Rock Climbing

We never had rock climbing as a sport during our younger days. It could have been a lot of fun! It looks simple but not really that easy. Strong legs are essential to push and haul your body upwards but strong hands and even fingers are important too, I will show you later why the hands and fingers are important. Here you can see my children doing it. Clarence climbing and posing for a photo shoot minus Spiderman costume.

Nicole in full focus. Spiderwoman?






















And about to ring the bell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KmivFbTTM

Some climb as a form of exercise as in sports but others are extreme in nature. They do solo climbing without ropes, gears or safety equipments and scaling great heights. Then there is another form of the same but done at great speed in climbing and then jumping off a thousand feet dangled by a chord. Hold your breath as the actions unfold. There is no margin for error as one slip and you are dead. Climbing at 60 degree can already pose a problem and a 90 degree cliff would be life threatening odds. Watch these climbers deal with the overhang - a protruding portion of a mountain or building and have your hearts in your mouth. Some of you get wet palms and giddy spells just talking a glass lift that goes up high.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksq2FKvkm0Y&feature=related

Alain Robert

We all know about one Alain Robert aka Spiderman who goes round the world scaling famous skyscrapers. Those of you who are afraid of height will cringe just watching. Just imagine standing at the edge of a tall building or a cliff with a very strong wind blowing. Alain Robert now 49 is a French urban climber who is also a rock climber but is better known for scaling famous skyscrapers around the world. If we think Bruce Lee is pound for pound the strongest man and for balance, watch how Alain Robert trains and in climbing, they not only have to use one hand but sometimes one finger to haul themselves up or leap upwards to grab hold to pull themselves. He's not big but insanely strong. Watch him train:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6LKoJpgiuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT2QvQQiSPk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cnNODAnOEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soQg5VvgeL8 (Petronas Towers, Malaysia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVeL3D4F4S8&feature=related (Moscow's Tallest)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8VsQ2gLU90&feature=related (Abu Dhabi's Tallest)

Not only has he visited many countries and climbed many tall buildings. There is not another person in the world who has stayed overnight in so many countries' prison. You may not know this - Alain Robert fell on two occasions when he was 19 & 20 from about 50 feet and suffered multiple fractures and permanent vertigo. Doctors told him he was 60 per cent handicapped and he would never be able to climb again. Within six months he was climbing again. "So, it does not matter how you fall but it is how you get up and go again that counts."

Dan Osman

Dan Osman was a legend of free soloing, an extreme sport of rock climbing without ropes or safety gears and rope jumping - falling several hundred feet and being caught by a safety rope. He held the Guinness Book of World Record for jumping more than a thousand feet (300 metres). He lived a Bohemian lifestyle and a big star of rock climbing.

Dan Osman is very special because not only did he climbed the steepest rocks and cliffs without ropes and safety gears but he did so with such great speed. Keep your eyes on the videos below and you will realise that he did it faster than you and I would climbing a ladder or staircase. Amazing!! In one of the videos you will see him having a foothold but the next grip hold was too high to reach and he leaped upwards to claw at a little ledge on the cliff for that life-saving grip!!

You will also see him free-falling from a thousand feet and snapped back by a rope. He did so again one day at the Yosemite Park and then he left for other adventures. He then returned to the Yosemite Park to dismantle the jump tower but decided to make several jumps before dismantling. A friend who was with him told him to take a rest and spend more time with his little daughter. Dan Osman made that fatal jump on November 23, 1998 and died at age 35 after his rope failed him at the Yosemite Park. Conclusions were drawn that a change in jump site angle could have caused the ropes to cross and entangle leading to the rope cutting by melting or that the ropes used have been exposed to inclement weather like rain and snow for more than a month before the jump.

He did not die from falling or slipping during a climb but by the rope's failure and left behind his little girl. Maybe he is like the Bruce Lee of Rock Climbing. Respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX7p3jfr0mA (Speed Climbing, No Ropes)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdQ7wvvK3GU (Free Solo, No Ropes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olx81kcr9w (Rope Jumping)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6YsM5Rh0Y (Last Fatal Jump)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2cXB_t9fck (Tribute)

What about climbing ladders in the corporate world - the corporate ladder? No ropes no safety gear? Some when given enough ropes may hang themselves. Would you also heed the advice of friends like Dan Osman's who told him to take a rest and go spend more time with his daughter? Well, I would just stick to golf.

The only rock I climbed many times was like a secret garden during my more youthful days near a bus terminus where there was an open field and they placed a few huge rocks there as if for decor. They were 3-4 foot high with the centre piece the largest. Only 4-5 childhood friends knew this secret as I brought them there. We would bring along coffee, teas and occasionally beer and all we did was sharing our fears, hopes and dreams. It was free solo all without ropes or gears.

To these legendary rock climbers, they do it so well there were as if no danger at all. What we do not know or know well always seem dangerous. Yet for such a legend like Dan Osman what was second nature to him took his life. Sometimes, we just do not know. A tribute to Dan Osman!