September 29, 2008: Falls Fall

Salmon do the upstream thing better than people... they even manage to get up waterfalls.
Albert Leichtfried and Markus Bendler climb waterfalls all over the world, by cheating... they wait until they are frozen. The waterfalls, not the climbers.

Hermann Erber was taking pictures of the dynamic duo, climbing this hundred meter high frozen falls in Japan, when the entire right side of the falls collapsed. Fortunately they were climbing the left side, and although the climb had to be aborted, they got down safely, probably changed underwear, and hiked out of there.



They went back a couple days later, but the temperature had risen, so they gave it up. Good move, I think.

Gee, why don't they find something *really* dangerous to do? Pussies.

Good thing they were whearing Dark pants !!!!!

Another amazing shot by Hermann Erber, the photographer and sling shot aficionado.


Probably the same guy who threw corn bread on the lily pads.

Serves them right for cheating I say.
Great photo.

My sister has done frozen waterfall climbing. They have these really cool screws they use to drive into the ice as they climb instead of hammering a small piton into the ice. Piton wouldn't hold and would tend to chip off the ice.

The screws are basically hollow pipe with coarse threads, and the tip of the screw is toothed, like a hole saw. So as the screw cuts its way into the ice, the hollow center of the screw allows the waste ice a place to exit, so the screw doesn't tend to split the ice and weaken it. Ice is not a strong material, so climbing it is a challenge.

A climber needs a whole set of screws of different lengths in order to do an ice climb, but the screws are really expensive. You can easily have $1000 worth of screws for one climb. Not a sport you can easily just try out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt My sister has done frozen waterfall climbing. They have these really cool screws they use to drive into the ice as they climb instead of hammering a small piton into the ice. Piton wouldn't hold and would tend to chip off the ice. The screws are basically hollow pipe with coarse threads, and the tip of the screw is toothed, like a hole saw. So as the screw cuts its way into the ice, the hollow center of the screw allows the waste ice a place to exit, so the screw doesn't tend to split the ice and weaken it. Ice is not a strong material, so climbing it is a challenge. A climber needs a whole set of screws of different lengths in order to do an ice climb, but the screws are really expensive. You can easily have $1000 worth of screws for one climb. Not a sport you can easily just try out.

Crikey Shel, show some compassion.
His sister was screwed on 9/11 dontcha know

Actually it's her boyfriend with the $1000 worth of screws. She's just along for the ride. [/straight man]

They are lucky they made it out. You really shouldn't hang around in the abominable snowman's territory.

Yeah, they don't bounce like Bumbles do!

Recipe for Human Slurpees

Take two climbers, one frozen waterfall and apply an avalanche. Garnish with a Kleenex for the poster whose Slurpee was spilled by an avalanche on 9/11.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zippyt Good thing they were whearing Dark pants !!!!!

I think I see a (frozen) dolphin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnee123 Yeah, they don't bounce like Bumbles do!