What a way to leave this earth...

[Guest]

An ultimate fear of mine... With this hike being 22 km long, and a 900 m (3000 ft) elevation gain, I'm afraid it's just a bit too tough for me.

 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/monash-uni-student-kristi-kafcaloudis-dies-falling-off-tourist-rock-trolltunga-in-norway/story-fni0fit3-1227517354597

 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/31/article-0-1A141720000005DC-262_634x421.jpg

 

[+ purplekow]

I know this is strange, but dying when you are having your picture taken on a cliff is unusual, but I really wanted to see the picture.

[caliguy]

Well, the good news is that you get to fly like a bird for moment and there won't be any prolonged suffering at the end. I doubt you'd even feel it.

 

I'd have more fear falling off of a 5 story building then this. Be my dumb luck to end up a paraplegic.

[+ purplekow]

You can be pretty sure you would be dead if you feel from a five story building. It does bring to my mind two newpaper items I read when I was about 14 years old. They were together in the New York Daily News and to this day I wonder if the placement was coincidental or done to serve an ironic purpose. The first item was the story of a Russian pilot who needed to parachute from his failing plane only to have his parachute not open. After fall thousands of feet, he landed on a snowed covered mountain slope at such an angle that the force of the fall was deflected and he survived with minimal injuries. Just below that item was another about a young woman in NYC who fell off her platform shoes, struck her head and died. So, one never knows, until one knows.

[Nebost]

Not for me, thank you. I get skittish just looking at those pics. I will take my selfie far, far away from the ledge, and that will be more than good enough for any social media or other form of sharing.

 

On the way to Swinging Richards, a friend and I stopped by Piedmont Park in Atlanta, and I fell off the bank and into lake Clara Meade. No one has ever fallen into that lake, the bank is low and wide...so I am clearly, uniquely unqualified for ledges! I did give myself extra lap dances at the bar to make up for my earlier misfortune, so not all was lost.

[Diverdan]

Thanks for this post. It is tragic and I am sad for her family and friends. While incredibly beautiful and a huge attraction for tourists, most do not realize the dangers of standing or sitting on that precipice.

[+ purplekow]

Thanks for this post. It is tragic and I am sad for her family and friends. While incredibly beautiful and a huge attraction for tourists, most do not realize the dangers of standing or sitting on that precipice.

Semantics perhaps, but most people understand the gravity of the dangers, but they just minimize them by thinking: "That fate will never befall me". Crushing mistake.

[Diverdan]

I have to disagree with you PK... I don't think that they do understand the "gravity of the dangers"..... I have been to Norway and to a lot of different mountains that have similar, although not as spectacular views or outcroppings, and many young people have no thoughts or ideas about the dangers. My most recent experience earlier this year was in the Grand Canyon, where several young men and women were daring each other to see how close they could get to the edge of the canyon wall. It was as though they thought that they were invincible and even if they fell, it would have been into the river, and thus their thinking went, they would not be hurt. You are right that this type of thinking is a serious mistake... and "crushing" is an apt description of what happens.

[Guest]

Semantics perhaps, but most people understand the gravity of the dangers...

 

Not understanding gravity is the first mistake....

http://heidelblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/falling-down-stairs.jpg