai Tower" video from 2014 - this is what basically put this guy and his friend on the radar. An absolutely fantastic watch. Incidentally, it also helped putting some much deserved light on N'to and Worakls, whose Trauma track was used for the soundtrack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U
- monadmancer 9y agoI think the next logical step is to base jump from these towers.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ainiriand 9y agoThis guy is putting himself, and others, at risk. This is not romantic or fantastic in any way when accidents happen. Imagine that this guy falls or loses any object and falls over someone. This is a serious topic and it is life threatening with the only excuse of getting video views.
- katastic 9y agoNot to mention the _costs_ to society/economy to rescue risk-takers every time they get stranded or injured.
- Faaak 9y agoFrankly, if a rescuer takes some risks climbing a crane to rescue someone, then he shouldn't do it. I don't get it when people say: "he's putting rescuers at risks by getting stuck here". Climbing a crane is not complicated. Anyone with climbing and rope work can safely climb and rescue someone up there. I would fine a world where all risks are forbidden to be very sad. I've climbed plenty of cranes and rope-swinged many bridges and viaducts. Of course it's illegal, but for me that's what brings pleasure to my life. Of course I could fall and pancake on the floor. Of course that'll cost the society. But I work, and I cycle instead of driving to work, so I suppose that I would cost the same in average.
- ainiriand 9y agoYou can ask a passerby of any of your activities if they want to be put at risk just because you are swinging from a crane, let's see if that compares with the same answer when you ask them if they want to take the risk of living in a city with car smoke. It is just not the same.
- wu-ikkyu 9y agoIf I was a passerby I'd say hell yeah I want to watch. And I definitely don't want to live in a smelly polluted city.
- katastic 9y agoI think it's funny I got downvoted for bring up a real problem. New Hampshire, for example, is one of the few states that can send you the bill. And good for them, because in just two years, they had over 260 stranded people and cost the state >$400,000. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nh-bills-lost-hikers-for-cost-of-rescue/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nh-bills-lost-hikers-for-cost-o... Cost is a known issue. Additionally sometimes search and responders die trying to rescue them. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hiker-rescuer-killed-at-washington-state-waterfall/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hiker-rescuer-killed-at-washing... That guy's kids don't have a father because someone decided to be an idiot while hiking. It's like hiking is some sort of extended daycare program where people assume they'll be saved by heroes if anything happens so they don't take even the most basic of provisions. People have romanticized nature so much they don't realize "nature" loves to kill people who aren't careful. Like that "into the wild" kid who went out with no real provisions or even a map... and died less than a couples miles from a ranger station with food, water, medicine, and radios. A simple map would have shown saved him. A 1 day seminar on basic survival techniques/facts would have saved him. Using his brain would have saved him. But he didn't get in touch with nature. He committed suicide. You don't play with a high voltage transformer unless you know what you're doing... and you don't hike into the middle of frozen hell unless you know what you're doing--unless you want to die. >Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: >When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he [had] had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament [...] Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.[31] Daredevils and other "risk takers" are not only getting themselves killed, but they're also getting search-and-rescue volunteers killed, and costing the state money that could be going to anything else.
- jarl-ragnar 9y agoYou just know this will probably only end in one way. A simple slip and we'll no doubt see the news story. Yes sensational vertigo inducing shots but just mad.
- adanto6840 9y agoDoes anyone else get actually sweat palms just from looking at the photos? Happens to my feet as well (sandals), though not quite as bad. It's not an immediate reaction but if I take a few seconds to focus on it then it really happens -- especially so when viewing the photo of him looking down at his feet from the top of a spire. The photos are absolutely breathtaking though, and I'm only half-way through the article, but I had to take a second to ask this question -- it's something I've been curious about before as well. =)
- zimpenfish 9y agoNot sweaty palms but a kind of "URRHGURHGURHG" in my legs. (Mind you, same thing happens if I look down the 5 storey stairwell at Waterstones Piccadilly. Or playing that damned bridge section in Half Life 2.)
- danparsonson 9y agoOh god that bridge :-O See also Dying Light - really fun but makes me squirm as much as watching the videos on this article.
- dredmorbius 9y agoVideo clips of Vitaliy’s escapades are watched by millions online, consistently drawing variations of the same comment: “I’m getting sweaty palms just watching this.” From the article.
- andyjohnson0 9y agoYes, and a sort of cramped feeling in my legs. Which is odd because I rock climb regularly and don't experience any problems while climbing.
- thom 9y agoYup, and my feet and legs sort of turn to fuzz. I have pretty bad vertigo so this is what I'm like at the top of buildings etc, but it happens vicariously too. The absolute worst I ever felt was crossing the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver, by the end of which I was just a sweaty mess. Good times.
- SimpleMinds 9y agoA counter article, to keep the dangers into perspective: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/12/11/a-daredevil-died-doing-pullups-off-a-skyscraper-in-china https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/12/11... If you have nerves to see it, the video of him losing the grip and falling is available online (sorry, I won't link here) and it's nerve-wracking terrible. How he struggles to climb back, just to let go... I only saw it because I didn't know at that time that he fell to his death. From personal (anecdotal) experience, after videos of the person from huckmagazine went viral - Shangai Tower, Hong Kong - a lot of Chinese started to do the same, plainly risking their lives to be cool. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, maybe that it's all awesome until someone dies.
- jsjohnst 9y ago> maybe that it's all awesome until someone dies Someone dies every 500ms around the world. It’s tragic, but it happens. If the person dies doing something they love, who are we to judge?
- Firebrand 9y agoBecause somebody else has to clean up their splattered remains.
- wu-ikkyu 9y agoSo what? Whenever anyone dies someone has to deal with the body. Someone has to clean up the garbage we create every day, and they usually get paid for it.
- Audible_logic 9y agoWell, how about the possibility of the falling in the middle of a crowd? Should people be exposed to an exploding person raining from a skyscraper out of nowhere, long as the climber died doing what he/she loved? It would definitely ruin my day and possibly scar some people.
- fb03 9y agoI don't have any issue at all with people doing what they love. I am just slightly worried about him putting others to risk, should he fall and possibly hit someone. Anyone feeling the same? Besides that, do whatever you want, even if I don't agree with it or its motivations. I am not the ruler of the world. People tend to get overly emotional with these subjects because they usually project themselves onto their opinions and if they get a nasty rebuttal, they feel it like a personal attack or w/e. Being brutally honest: It's his body and will and he's free to do whatever he wants with it, except harm others without their consent. o/
- matte_black 9y agoThese buildings are high enough that he should be carrying an emergency parachute to prevent killing a person on the ground should he fall.
- StillBored 9y agoThe first time I saw the shanghi tower video, I actually thought he was going to BASE jump because he initially had a backpack on. But, many of these situations guys are putting themselves in wouldn't be helped by a parachute. If they fall close to the structure getting the chute to open is going to be a problem.
- saw-lau 9y agoI feel the same way about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%27%C3%A9tait_un_rendez-vous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%27%C3%A9tait_un_rendez-vous. Lots of my friends adore it, but the first thought I had when watching it was 'what if somebody was crossing the road?'
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y agoI don't agree. We stop people from doing dangerous things all the time: we signpost dangerous substances or locations (like high voltage rooms), we have rules for safe driving and safe crossing of traffic, we control the trading of toxic substances and lethal weapons and so on. You don't have to be "the ruler of the world" to be interested in protecting people form themselves. It's more like a moral responsibility that we have to each other. And something that comes natural to many people too- for instance, if someone walks too close to the edge of a building etc, someone's always likely to yell out "be careful" or someting along those lines. And for good reason. People just want to protect each other. That's nothing to do with curtailing personal freedoms, or trying to rule it over each other. It's much more to do with caring about each other.
- microcolonel 9y agoHonestly I'm fine with people risking their lives, as long as they foot the bill when they need a harrowing rescue. It can cost high hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a single person out of a bind, it should not be anyone else's responsibility to pay for one person's high-risk behaviours (at least not after the fact). If you knowingly engage in an impractical behaviour which makes the need for a rescue likely, and don't bring your own staff and equipment to reasonably expect to achieve that, then you should be liable when you consent or would inevitably consent to rescue.