agree, this is a r-word "sport".
the kind of one-upmanship activities like this caused that Lama $hit show in Patagonia a couple years ago and now this 25 year old is dead. RIP to him and his family.
I get more out of watching Fred Beckey follow a 5.7 at 80 years old than another rail slide of any sort, a flip or any of that $hit.
Who cares about his sport of choice...really. The dude died participating in a sport that he likely loved. Still totally sad. RIP Caleb. Oh yeah, I am waiting for the ban the snowmobile folks start preaching how snowmobiles are too dangerous and need new regulations blah blah
Thank's donini, I meant no disrespect to the athlete, just that as long as these companys keep paying young guy's to perform this crazy sh#t we'll probably just keep seeing more of the same. hell his own brother got effed up at the same event.
Completely agree with this.
But not when it's phrased like this;
This has to be one of the lamest sports ever. I'm sorry for the loss but what's next,convertable car jumping?
This is exactly the same thing as soloing dude. Putting yourself in a fatal position because you're positive you can pull it off. Do you have any idea how many backflips Caleb had survived to this point?? 3 x-games titles to his name plus numerous other comps.
You might as well say Bachar was a putz and Honnold is an idiot. And to trash an entire sport based on one incident? What if someone had said that about climbing after JB's passing???
No disrespect to either of those guys. Just trying to point out to Kenny what he sounds like.
Too much of this crap going on for sure. 200 foot gaps are standard fare in the snowboard world these days.. wont be long.. Sarah Burke died skiing in the pipe last year, John Jack and a bunch of other guys in the tunnel creek incident..
Shayne McConkey, Jamie Pierre, Craig Kelly, Cr Johnson, Doug Coobs... Not to mention all the climbers, moto racers, boxers, wrestlers ect ect.
No disrespect to anyone I didn't mention as obviously there are many.
Point is, sh!ts getting crazy these days and people better start thinking about how far things can really be pushed before it's simply a death sentence every other attempt. This goes for a lot of sports.
I know when I push the limits riding a gnarly close out line where death is one wrong turn away, or one avalanche, I've fully accepted my choice and ALL its potential outcomes.
I feel most of the people in these sports feel the same way I do at least I hope they realize the consequences of their actions. Kenny you are right though, they should not allow themselves to be pushed to the point of no return.
Where do we draw the line tho? Are we going to have a nanny state and make sure everyone is safe?
I had a holiday, far away, to a place one can't say, to an American, these days...
Spent a lot of my own money getting there and back to be part of something big. Sweating afterwards in the Islamabad airport knowing I would get an occasional sandwich on the flight west to Istanbul, Munich, New York, Seattle then to Vancouver was cause for celebration. At least the plane ticket was bought in advance !
Humility and opportunity cross roads when you're a world away from home with $20.00 in pocket in between.
The trip was fraught but had it's many great moments as any great game does. There was an obligation to come back with the STORY for some of the individuals comprising the group.
They got up high and barely came back alive. I don't know how important things can be, because Greg and I paid as we went and didn't have to feel obligated to anything. The other Greg and Mark really made an exemplary effort to achieve.
It's a good idea to pay your own shot and not have to feel your life is something to gamble with in order to fulfill a contract.
It'd be the same as soloing if you were hot-dogging it up the route.
I've never known Bachar and Honnold get into trouble while show-boating.
The guy on the snowmobile didn't just drive straight up and straight down the hill, keeping contact to the ground like you would if you were going from point-a to point-b. He hit the hill as hot as he could, and attempted a backwards loop-the-loop.
Chick Hearn would have said "Mustard's off the hot dog!"
I think the anology to doing back-flips in a convertible is a good one. Just like convertibles, snowmobiles were designed to transport people from point-a to point-b. They were not designed to fly, which is why you have to fly one, if you want to use one to draw attention to yourself ( hot dogging ).
I've never understood why anybody would get a vehicle capable of taking you hundreds of miles in any direction, and be content to drive the thing around in circles. Up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, down the hill, getting no where. Like a dog chasing its own tail! Never to travel even a half-mile from where they parked.
As foolish as I think these dog-chasing-its-own-tail, how-cool-did-that-look?- sports are, I hate to see anybody get hurt doing one.
It's arrogance to think that somehow this sport is stupid but climbing isn't. You don't know why he did his sport or what it meant to him. Yes sponsors pay him money but how many expeditions got sponsored by TNF only to lose climbers, or worse yet sherpas who are using the money to support their families?
Some people want to live their lives risking it all on the world stage. Absolutely he knew the risks involved, but he took them because he was a conscious person pursuing his passion, Red Bull or not.
Several good points on this thread (let's just pretend Kenny is not posting.)
I never really thought about how the progression of climbing is unique compared to other sports. In the world of "extreme sports" climbing is waaaaay old. With the advances in gear climbing is getting safer (with the exception of certain tactics used in speed climbing.)
However, in the newer sports, gear advances are creating a bar that is rising at an incredible level. I have a ski movie where a skier is talking about how a few years ago if you fell freesking you only had to worry about breaking bones. Now it is accepted that the top level athletes are doing drops where death is a big part of the equation.
The convertible comparison is way off. Those sleds way 450lbs and have more horsepower than most cars not to mention huge travel in the suspension. The hoersepower to weight ratio on those vehicles is mind boggling and created solely for jumps.
Growing up in my household I hated OHV's with a passion. After the first time I caught air on a sled I bought one the next day. It's really a lot of fun (if yer into that kind of thing.) What Caleb was doing was way off the charts compared to his colleagues.
For climbers to throw stones at these people is absurd. All you can complain about is the environmental impact, which is a perfectly valid point (see Blue Camalots post.) But please do not call what Caleb was doing stupid, because you climb for a lot of the same reasons that he snowmobiled.
Let us know!