Highliner's Heart-Stopping Walk Over Yosemite

I wonder how he got the rope up.

See it here.

I wonder who will have to scrape up the pieces.

Saw the text. I think it would be fair to say that I have heard of Dean Potter.

He's the yahoo who climbed Delicate Arch in 2006 and subsequently forced a clarification on the rules of what features weren't allowed to be climbed at Arches National Park. I remember asking a park ranger about it, and she said, "We're not really supposed to talk about that" but later opened up that the clown knew that he wasn't supposed to do it but went ahead anyways.

Patagonia was pimping the stunt for a few days, but eventually pulled its support for him after an outcry. I think they quickly stopped sponsoring him after he was an "Ambassador" for the company for a few years.

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y_p_w
Saw the text. I think it would be fair to say that I have heard of Dean Potter.

He's the yahoo who climbed Delicate Arch in 2006 and subsequently forced a clarification on the rules of what features weren't allowed to be climbed at Arches National Park. I remember asking a park ranger about it, and she said, "We're not really supposed to talk about that" but later opened up that the clown knew that he wasn't supposed to do it but went ahead anyways.

imo, it is clearly implied to everyone that you should not be climbing on the arches in Arches National Park, especially one called "Delicate" Arch. No signs or extra rules needed. The fact that this guy feigned ignorance and seems to be into exercises of self-aggrandizement, more generally, speaks volumes.

I suppose a slack line stunt between his & a neighbor's home isn't thrilling enough?

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hotrod4x5

Is it just me, or does he appear to solo free climb, with no ropes, the arch?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/2011 07:45PM by hotrod4x5.

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traildad
I wonder how he got the rope up.

This is at Taft Point. All you need to rig it is a much longer rope. Walk around the gap with that, and then pull the shorter rope across.

There is a long history of this sort of thing. Niagara Falls is the most famous place to do it, and that was a hundred years ago, or more. I seem to recall something like this at Glacier Point then, too.

More recently, here is a guy doing it across Yosemite Falls. He has a safety harness, though. His video is the sixth one down the page.

http://www.seeyosemite.com/stupid-people-stories.html

A more international view of this kind of activity is given here:

http://www.oddee.com/item_97987.aspx

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wherever

A more international view of this kind of activity is given here:

http://www.oddee.com/item_97987.aspx

This photo from that site is a classic. I wonder if someone will ever try this in Yosemite (yes folks, that's a real trained circus bear):

June 2010...setting up a highline over the top of Yosemite Falls. There was a climber across the way, and two tightening the line from the viewpoint. They had a little tangle in the rope and highline and had to start all over. We watched the highliner take a few falls from down the trail, then he was successful, making it across. The difference between Yosemite Falls and Taft Point, especially with high runoff, is that there is a lot of spray and wind coming off of the top of the falls to compensate for.

May of this year, National Geographic had an article about climbers in Yosemite and included a pic of Dean Potter highlining (with protection) over Yosemite Falls. And the last photo was four base jumpers leaping off of Half Dome.

That is certifiably insane.

I was so intimated by the spray and the breeze that I couldn't even make it down to the viewing platform the first time I climbed UYF. It took two more times to get me down to that platform!

Just a bit funny to me how DP, one of the world's be rock climbers and slackliners, holding many FA's, is being referred to as "yahoo" and "stupid." It's my understanding that it's not officially prohibited to climb DA, in fact, there's an underground rock climbing book decscribing routes on DA. Potter's problem was he filmed it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2011 05:47PM by UZUMATI.

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UZUMATI
Just a bit funny to me how DP, one of the world's be rock climbers and slackliners, holding many FA's, is being referred to as "yahoo" and "stupid." It's my understanding that it's not officially prohibited to climb DA, in fact, there's an underground rock climbing book decscribing routes on DA. Potter's problem was he filmed it.

I talked to a park ranger. She said the rules certainly sounded pretty obvious, but they eventually tightened them up to make it unambiguous.

http://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/climbing.htm

The other thing they did was that after Potter did his little filmed stunt, they also banned slacklining.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2011 09:27PM by y_p_w.