Oh those wacky trust fund kids.

Epitaph: Got more viewers on Youtube than today's Russian dash cam.

That's why you keep those feet and knees together, Airborne!

Rock climbing, especially on such places as Moab Tower, is risky enough. To then base jump off is essentially evidence of extreme adrenaline addiction. Or a sense of invincibility. Or a desire to prove you have the "right stuff." Whatever, it means that inevitably some will lose the battle with gravity.

Rock climbing is done with ropes and anchors that make it at least somewhat reasonable. But there are all the unknowables: Holds breaking off, sudden weather changes, anchors failing, falling rocks, and many other factors that increase the danger. I survived 21 years of rock climbing, but there were a couple of times when survival was in doubt. Eventually, fear overcame my desire to achieve and I quit.

So, I can appreciate from this remove, the reason why people do risky things. The real losers in it all are the families. Their children died doing exactly what they wanted to do, but their families' grief will be with them for the rest of their lives.

I've never been that bored. It's as if they've never heard of books. Or beer.

Odd. The first video actually made me sweat.
The second just made me wince.

JWM

The first thing I noticed was that narrow ledge sticking out of the hill like a feature of modern architecture. It looked like a steel beam. I thought, "wouldn't it be funny if he hit that."

Then he did. After that, it's remarkable that he had enough wits remaining to actually move his hands and arms in a semi-coordinated way.

He aimed for the only rock sticking out of the side.

I've climbed my share of mountains, and repelled on the other side I have jumped out of more planes than I can count during a Military career. IMHO Base Jumping is flat out nuts. There is no room for error or opportunity for second chances.

The guy in that second video is lucky he is still alive. It seemed to me that he pulled both toggles at the same time, which would've given him forward momentum and right into the cliff. He ought to count his blessings that the "canopy" held any kind of air, {thereby slowing his descent} or he would've been killed.

Any guy that can pound his man chinas that hard on a rock fin, and live to post the video, is alright in my book.

I find the true challenge in the upward parts. Takes continuous courage to exert that way. Downward bound? Gravity wins the day, and the courage was in taking one step. That's why when the parachute badges would sneer at us legs, I would just smirk.

I turn away from the advertisement where the young girl is climbing up the side of some Utah rock, and then stands atop the pinnacle. The only way I could possibly approach that is wearing a blindfold.
Seems she has NO safety equipment, no pitons driven into the rock, no safety line, just bare climbing.
The fool who climbed Half Dome {IIRC} in Yosemite without ANY climbing equipment other than grippy shoes and climbs elsewhere the same, scares the beans out of me. Same for the guy that climbed the WTC back when.
tom

Two comments. In the first video, it's clear that the chick would never have done this unless the guy was there and had done this before. She had to have complete confidence in the guy. That's the way life is. Because base jumping (and skydiving in general) is one of the few action sports where dying is a real possibility, as compared to the very remote possibility of dying while rock climbing.

Which bring me to the second video. It would have really sucked, if having survived the fall, instead of landing in the bushes, he landed in the street and got run over by a semi. If there's ever a lightning storm, you want to be next to that guy.