Althouse: Beautiful, terrifying.

November 25, 2020

Beautiful, terrifying.

41 comments:

Ice Nine said...: I was on board with this guy's sanity -- until he casually walked around those two other guys.; 11/25/20, 1:58 PM
James said...: Nope. Uh-uh. Not a chance. Nope. Never will I ever.; 11/25/20, 1:58 PM
tcrosse said...: Top of the world, Ma!; 11/25/20, 2:02 PM
Dave Begley said...: It would be really easy to slip and fall.; 11/25/20, 2:05 PM
Wince said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/25/20, 2:05 PM
Siamak Ensafi said...: WOW, this is perfect to watch. Gives me goose bumps.; 11/25/20, 2:06 PM
Wince said...: "Beautiful, terrifying."

Is that like a frontier coordinate on the "Hot-Crazy Matrix"?; 11/25/20, 2:07 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: brave. that's a long way down.; 11/25/20, 2:12 PM
mccullough said...: Doesn’t sublime cover beautiful and terrifying?; 11/25/20, 2:19 PM
PM said...: I have a carabiner like the guy sitting has. That's about it.; 11/25/20, 2:24 PM
richlb said...: It's certainly scary, but that fisheye lens makes it more so visually. Would like to see a flat lens used instead.; 11/25/20, 2:44 PM
Kylos said...: Echoing richlb, the fisheye exaggerates things.; 11/25/20, 2:53 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: I third the notion that the fisheye distorts the picture. I've hiked Angel's Landing in Zion and watched the videos. The videos make it look much scarier.; 11/25/20, 2:56 PM
Howard said...: Based on the curved horizon, they look to be at an altitude of 250-miles.; 11/25/20, 3:02 PM
Howard said...: You know all those fearless folks up on that ridge are Libtards.; 11/25/20, 3:03 PM
Joe Smith said...: It takes all kinds.

The crazy part is walking on the snow-covered rock not knowing what (if anything) is underneath.; 11/25/20, 3:37 PM
mockturtle said...: Howard, I happen to know a lot of climbers and quite a few of them are Conservatives. Many are Christian Conservatives. So there.; 11/25/20, 3:48 PM
mockturtle said...: If you crawl across the ridge does it count? ;-); 11/25/20, 3:50 PM
Howard said...: Quit Mocking me; 11/25/20, 4:10 PM
Whiskeybum said...: Beautiful - yes. Terrifying for me, but I'm not the one risking it.

BTW - why don't we ever get to see the cam shots from the guys who slip off and hurdle down the mountainside for 2000 ft? They can reclaim the camera once they recover the body, can't they?; 11/25/20, 4:14 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Crater Lake has a small, knife edge ridge that extends from an observation point out into the lake, maybe 25-ft long. It's about 500-ft above the water level. It's an excellent site to try and walk out for a suicide attempt.

Where was the video taken?; 11/25/20, 4:38 PM
gspencer said...: That is the very definition of a razor's edge.; 11/25/20, 4:39 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: If you crawl across the ridge does it count? ;-)

Yes.

Same with clinging to it and whimpering "mommy mommy mommy" under your breathe.; 11/25/20, 4:48 PM
Chris Rohlfs said...: I've been there, it's not anywhere near that steep. The wide angle camera distorts it.

We unroped before we walked the ridge.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bpFy7552Gi6pT7DHA; 11/25/20, 5:01 PM
Whiskeybum said...: Mike of Snoqualmie said... @ 4:38

Where was the video taken?

The Matterhorn; 11/25/20, 5:05 PM
Andrew said...: I honestly thought he was going to start biking, like a Red Bull course.; 11/25/20, 5:18 PM
Paco Wové said...: @Chris Rohlfs: that's still pretty steep.; 11/25/20, 5:22 PM
Chris Rohlfs said...: Here's a better view of the slope:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kLHfBA8djnEguXvm8; 11/25/20, 5:28 PM
Joe Smith said...: "Same with clinging to it and whimpering "mommy mommy mommy" under your breathe."

In San Francisco, some people pay extra for that : ); 11/25/20, 5:29 PM
mockturtle said...: Whiskeybum asks: BTW - why don't we ever get to see the cam shots from the guys who slip off and hurdle down the mountainside for 2000 ft? They can reclaim the camera once they recover the body, can't they?

Good question. Bet it was one helluva ride until they landed.; 11/25/20, 5:36 PM
Matthew Heintz said...: My dog farts every 41 seconds. Now that's terrifying!; 11/25/20, 5:38 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: I'd be terrified a gust of wind would hurl me into the arms of the open sky.; 11/25/20, 5:46 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Chris 5:28 - that angle makes it look much less terrifying.; 11/25/20, 5:47 PM
Kai Akker said...: Big whup. I've been to Camden.; 11/25/20, 5:58 PM
Clark said...: I've been up there. Chris is right. That video gives a false impression of how scary it is. One side of the ridge goes pretty much straight down, but the other side is not as steep. (You still wouldn't want to lose your footing.) When I was there, the "trail" was not on the very top of the ridge. It was a foot or two off of the very top in the direction of the not so steep (but very steep) side. That "trail" was a kind of trough of snow and ice that was very secure. The scary moments were here and there on the way to the top.; 11/25/20, 6:14 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Kai: I grew up in Camden ('62-'70). I thought nothing of walking 4 miles back to Cramer Hill from downtown in the middle of the night, back then.

Looking back on it now, I shudder. But I shudder at many things that I did back then.

I don't "get" mountain climbers, especially the ones with families. Maybe the selfishness and expectation of loss is built into the relationships. Tough for the kids, though.; 11/25/20, 6:57 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Glad to see folks understanding and taking seriously Steel Panther lyrics:

"Party Like Tomorrow Is The End Of The World"

Have sex (yeah!)
With every female of the species you see
The end is near (yeah!)
So don't you worry about the HIV
Get drunk (yeah!)
Till you puke all over the floor
We're gonna die (yeah!) Tomorrow
So let's get hammered like never before
Yeah!

The clock is runnin' down, you see
You gotta do the things you wanna to do
Bone your step-sister
Climb the Matterhorn
Find some horny cougars
And shoot some cougar porn, baby

Let's all party
Like tomorrow is the end of the world
Party friggin hearty
Like tomorrow is the end of the world!

OI, OI; 11/25/20, 6:58 PM
Mr. Forward said...: Ever wonder about the guy who puts up the “Keep Off” signs?; 11/26/20, 7:25 AM
L Day said...: Yeah, Those ridge line shots with a fisheye lens have become a cliche. As Chris Rohlf's photos show, it's plenty steep enough without optical trickery. As for the craziness of it all, climbers really are a different sort. First of all, while we recognize that we could be killed, few of us believe that it will ever happen to us. I quit counting when the number of people I knew who died in the mountains reached 20. There've been many more in the years since. At 36 I quit guiding, got a real job, got married at 40 and was a father just before I turned 41. Fatherhood changed everything for me. At 69 I'm a family man, skier, mountain biker, hiker, photographer and fly fisherman. I'm the happiest I've ever been and feel like I played the game and won, just like I always thought I would. Climbing is one of the greatest adventures ever for those of us who need that kind of thing in our lives, but if you die doing it, you lost the game. That last bit is pretty obvious for non-climbers, I suppose, but it's not always that obvious to climbers.; 11/26/20, 10:54 PM
L Day said...: Oh, yeah. Most climbers are lefties, for sure. Amuses the hell out of me, after all it's the riches generated by capitalism that allows so many thousands of Americans to live lives centered around the pursuit their recreational activities. And it's not just the trust funders. I was from a working class family, and funded most all my adventures by working multiple low-paying part time jobs. The kind of jobs most anyone could get, work until you had enough money and then leave. If you were a good employee you would be welcomed back on your return. Toward the end I was guiding professionally, but that was a low-paying job too.; 11/26/20, 11:11 PM
L Day said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/26/20, 11:13 PM