Question for the climbers here: what do you do to get yourself into the right state of mind so you don't lose your shit on a climb like this? Even watching this video from the safety of my desk made me have a psychological and physiological reaction that would almost certainly be fatal if I were halfway up a 900-foot chimney. How do you learn to ignore that?
Holy FUCK that made my palms sweat. I think I could have climbed the ladder relatively easily but climbing up an electrical chord is fucking nuts... That dude has officially earned my respect. Thank's for posting this, Baldran!
That's just asking to be a stain on the ground, climbing things is one thing, but climbing stacks like that, in that state is just asking for trouble.
Zen and the art of infiltration... http://www.flikr.com/photos/zenslens Zen is an uber explorer, a demi god of craning and purveyor of the finer things in life.
Question for the climbers here: what do you do to get yourself into the right state of mind so you don't lose your shit on a climb like this? Even watching this video from the safety of my desk made me have a psychological and physiological reaction that would almost certainly be fatal if I were halfway up a 900-foot chimney. How do you learn to ignore that?
I'm an avid climber and have been for a while. I consistently climb 5.12's in Trad gear and I can say that you definitely can learn the skill to quiet the mind. The first time I did a 2000ft + climb I felt fine until about mid way through the climb and I started to "think" about where I was and what I was doing and questioning my protection placement. Then, I had to really work to push that to the back of my mind and get back laser focused on what I was doing. So, basically it's all about quieting the mind and focusing intensely on one thing. . . The Climb.
This climb to be is basically what us climbers would call free soloing. A scary proposition but something you can practice up until you make a mistake, which will most likely be fatal.
If anyone recently saw the Cliff Bar release about dropping several climbers from their sponsorship ranks they cited the reason they dropped them was to an attempt to not encourage "free soloing"
google "free soloing" to find out more about the mental stat and "free soloing flow state" There is a biological state called "flow," that's what you are trying to achieve.
I free solo, been climbing for years. You have to trust your skill, but here is a guy trusting a decaying abandoned tower. Eventually, your luck will run out if you push it long enough.
[last edit 11/28/2014 8:07 PM by ZenCanadian - edited 1 times] Zen and the art of infiltration... http://www.flikr.com/photos/zenslens Zen is an uber explorer, a demi god of craning and purveyor of the finer things in life.
That was very impressive! It is something I too, would jump at in a second. We only live once, and I'd hate to be in my deathbed thinking "I wish I had done that climb when I was physically capable instead of being a pussy."
The trick is to be drunk, OR, to listen to the words of a wise woman that once said:
"There's always gonna be another mountain I'm always gonna wanna make it move Always gonna be an uphill battle Somebody's gonna have to lose Ain't about how fast I get there Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side It's the cliiiiiiimmmb..."
[last edit 11/29/2014 4:13 PM by A Through Z Explorations - edited 1 times] "It's just a dance, not romance."
"There's always gonna be another mountain I'm always gonna wanna make it move Always gonna be an uphill battle Somebody's gonna have to lose Ain't about how fast I get there Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side It's the cliiiiiiimmmb..."
It's not the climb I'm impressed with, it's the dumb-ass walking around the obviously crumbling rim and the steel beams across the opening. I can barely walk upright on the ground let alone trying to skip over rivets and welds on a six-inch-wide beam 500 feet off the ground. You'll read about one of these skinny Europeans splattering on the ground sometime in the future, I'm sure. The climb itself, once past the six-story climb up the cable, is just a ladder. I wouldn't be walking on that iron grate either. I've had shit fall out from under me that looked MUCH sturdier than that. Then again, I'm not a one-hundred and ten pound teenager in skinny-jeans either.
"Are you happy now with all the choices you've made?" "Are there times in life when you know you should've stayed?" "Will you compromise and then realize the price is too much to pay?" "Winners and losers... which one will you be today?" ***Social Distortion***
Question for the climbers here: what do you do to get yourself into the right state of mind so you don't lose your shit on a climb like this?
Drink water, breathe, stretch; don't look up or down - only focus on your holds. That said, big fucking NOPE towards climbing those types of cables for such a long way.
Ethics
