The NYT reports.
July 8, 2018
From "High on Life," a 100-foot fall to death.
"Charles Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper were affiliated with the Canadian group High on Life, an online brand that promotes travel and an adventurous lifestyle to hundreds of thousands of followers. The authorities recovered the bodies of three people who fell about 100 feet on Tuesday while swimming in a pool at the top of Shannon Falls, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. The police did not identify the victims, but High on Life released a statement on Friday confirming that three 'dear friends” of the community had died.' 'They stood for positivity, courage, living the best life you can'... The motto behind their travel and outdoor lifestyle is 'If you can, you should.' But that philosophy also played out in risky stunts, such as cliff jumping and rope swinging from extreme heights....."
The NYT reports.
The NYT reports.
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96 comments:
Darwin award for swimming in a pool at the top of a waterfall.
If you don't want to spend your NYTs points: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5925493/YouTube-vlogger-three-killed-waterfall-plunge-Canada.html
BTW: Two of the three co-founded the YT channel. Among their stunts was treaspassing to put their hands into a Yellowstone hot spring, for which they were jailed for a week.
Hold my Molson's.
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
From the Standing Headlines file,
"They died doing what they loved"
I remember when a Boy Scout troop went wading in a creek above a waterfall in Yosemite.
It did not turn out well for one of them.
@Gahrie:
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
Well said. And I agree. There is obviously a fine line between taking risks and being foolish, but there are certainly alternatives to the quantity-above-all-else measure of living.
If you die before the age of forty, there's no way you have lived the best possible life......Myself, I'm hoping my life makes up in quantity what it has thus far lacked in quality.
I know theses falls well. A great breakfast spot at the base, across the street. A very stupid place for a stunt.
There's a fine cave in Thailand.
"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."
Does it include leaving a mess for others to clean up?
When I see a dork with his baseball cap on backwards, I always feel sorry for their parents.
Maybe it's because I'm old, but it seems a sin to tempt fate that way.
@William:
If you die before the age of forty, there's no way you have lived the best possible life......Myself, I'm hoping my life makes up in quantity what it has thus far lacked in quality.
Ha. Gonna make it up in volume, huh?
@Paco Wové:
Does it include leaving a mess for others to clean up?
Every death leaves"a mess for others to clean up."
Up until about age 45, injury is the leading cause of death.
Drugs are safer, and cheaper.
Personally, I would get a much bigger thrill from sitting in my jacuzzi with a Vicodan, a vodka and my girlfriend... alone. I mean, it's not even close.
Bill Peschel, thanks for the dailymail link.
Not much to say, but stupid is as stupid does rings true in this case.
I was struggling to understand how you could fall 100 feet while swimming in a pool, bit I guess “waterfall “ fills the bill. Still very tragic. I know I did plenty of dumb things in my youth, and am lucky to have survived them all.
"Does it include leaving a mess for others to clean up?"
Although I think suicide is really stupid, I do approve of the new fad of hanging oneself - no mess, no horrible scene. They just can't wake you up. The only thing better would be zipping yourself up in a body bag outside the coroner's office.
“empowering others to pursue their passions and dreams, and to live life to the fullest.”
The most important word there is "live".
@bagoh20:
Although I think suicide is really stupid, I do approve of the new fad of hanging oneself - no mess, no horrible scene. They just can't wake you up. The only thing better would be zipping yourself up in a body bag outside the coroner's office.
Not sure how "new" suicide by hanging is, but really the only suicides that leave a "mess" or "horrible scene" are gunshot suicides. Seems like suicide by overdose or carbon monoxide are both cleaner than hanging, since it does not leave the gruesome site of a hanging corpse. But then again, that takes a bit of planning, and many suicides are impulsive acts.
"John Willcox, a spokesman for the Squamish Search and Rescue, a volunteer group based nearby, told The Canadian Press that a woman was swept from one pool into another and that two men were also carried away after they tried to help her."
Only relevant paragraph: what actually happened.
There's something mystifying about this. A few miles up the road is the town of Squamish, where there's plenty of high risk experts. It's a town full of climbers, skiers, parapenters, you name it. Lots of extreme athletes too. They would have told them playing in the pools of those falls is suicidal. Failure to talk to locals is crazy. The granite in the pools can be polished to a glass surface, was possibly what they didn't know.
However. Their model of encouraging young people to encourage and expand a sense of adventure is a great thing. I presume they otherwise made clear to their followers the need to master the most essential thing: managing risk.
They're cast in a bad lights right now, but even though they broke an access law in Yellowstone and made a fatal mistake at these falls, they may have been good kids. It would have been a terrifying end.
bagoh20 said... [hush][hide comment]
Drugs are safer, and cheaper.
Oh sure, until you take off all your clothes and run naked out in traffic.
One of those things that seems bad at the time but makes a funny story at Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years later
The externality seeking Instant Karma.
"Gonna make it up in volume, huh?"
After hitting 65, that's the plan.
However, there is a bucket list.
They died doing what they enjoyed. Better than dying in a drunken car crash where others may have been hurt.
The young have always done stupid stuff, but they seem to be doing it more. And maybe it is not being clear about the meaning of life. The species no longer needs them to procreate, so what do they have left? A lot of adrenaline? I might add that this may be connected to the increase in gender fluidity and the like - the species doesn't need them either.
@Francisco D:
After hitting 65, that's the plan.
Seems a bit odd to wait until 85% of your life is over to start living. But then again, I suppose children really are the crux of the matter. If you have children, every calculation in your life must change.
@Bruce Hayden:
The young have always done stupid stuff, but they seem to be doing it more.
Is there really any evidence that "they seem to be doing it more?" If you want an example of young people doing something not just stupid but suicidally insane, check out the First World War. That quickly became a race of who was going to be the first to run out of warm young bodies to rush head first into landmines, artillery, and machine gun fire.
Squamish Search and Rescue
At first I read this as "Squeamish Search and Rescue". Hahahahaha!
Fifteen years ago my youngest sister and I took a trip to the Grand Canyon. There is a spot near the southern rim- I forget which trail- where there is a small rock cliff you can walk out on that has a drop of a couple of hundred feet- a sure death if you fall. Not thinking twice about it, I walked right out to the very edge and looked down, then returned to path. Later my sister told me that had frightened her very badly and she quite angry with me about it. I apologized, but didn't really understand the problem. A few years later during a trip to Hawaii, my sister and I were snorkeling above a reef on Oahu when I came up above the water and realized I couldn't see her anywhere around me. I began to panic and looked for her under the water nearby and still couldn't find her. For about 2 or 3 minutes, I thought she might have drown, but then I saw her on the boat that had brought us out to the reef- she had returned to the boat without telling me. I finally understood why she was so angry with me at the Canyon.
I can imagine what the family of these three dead young people felt about their activities. It is very difficult not to feel fear for loved ones, and it can be hard to understand this without first hand experience of it.
"J. Farmer said...
Every death leaves"a mess for others to clean up."
That's not even close to the truth. First example: Amelia Earhart
That's not even close to the truth. First example: Amelia Earhart
Technically a disappearance not a death :P
And of course, a "mess" is not a just a physical thing.
But point taken.
Mess is a general term.
And Farmer beats me to the defense.
Yeah, the arrogance and snobbery of ridiculous risk taking that somehow makes you 'more alive' than the losers that don't/wont risk their lives free-climbing, SPAN jumping and using a gliding jumpsuit.
You see the clip a few years back of the guy in a winged jumpsuit who tried to fly under the aquaduct in the Swiss Alps? He hit it and his head popped off. Yup, that's some fine 'living life to the fullest' there, Lou.
Two of the three were the asshats arrested for walking on a thermal spring in Yellowstone, that, too, for the adrenaline rush of 'living life to its fullest.'
How is THAT living life to it's fullest'?
I live in this area, so my tax dollars were spent on recovering the bodies. The dangers of the Shannon Falls area are well known, so these people, who weren’t so very young btw, either never asked or didn’t listen. Their behavior at Yellowstone was similar, and really should have gotten them deported from the United States. It also wouldn’t shock me to learn that they weren’t sober at the time. Yes, in a way they are victims of social media, but so what? The commenters who see positive qualities in these three are mistaken.
@CJ:
How do you feel about traveling in automobiles? They kill tens of thousands of people every year and costs taxpayers billions of dollars.
The young have always done stupid stuff, but they seem to be doing it more.
Bruce, et al, there is no remark, no matter how casual or seemingly benign, that Farmer won't challenge.
If you're low on life, you have a shorter distance to fall.
They died doing what they enjoyed. Better than dying in a drunken car crash where others may have been hurt.
time for a Heinlein Quote!
"i want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather; not Screaming in terror, like his passengers"
@mockturtle:
Bruce, et al, there is no remark, no matter how casual or seemingly benign, that Farmer won't challenge.
Why are you challenging me?
Also, I don't challenge things based on how casual or benign they are. I challenge them based on how much I agree with them.
And of course if you find me that tiresome, you have a real simple solution: don't engage with me.
Etienne said...
When I see a dork with his baseball cap on backwards, I always feel sorry for their parents.
***********
Me too--especially when the dorks are holding their hands up in front of their faces and squinting into the bright sun.
Go to any baseball game and you will see a lot of this.
People pay for their own automobiles, pay for auto insurance, and use autos for work. If they drive badly or drunkenly, they get their license suspended, just as these people were banned from U.S. federal lands after they disgraced themselves at Yellowstone. When people die in automobile accidents, it’s rare for their friends/business associates to set up GoFundMe appeals for funeral costs. As I said, those who see positive qualities here are mistaken.
"At least he died doing what he loved"
Funny how no one ever uses that line when they find the body of an overweight corpse, dead from a heart attack, his face covered with Cheetos crumbs and a porno movie playing on the television.
@CJ:
Overall, those not directly involved in crashes pay for over three-quarters of all crash costs, primarily through insurance premiums, taxes and congestion related costs such as travel delay, excess fuel consumption, and increased environmental impacts. In 2010 these costs, borne by society rather than by crash victims, totaled over $187 billion.
-The Economic and Societal Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010 (Revised)
If you search for "car accident" on GoFundMe, you get 173,457 hits.
Also, how do we as a society treat climbing Mount Everest? It's an extremely dangerous endeavor that has killed nearly 400 people. Deaths have occurred every year since 1977.
@Yancy Ward, the closest thing I ever did to that (your Grand Canyon experience) was hiking up to Angels Landing in Zion Park. Me and two friends went, not knowing how difficult it was. Sometimes you're kept alive by holding a chain that's attached to the cliff. The worst part was that people were coming back the other direction, so you had to carefully maneuver around them. If you keep your head about you it's really not that dangerous, and the view is spectacular. But once in awhile I'll hear about a death at Angels Landing, and am grateful that I made it back alive. I would never try that again.
CJ said... as I said, those who see positive qualities here are mistaken.
No problem with that argument too.
Farmer writes: And of course if you find me that tiresome, you have a real simple solution: don't engage with me.
I didn't.
@mockturtle:
I didn't.
You just did.
Spoken like a True Cuck
Blogger truth speaker said...
Yeah, the arrogance and snobbery of ridiculous risk taking that somehow makes you 'more alive' than the losers that don't/wont risk their lives free-climbing, SPAN jumping and using a gliding jumpsuit.
You see the clip a few years back of the guy in a winged jumpsuit who tried to fly under the aquaduct in the Swiss Alps? He hit it and his head popped off. Yup, that's some fine 'living life to the fullest' there, Lou.
Two of the three were the asshats arrested for walking on a thermal spring in Yellowstone, that, too, for the adrenaline rush of 'living life to its fullest.'
How is THAT living life to it's fullest'?
Does it include leaving a mess for others to clean up?
Female victim: Megan Scraper.
Hop to it.
Gahrie said...
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
Y'all did recognize that as A Kennedy?
the guy in a winged jumpsuit who tried to fly under the aquaduct in the Swiss Alps? He hit it and his head popped off. Yup, that's some fine 'living life to the fullest' there, Lou.
of course, back in 1998 (GOD! was it Really that long ago?) a Marine pilot lived life to the fullest by flying under a ski gondola cable, cutting the cable and killing 15 people
They were video taping it, of course! what's the point of risking lives if it's not on tape? When they got back to their base, they erased the tape; PROVING that it was intentional. The erasure that is; they were court-martialed for that.
I remember about that gondola disaster. Reading the wiki, 20 people died, and the marines got off relatively easy, due to an Italian court agreeing that the crime fell under the jurisdiction of the US military rather than Italy.
I've watched too much of the FailArmy channel on PlutoTV. A few of them must be ER-level hurt, and many more will likely have back problems when older. My dad can't understand how they can be so stupid.
There ought to be the body camera equivalent of cockpit voice recorders, just to pick up last words.
"Oh shit" is most popular in cockpits.
Even if you never leave your house, you can still die in an earthquake, fire, or flood. But, you can die in a car accident if you get in your car and drive somewhere. People drive so recklessly that it's a wonder there aren't even more accidents. Even when I drive on surface streets, I mentally tell myself I'm on the freeway, and assume the worst. I wish I had a grenade launcher on the back of my car to blow away tailgaters.
That’s that damned toxic masculinity in action. Woman slips and falls, two men expose their toxic masculinity by risking their own lives to try to save her. End result is triple the number of dead bodies to be recovered. If only men would just let women and children die of their own foolishness instead of doing this macho, and thoroughly NOT WOKE “women and children first” that went out with the 19th century.
People who think they're encouraging others to "live their lives more fully" are dissembling, duplicitous, or dumb.
I doubt anyone who sees these people would be more encouraged to do something equally risky. That's hardwired into us.
That's the same kind of mindset behind transformative fiction, where we have an epiphany as a result of a single incident. We don't change that easily.
From the Daily Mail article:
The group also started a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.
I'm left pondering how they funded their travels.
"At least he died doing what he loved"
David Carradine and Michael Hutchpence both died of autoerotic asphyxia but you don't see me going on about *them*.
Does it include leaving a mess for others to clean up?
Housekeeping was unavailable for comment.
How do you feel about traveling in automobiles? They kill tens of thousands of people every year and costs taxpayers billions of dollars.
So do people who insist on building their homes on sides of cliffs (California) or near fire kindling (California) or hurricane states.
What’s your point?
@Seeing Red:
What’s your point?
That we don't judge them for their choices, don't intimate that they are stupid, or that there death is some kind of favor to humanity (i.e. Darwin award).
I earlier gave the example of climbing Mount Everest.
When you BASE jump in Switzerland you're required to purchase a mandatory policy that includes a subsidy to help offset the cost of 'cleanup'.
Blogger Francisco D said...
"Gonna make it up in volume, huh?"
After hitting 65, that's the plan.
However, there is a bucket list.
I decided not to wait on he theory that I might not make it and that I might be too feeble to do the things I wanted.
As a result, my retirement is less than it could be but I had a hell of a good time.
Sailing to Hawaii, was the best and I would not take the money back if I had to give up the experience.
Just a sample.
I did quite a bit of that and it was expensive but I ended up better off than the real estate developer who had a maxi boat in the 50s named "La Forza del Destino" that was famous on Long Island Sound in the 50s.
Then he went broke and his next boat was called "La Piccolo Forza."
Natural selection works in awesomely varied ways.
Took the family to Ireland and Scotland last month. Some of the paths we took around Howth were pretty hairy, same up north at the Giants Causeway (broke two fingers but not my glasses or camera!). Both of my adult kids scared the hell out of me going out to look down off the cliffs. Great warning signs though, with folks falling off and such and rock slides. Assumed danger, I suppose. Along the trails we saw several mourning monuments, if you will, what we often see along US highways and byways. I asked at the pub we had lunch at about them. Suicides mostly.
Were they here long enough to procreate?
-sw
Blogger Big Mike said...
That’s that damned toxic masculinity in action. Woman slips and falls, two men expose their toxic masculinity by risking their own lives to try to save her.
Exactly. The men did not respond like real men. The first rule of rescue is don't create more victims. Toxic masculinity is false or stupid bravado... stupid in this case. Taking risks and calculated risks are two entirely different things. Obviously, these inexperienced and poorly trained males did not make the true manly calculation required in real time.
They were stupid, and they made stupid choices. Their deaths weren't favors to humanity, just a lot of unnecessary grief, risk, and expense to the people of B.C.
Mount Everest is the world's highest charnel house. At this point, only people with more money than sense (and the Nepalese gov't.) fuel the continuing degradation of the region.
My father died at age 64, so I learned that living for retirement is a gamble.
That said, I'm not taking any swims upstream from a waterfall.
I'm sure it all happened very fast. Not a bad way to go.
When Mount Everest kicks your ass, don't come crying to me. Poor mountain is a trash dump.
@Howard, I was being very sarcastic. Per the Daily Mail article, one of the men was the boyfriend of the woman who slipped, so it would be thoroughly unnatural for him not to try to save her. The other man was a close personal friend of the couple, so likewise he would risk his life for his friends. In a famous speech to the US Naval Academy, author Robert Heinlein made the point that.— from a survival of the species perspective — men are expendable, children and women of childbearing age not so much.
Perhaps somewhere in the evolutionary history of genus homo there was a species where the males did not prioritize the protection of women and children over their own lives. But if there was, we don’t know much about them because they went extinct long ago.
I'm sure it all happened very fast. Not a bad way to go.
There's no good way to go at age 30.
The automobile example is meaningless, since the large numbers of deaths are still a minuscule fraction of participants in that activity. Mount Everest is better, but the difference is that the risks are well understood, the people who do it bear the bulk of the cost, and there are a lot of professionals and experts involved to minimize the risks. Even so, it has the same "stupid and irresponsible" aspect as what these Canadians did, so I'm not sure what citing it is supposed to show.
Curious George said...
"J. Farmer said...
Every death leaves"a mess for others to clean up."
That's not even close to the truth. First example: Amelia Earhart
In the case of Amelia it wasn't a splatter on some rocks.
A lot of people spent a lot of hours looking for her.
"a mess" in this case encompasses many things. Dealing with bodies is usually the least of the efforts spent after someone's death.
readering said...
I'm sure it all happened very fast. Not a bad way to go.
...
This is boggling to me.
I knew people who were dead before they knew it. Saw people who were dead before they knew it. They were still dead. Sometimes all that is left is a shadow. Creepy.
The Army provides numerous ways to die that are much faster than falling 100 meters.
Most people who have JDAM's dropped on them die before they have any time to realize they are dead.
Snipers are downright kindly and generous I guess...
They still call us baby killers.
@James K:
Even so, it has the same "stupid and irresponsible" aspect as what these Canadians did, so I'm not sure what citing it is supposed to show.
The difference in how people react to the death of someone engaging in a so called "stupid and irresponsible" act. Personally, I think the social media aspect is part of the explanation. There is an exhibitionism to what they were doing that tends to elicit negative reactions from people.
I don't know enough about the incident to know how much of a role irresponsibility played. In general, though, I think encouraging people to take more risks and to be less constrained by fear is a good thing. Sometimes tragic accidents occur. Life can be a dangerous thing. Obviously a certain amount of fear and risk aversion is a good thing. But what's the balance? I am glad there are people out there on the edge of the boundary.
truth speaker said...
How is THAT living life to it's fullest'?
Why does it matter to you?
When my Dad's best friend's plane disappeared over Alaska, his family set up a fund to pay the pilots who searched, but nothing was ever seen. His BiL was also aboard. The plane that flew fairly close behind them crashed on landing, killing the pilot.
I am seeing a lot of sentiment here that you should never take risks and do things outside of your comfort zone.
You are the people who let the government pass seat belt laws.
Within 10-15 years the government is going to ban manual driving except in preserves.
Some human driver is going to run over a kid and they will claim we just can't let another kid die because people make stupid choices.
It will happen overnight.
We would have lost WWII if you people were in charge.
The United States would never have happened without people doing stupid crazy shit.
I am seeing a lot of sentiment here that you should never take risks and do things outside of your comfort zone.
Not one person has said that.
If only they would have wrapped their fobs in foil.
James K said...
I am seeing a lot of sentiment here that you should never take risks and do things outside of your comfort zone.
Not one person has said that.
I am not going to bother scrolling up.
Just to pile on the Wright brothers had a pretty solid chance of dying too.
In 2010, there were an estimated 5,419,000 crashes, 30,296 of with fatalities, killing 32,999, and injuring 2,239,000.[2] About 2,000 children under 16 die every year in traffic collisions.[3]
"The automobile example is meaningless, since the large numbers of deaths are still a minuscule fraction of participants in that activity."
I think your comment is what's meaningless.
I am not going to bother scrolling up.
What people have criticized is taking stupid and pointless risks that impose costs on others. That has nothing to do with the risks the Wright Brothers took, or those that the soldiers at Iwo Jima took.
A fleet horse beneath me; the open steppe before me; the eternal sky above me; a hawk on my arm. THAT is best. THAT is living life to the fullest.
DUM-DUM DUM-DUM DUM-DUM DAAAAAAAAAAH.
Micheal K said I decided not to wait on he theory that I might not make it and that I might be too feeble to do the things I wanted.
That's why i retired at 55; i plan on fishing while i can
A guy who lived near me died in his house, and it took a few days for him to be found. The company who came for clean up was called Aftermath. Clever.
It seems to me that the High on Life bunch was always taking part in adventurous activities about which they had little knowledge. Just showing up and walking out onto a geothermal area in Yellowstone is not the way to do it. Likewise, swimming above a waterfall. The big accident was bound to happen sometime. I too love adventure, and have lived a life filled with hard rock and ice climbing, guiding high altitude peaks, skiing, fast cars, faster motorcycles, solo big game hunts and fly fishing in serious grizzly country, flying those damned parapentes and such. I'm now 67 and have toned things down quite a bit, but I guess I could still be eaten by a grizzly or drown while fly fishing, hell, even have a stroke or a heart attack while on the gut busting mountain bike ride I did today, but I do try to be careful. I get my checkups, I carry my pepper spray and always check out what's downstream before I attempt to wade across powerful currents. You can't be stupid about this stuff if you want to die of old age, and that's exactly how I want to go.
After hitting 65, that's the plan.
However, there is a bucket list.
I decided not to wait on he theory that I might not make it and that I might be too feeble to do the things I wanted.
As a result, my retirement is less than it could be but I had a hell of a good time.
Yep, Dad had a heart attack at 47 and died at 59. I retired as soon as possible even though "just a few more years" would have left us much better off financially.
Lots of motorcycle trips (No, please don't tell me how you know a guy that died), international travel, hot air ballooning, light aircraft flight training, scuba diving, zip lines, Running of the Bulls in Spain and a few other, "You're too old for that, or that's too dangerous" items.
Less messy if I just fall asleep and never wake up, I suppose, but piss on that. The kids all know, they worry (though one is a LEO - SWAT Team, rappelling, etc.) One says Mom's bones are too brittle - HEY! What about MY bones?
Life is good. Now, pardon me as I get off the couch and go do something.
As I've said. Stupid people die in stupid ways.
Paco Wové said...
"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."
"Does it include leaving a mess for others to clean up?"
No matter what you do. No matter how you've lived. There's always a mess to be cleaned up.
The trick is to make sure it's not your corpse.
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