Did a skyscraper in China dressed as spiderman to lessen his chances of being seriously punished when he got to the top. He’s been abnned from most parts of the world for a few years from almost every skyscraper he’s climbed and once even stopped around the 60th floor af one building, knocking on the window and asking for a drink of water……………………………..
In an interview I saw him do as part of a documentary he said he started climbing to get over his fear of heights but while this takes a lot of endurance, climbing a skyscraper is pretty easy compared to climbing an irregular rock face that doesn’t have continues holds everywhere. You’re unqyestionably gonna die if you make a mistake but at the level of stamina he has, and he’s still a veyr good climber, it’s unlikely he’s gonna ever make a mistake (unlike Dan Osmond and many other climbers who have free soloed large rock faces. And as you’ve all so patiently read this (perhaps) I’ll reward you with a clip of Dan Osmond in the next post, after you’ve actually read the article ;).
Alex Honnold I wa going to etion next. Je is without doubt the most incredivle climber I have ever seen climb, not just ridiculouslyy high, like 300 feet high, but with an extreme level of difficulty thrown into the mix as well. The man is fearless and some of the things I’ve seen him do were astonishing and would have been any climbers dream to clim=ng the clins he had climbed, free solo.
Sorry if this is banging on but there is a man called eUli Schtek, AKA the Swiss Machine, who is more an alpinist that a pure rock climber but hios endurance and ability is second to none in winter or mixed climbing routes. He holds the world record for the fastest solo ascent of the north face of the Eiger, which is notoriously difficult for an extremely well equped team of mountaineers, but, ans I’ve seen the film of some of his ascents and the Swiss fella basically ran up most of it wearing solid soled boots, crampons and a paort of ise axes up the Eiger, here’s a short video of that.
Later, in another video eh goes climbing with Alex and the do a very hard lonf roguly300 foot climb in yosemite Valley (with ropes as Eili was there, and the climb tight at the top goes through a roof which onyl has a vrack running straight up the middle of it which means there are golds but they have to use a technique halled hand and finger jamming in the crack (very very painful I can assure you, if the crack is just wde enough for your fingers then you just jam your fingers in as painfilly as possible and pull your body through the roof while the roof tries to remove every speckof skin on your hands).
Euli fell off the roof maybe 3 times, yet this is a route Alex had already free soloed ON-SIGHT.
Also, in England we have a lot of gritstone which is nowhere near as high as things in Yosemite but the difficulty is very very difficult, tiny hold and mainyl reliant on friction. Him and 3 other climbers came over to the UK for some time on the frit and they picked off some of the hardest climbs in the Peak district and whiel Alexs ascent og Gaia at black rocks wasn’t the most difficult climb the team did, it was by far the most impressive deo to him free soloing it, and again on sight (if you’re unsure of what on sight means it vasically means you’ve never practiced the moves on a top-rope and have no idea of the moves until you get there and this is almost never done by anyone even at the top level because the chance of serious injury, even with ropes is so great, even on a route you have precticed for years in some cases before you get the confidence in your ability to actually put your life on the line. Ther is an excellent way of illustrating this actually as one of the best french climbers in the world, jean.min the throx, or somethignsimlar, came to try the exact same route, using a rope and he’s hwta happened to him. Thsi route is insane as well.
This was considered the hardest, most terrifying route in the UK for almost 20 years befor enayone evn tried to repeat it. The onyl gear, as you’ll see, goes behind a flake of rock which actually wobbles and the crux move is right at the top. For almost 20 years it was believed if you fell, there wa no way on earth the flake would hold the fall, until a mental man called Seb Grieve came along and after throwing a rucksack full of rocks off the top, he decided it would hold a fall, and hwne he did the ascent he actually fell off 4 times and most of the gear held, making a lot of people downgrade the danger grade the climb had. Thsididn’t last though as one climber took a whipper from the top, the gear held for a fraction of a second and then the entire flake ripped out and he hit the floor from almost 90 feet.
Thsi si probably the best climber in the countyr right now, he’s Scottish and driving down to derbyshire takes a lot of time but this was graded the hardest climb in the peak. He eventually climbs it, in the fucking dark. Truly deserved the name “Bling vision”.
As you may hav gueeesed, climbing is still a bit attraction for me, jsut never get out an d do it sadly 🙁
there’s no shortage of suitable places where you are (in comparison to the East).
Although I have no fear of heights (when I used to do the warehouse parties down South I was always one of the crew up on the roof of the building at some point) I always saw this more as a means to an end as you can watch the surroundings and/or take good photographs from a suitable high point; which is also good for receiving and transmitting radio signals.
Modern finished buildings are relatively easy to scale (even without ladders or climbing gear) if you have physical access from inside as the roofspace is widely used for aircon ventilator fans, various wireless antennas and associated equipment which all require maintenance; although places like govt buildings and the British Telecom research have these areas well locked off (more to prevent stressed short term staff jumping off than anything particularly secret or dangerous being put up there).
There are some lads who climb the local buildings but this increasingly attracts all the blue lights due to safety concerns, to be fair the authorities genuinely do not know if someone is a harmless explorer, a potential vandal/saboteur or planning to harm themselves. Ironically this country is often short of trades persons who are able to work at height safely and competently as many younger folk seem frightened of any sort of heavy or potentially risky work.
Radio amateurs worldwide have this summer contest where folk are encouraged to get to as high a point as they can safely and legally access without any use of motor vehicles (bicycles are allowed) and see what signals they can transmit and receive (they have to haul the antenna, accus and other equipment there and back so this limits the power they can use; most common is a wide band improved version of the 1980s CB radio which is often unusable in an urban area anyway because of the levels of radio interference).
A friend of mine in AT has been involved in in this in the past although she had to take it easy after she bust her back falling from height during her military service (and even then when she had recovered got to the balcony of the hospital to take photos of the other air ambulance helicopters)
Yeah there is an indoor wall within 20 mnutes bus ride (and 2 more within 1 hour) but I am terrified of heights tbh. The 1st time we went to the climbing wall in the town whereigrew up was during a year 9 PE lesson and the walls wereonly 9 meters high nut I spent almost a full lesson clinging onto the wall refusing to go up or down. Gelt like a total poofter but it ws far more preferable to football and other thinsg thativolved lots of running so I got used to it. I could never ever turn and look around at the scenery like the men I went clumbing with outdoors though. I remmeber being in the lake district, having just done a climb called little chamonix which is maybe only around 250 feet total height of the fave (which is longer than most any rope you could reasoanbly use so it had to be done in 2 pitches) There was 6 of us that day so we did it in 2 groups of 3 and I was in the 1st group and when we gotto the top the 2 blokes I’d climbed with were laid on the edge of the face with their heads hanging over watching the other 3 come up, I was around 30-40 feet back from the edge holfing onto s tree lol.
It’s funny you mention about the shortage of roped access workers as I actually told my carreers advisor that’s what I wanted to do when I left school but he had never even heard of such a thing, though who he thought cleaned windows on skusrapers and other things, like radio antennae andstuff idk but I doubt I’d be doing that job. There are pelnty of videos on youtube showing exactly why that is and I;m too busy to find one right now lol.
Forums›The Vibe›Life & Soul›The Big Question: Why does Alain Robert climb the world’s tallest buildings, and how.
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