Want sweaty palms?
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Best line was Alex apologizing to viewers for the video not being perfectly steady, adding “but I’d like to see you free solo a 5.9 while holding a camera steadier”.
Clear too it’s not a go pro, he’s carrying a camera.
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I’ve been impressed by Alex. Seems genuinely sincere about his craft, but almost in a slightly autistic way where he acknowledges how insane what he does is but without the normal “caring” about dying. It’s humorous to watch.
I’ve seen a few other videos where he breaks down the realistic aspect of famous movie scenes with mountain climbing. Funny to watch. And he name drops casually some insane climbs he’s done, or other climbing techniques in a millisecond. He’s a master at what he does and his fingers are so strong it looks like sausages.
He had a toddler now. I’m surprised it hasn’t changed the risks he takes.
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Fucking crazy. “Yeah that happened to me in Africa when I was free soloing this sandstone rock in Chad that had never been climbed before, and the rock under both my feet just totally disintegrated and left me hanging by my hands, and I was thinking, “this is like Mission Impossible”, totally rad.”
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I liked the reviews of the movie climbs better than the actual climbs---way less stressful to watch, lol.
That said, the guys coaching abilities are almost as impressive as his climbing. Great combination of helpful directions, and motivating demeanor. (without phony/useless 'rah rah!' nonsense)
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Maybe I'll watch this whole thing later, but it gives me sweaty palms big time. People are saying it was way riskier than what he did with Alex (see video earlier in this thread) and really dumb because of how unprepared he was for "mountaineering" vs just climbing (he's a world class rock climber).
Yes he summits around the 18 minute mark and yes he nearly DIES at the 20:50 mark when he (without a rope) is almost hit by someone who (is on a rope) falls next to him.
Link to video -
This is not the video guy from above, but someone else who recently fell at Yosemite.
I can’t guarantee this is real, but I’m pretty sure it is, it looks like this is where he repels off of the end of his rope. I believe it’s from a zoomed in spotter cam.
***=video of fall***
click to show -
Here is an analysis of the fall from a rappelling expert who “literally wrote the book” on rappelling where Balin Miller fell.
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Here is an analysis of the fall from a rappelling expert who “literally wrote the book” on rappelling where Balin Miller fell.
@89th said in Want sweaty palms?:
Here is an analysis of the fall from a rappelling expert who “literally wrote the book” on rappelling where Balin Miller fell.
That was well written. Your mind begins to work against you if you do something risky over and over and the risk never materializes. It has to be a conscious choice to go through the paces of checking and double checking. As Copper often noted about pre-flight checklists. Climbing culture is probably less anal about it than pilot culture.
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Here is an analysis of the fall from a rappelling expert who “literally wrote the book” on rappelling where Balin Miller fell.
@89th Interesting writing. I will have to re-read as I did not understand a lot of it.
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I wonder how many of the stages of grief a guy like that goes through in the seconds he has left.
@jon-nyc said in Want sweaty palms?:
I wonder how many of the stages of grief a guy like that goes through in the seconds he has left.
I had the same macabre thought. You can see he intuitively tried to grab for the rope the bag was on, but after that I'm not sure how long he fell (all the way or did he hit his head on the side on the way down). Aside from initial panic, I wonder if climbers almost have a peace overwhelm them when such a fate has unfolded with a few seconds to comprehend.
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The writer of the piece helpfully gives some personal insight.
all I can say is that I’ve had a few moments like this, not when I thought I might die, but when I knew I was about to die (but didn’t), and all I can say is it’s not how you think it would be. There is no fear, or anger, or bitterness, not even terror. There’s only acceptance. There’s no fight. There’s only peace. Maybe it’s the chemicals in your head that make you feel this way, but I hope it’s more than that.
Reading between the lines, he is indicating that Jesus is real, and that everybody who doesn't believe in Him is going straight to hell.
