Idiot?

plloydie

plloydie

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We have recently been to the Grand Canyon, whilst at one viewpoint we watched this guy climb over a fence drop 4 feet to a narrow snow/ice covered ledge the make his way out to where you can see him now, people were shouting to him he was crazy but took no notice.
He took one photo then got up and gingerly walked back from whence he came. one slip would have seen him falling 2600 feet through fresh air to the Canyon floor below.
Grand Canyon 2013 by lloydie1963, on Flickr

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/hot-ice63/11628928426/] untitled-1-35 by lloydie1963, on Flickr[/URL]
 
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His life, not sure it makes him an idiot. Just someone who wishes to get somewhere a little different
 
I would have possibly done the same..... but then again I automatically assume I am an IDIOT!:wideyed:
 
Was just thinking that i have been escorted at least twice from certain areas and arrested once but releases without charge for to the lack of evidence...;) lol
 
What an idiot. If he'd have fell it would have wasted the time of the emergency services involved collecting his body.

That said the piece of rim it looks like your on (inbetween El Tovar and Yavapai point) has a lot of outcrops and trees in the way of a nice clean shot. Still no excuse though! Plenty of clear view points around, he could have just walked a short distance either direction!
 
ACW said:
It does if it traumatises anyone that watches him die.
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As I said his life. Nobody is making them watch.

Anyway your opinion seems different from mine so I guess little point trying to change each others mind.
 
boyfalldown said:
As I said his life. Nobody is making them watch.

Anyway your opinion seems different from mine so I guess little point trying to change each others mind.
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Tell that retrospectively to any curious child!

And fair point, I'll leave it there.
 
ACW said:
What an idiot. If he'd have fell it would have wasted the time of the emergency services involved collecting his body.

That said the piece of rim it looks like your on (inbetween El Tovar and Yavapai point) has a lot of outcrops and trees in the way of a nice clean shot. Still no excuse though! Plenty of clear view points around, he could have just walked a short distance either direction!
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Yes taken close to the Abyss which has very many vantage points.
 
I look back at my life.. recall a few things I did and think... Lucky to be alive..Idiot! .... I have stopped looking back now :)
 
Does it really matter? At the end of the day if he had slipped you would have ended up with pictures worth more than his :D
 
Stupid? Yes. Anything millions of other people haven't done or wouldn't do? No.

I'm sure most of us can look back at stuff we've done in the past and cringe at how stupid we were, human beings do that from time to time, we always have and we always will. I just hope he managed to get a great photo out of it!
 
People climb sheer cliffs every day without ropes , the BBC even filmed 2 guys on top gear racing a car, hang gliding, parachute jumping , it all leaves a mess for somebody else to scrape up when it goes wrong

As long as nobody is standing under him when the splat comes it's his life

I went 25 years ago, a guy sat on the edge of a cliff with his feet dangling over, I wouldn't do it but it was his choice
 
mid_gen said:
This. Emergency services are paid to rescue people, it's their job and part of why we pay taxes.
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If this person wants to go out on this ledge let them, we don't have the right to tell them what and what not to do,although reading your post you obviously think you can !!!!!!
 
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mxfun said:
If this person wants to go out on this ledge let them, we don't have the right to tell them what and what not to do,although reading your post you obviously think you can !!!!!!
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Think you misunderstood :) I agree people should be free to take risks, and receive the emergency services they pay for if they get hurt!
 
Meh, over hysterical fud as usual.

I love society today, wouldn't cross the road to stop an old lady being mugged but will get mental about someone just doing their own shizzle.

Is there somewhere we can declare a sanity zone and deport all the others from it?
 
I think it's laudable that he's willing to take risks for his art!
 
Guy does silly thing at Grand Canyon :rolleyes:

Guy falls down killing himself and some poor b****r has to risk his or her life recovering the body :mad:

It would seem that tourist fatalities are not uncommon at the Grand Canyon, I'm just glad they have not put it behind 6 feet of glass barrier.

David
 
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More like, bloke avoids death like every other tourist, busy bodies tut to themselves
 
I have been to the Grand Canyon myself and was surprised at the lack of fences and high walls keeping you out from the edge, went to the skywalk and stepped over a rope fence 18"high to get to the edge of a 4000 foot drop, I stayed about 2 foot back from the edge but people did go and sit on the edge, their choice but would not be me.

I think people can get too wrapped up in what others do, if they are not harming anyone then where's the harm?? ok people say about others watching him may be traumitised if they saw him fall, well the simple answer to that is walk away and do not watch him.

Idiot? daft?stupid? I would say just doing something he can tell his kids or grandkids about in a few years.
 
desantnik said:
More like, bloke avoids death like every other tourist, busy bodies tut to themselves
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So you don't think it's selfish to make other people:

A) risk their life saving you / recovering your body

B) bystanders having to look at your grisly corpse after a long fall cushion by rocks

If your answer is 'It's not dangerous' then you've clearly never been there.
 
There are probably a hundred ways you could died today... But none of them happened. Phew, glad I didn't have to stress about you.
 
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No, because your logic would preclude anything that you deem "dangerous" from ever happening. As I said, death could have come at you a hundred ways today
 
desantnik said:
No, because your logic would preclude anything that you deem "dangerous" from ever happening. As I said, death could have come at you a hundred ways today
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On the contrary.

I enjoy watching live motorsports including BSB and BTCC, which as you are well aware is dangerous for those that take part (and arguably yourself as a motorsports photographer). We all know there is the risk of seeing crashes and death and hope it doesn't happen. If it did happen, I wouldn't be blaming the driver that I'd witnessed it.

A few times a year I'm down the track personally chucking 500hp around Clearways and triple figures along the pit straight. Something that you could say carries some risk.

Drivers and those watching enter the area knowing the risks.

What I wouldn't be happy with is if someone crashed outside a school on public roads while racing, and the kids watched them slowly burn to death. This would be selfish.


To conclude on topic:

I would not care if the guy did this on his own private land where no unassociated / unaware bystanders were around.

If he wants to be an idiot in private and maybe die, good for him.

Just as committing suicide in public is selfish.

Danger is not my overriding grievance with this.
 
ACW said:
By that logic I should be able to go around nude in public because I'm not hurting anyone and people don't have to watch me?
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You are perfectly right to do that, but I think a good few years ago a lot of people that did not like to do it or thought it was obscene, commented on it in the town hall and a law was made to say you cannot.


In my mind people are free to do what ever they want till someone objects and makes it not lawful anymore. is there a law to say you cannot sit on the rim of the grand canyon?? if not then what to complain about. So the guy did something a lot of us would not but does that make it wrong.
Guys scale cliff faces with no rope hundreds of feet in the air is that wrong?? people jump out of planes every day with a chance the shoot will not open is that wrong???
 
ACW said:
What an idiot. If he'd have fell it would have wasted the time of the emergency services involved collecting his body!
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^^^ This ^^^
 
SpikeK6 said:
In my mind people are free to do what ever they want till someone objects and makes it not lawful anymore.
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This is A V Dicey's theory of negative liberty. Which I agree with to some extent.

However, this discussion is not about illegality.

The whole illegality v morality argument is another thing entirely.
 
don't see any problem myself if he cocked up he was only risking his own life;)
there are lots of idiots that do put other people at risk for example dangerous drivers:mad:
 
Fair amount of concern regarding the actions of a guy putting himself at risk of falling and the emergency services scraping up the detritus he might have become had he fallen.

The Grand Canyon is spectacular and produces a huge income in the area. Simple fact is that it is possible to fall 40' and die as it is to fall 4000' and die - same outcome.

Now switch to another growing "tourist" attraction - Mount Everest. Every climbing season hundreds attempt the summit climb and every season many die in the attempt. Their bodies lie high up on the mountains where they just give up with exhaustion and others walk past them on their own agenda. There was talk of recovery teams going to recover them but still unsure that could happen at 20,000 feet+

The corollary here is two extreme landscapes, one is sanitized and is an industry in itself. The other is raw and extreme and does not offer an easy one day trip.

Is the guy described as an idiot really an idiot? Is his search for the picture he wants any different from the Everest tourists seeking the summit of Everest. Both have the same outcome.

Have we all become soft in our quest to test boundaries? Or has it all become a "How dare they....." world.

Collecting bodies from difficult places is, in itself, good training for those prepared to undertake the task. As the target is dead, they can take their time and practice and learn. If the carcase proves to be impossible to be recovered it stays where it is. Example - There are bodies of climbers all over the world who have been left as they are in impossible to access places.

At one time 200 bodies were estimated to be on Everest though there has been recovery teams working to clear as many as they can, as mentioned above 20,000+ may prove horrendously dangerous.

All idiots?

We as a species like to test ourselves and, for me, long may we continue.

I would ignore the outrage of the passive. If I did not I would never have strapped on a parachute or flown a glider.

S
 
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