Posted by Deuterium "Two young men died in the Ural mountains as they pulled the pin from a hand grenade to take a selfie, which remained as evidence of the circumstances of their deaths" Now, that is stupid.

That's even dumber than what the Russian climber did. If you're not going to chuck a grenade within two seconds of pulling the pin, then DON'T PULL IT.

Posted by Astro There's also a wikipedia page about Selfie related injuries and deaths. This one doesn't look like it's been added yet

It's kinda sad that this is a thing...


The news might also want a better proofreader:

But, as he attempted the picture in the fading light of the evening, the boy slipped and was fell.

I'm not gonna lie: I've done something similar.

Except it was from both hands, and I wasn't taking a picture, and...

I only did it once.

That was all it took to teach me that yes, I can.

FWIW, I was on my way up to Horn Lake caves on Vancouver Island. If you keep your eyes peeled, as you get near the mountain at the west end of the lake, there are (or at least were) some old steel power line towers, with no wires in between. Yeah, I climbed one, because it's not often you get to do that (they almost always have NOPE wires). They might be gone, or hard to see in the trees now.

Posted by Astro There's also a wikipedia page about Selfie related injuries and deaths. This one doesn't look like it's been added yet

It's on there now!

Posted by crisspy FWIW, I was on my way up to Horn Lake caves on Vancouver Island. If you keep your eyes peeled, as you get near the mountain at the west end of the lake, there are (or at least were) some old steel power line towers, with no wires in between. Yeah, I climbed one, because it's not often you get to do that (they almost always have NOPE wires). They might be gone, or hard to see in the trees now.

That's crazy. I've never seen one of those without live wires. How tall do you think it was? The ones at near me can be anywhere from 40 feet tall, to almost my balcony height 110 feet.

Posted by IFreeClimb That's crazy. I've never seen one of those without live wires. How tall do you think it was? The ones at near me can be anywhere from 40 feet tall, to almost my balcony height 110 feet.

Ones near farm land or in the forest are taller to give clearance for farm equipment and avoid brushing up against trees.
Wires or not, they're still climbable. Just don't do it in middle of Los Angeles in the daytime like this guy.

http://ktla.com/20...ransmission-tower/

"Friends had warned him that he was putting his life at risk but he became addicted to the thrill of taking extreme selfies on his phone."

Aaaaand a million mothers start flipping their shit

The scary new craze that is sweeping the nation!!!!!

In all seriousness, it's sad that he died.

However, mankind has always found new and interesting ways to do stupid shit for attention. Be it "extreme selfies" (ugh) or any other stupid crap we do to impress our peers.

I watched a friend of mine start a fight with a bunch of bikers at the county fair, just so he could show off to a girl. It went about as well as you would expect....

...the odd thing is, he still got the girl's phone number : )

The only reason I trespass regularly, and hang out in collapsing buildings, is to take mildly artsy photos so I can cover up how truly uninteresting my real life is. We all have our needs.

Posted by Deuterium And the risk level one's willing to accept. Being a young male has a lot to do with it and it's no coincidence that single males under 25 have the highest auto insurance premium.

Research has shown that males under the age of 25 have not fully developed the part of the brain that appropriately asses risk

The dangerous art of the ultimate selfie

http://www.bbc.com...echnology-34466322

Posted by Sceptic Research has shown that males under the age of 25 have not fully developed the part of the brain that appropriately asses risk

Mine never developed at all. I'm always the first ill-advised one to injure themselves or get caught. Like the saying goes, "Bad decisions make good stories..."

That picture him hanging off the roof top he did successfully and wasn't injured. That's doable. It was posted on his Web page before he died.

I read another story about this wayward lad. Here's what he did that got him KIA. He wanted a selfie of himself appearing to fall to his death.

The Plan: Get a length of rope with one end secured to the building with himself secured to the other end. Long enough to drop 10 feet or so and then arrest his fall.

-perfect-

Nine fucking stories up, he jumps, he falls, the rope breaks (holy jesus turds, that's not in The Plan), and he falls to death.
Apparently he didn't take into consideration the G loading on the rope caused by his deacceleration when the rope cinched his fall. Or perhaps the edge of the building caused the failure. Bottom line, bad rigging.
The photo of the stunt where he died was as far as I know never released.

-Saddle up a buzz-buzz-

Posted by blackhawk Apparently he didn't take into consideration the G loading on the rope caused by his deacceleration when the rope cinched his fall. Or perhaps the edge of the building caused the failure. Bottom line, bad rigging.

I never thought about G-loading in climbing until I actually began reading up on it, and how it can really ruin your day in a variety of ways. Wrecking your back, swinging you into a wall at full force, and ripping out all of your protection like a zipper as you fall are just some of the things that static G forces can do to us silly humans when we try ridiculous shit like rock climbing/jumping off a building like this kid. My gut feeling is that he used a static rope and after violently yanking him nearly to a stop it gave way and he fell. It would be painful; even a fall from only 10 feet gives you a G load of SHIT! and would really hurt on its own, then he has the pleasure of living just long enough after that to realize and go splat.

Painful, stupid way to go.

Um guys..let us not be stupid. While it is sad that he died, he kind of had it coming for him.

This is a forum full of folks who risk lung cancer, hobo stabbings, rape, murder police brutality and building collapse for the sake of pretty pictures and idle curiosity.


...I don't feel too comfortable throwing stones inside my glass house : )

Posted by Landser Um guys..let us not be stupid. While it is sad that he died, he kind of had it coming for him.

We all got it coming... I feel sorry for him.

He was fit and an adrenaline junky like myself and many here. He was young and inexperienced like many FNGs here. He failed to anticipate the shock load. Don't think he was using a energy absorber attached to his harness/rope. Had he used one, he may have not broke the rope. He still would have been in beaucoup trouble, but may have survived.
As it was he had way too much time to review his mistake and died in agonizing pain up to 30 minutes latter.

Learn from his mistake. Structures fail too. When you get up 5 feet plus if you fall through a hole or flooring gives, or corroded anchor bolts on a catwalk or stairs break with no warning, or a concrete stairs collapses under your weight due to internal corrosion of the rebar, you will find yourself free falling like him.
Even professionals inspecting structures have been killed like this.

-Rest in Peace-

Posted by azuro1125 This is a forum full of folks who risk lung cancer, hobo stabbings, rape, murder police brutality and building collapse for the sake of pretty pictures and idle curiosity. ...I don't feel too comfortable throwing stones inside my glass house : )

I've certainly done dangerous/stupid things, aside from buildings with asbestos without a respirator. But jumping off the top of a 15 foot high building and grabbing on to a tree about four feet from the edge, and hanging on as it slowly bent toward the ground was hella-fun.

Okay, I know it's mean to laugh but I can't not, I saw the thread title and said "HAH! F'n dumb***" then giggled that people are getting themselves killed over something so stupid.

On a more serious note, even though we, as a community love exploration partly for thrill, partly for cool stuff, and partly for allowing us to enjoy the sights nobody else really gets to, don't let it get out of hand....