@
bleach I fully agree. I know I’ve had certain things that I figured were worth the ultimate risk. And others that just weren’t.
I actually remembered that Alex Honnold almost died on one of my favorite backcountry tours/peaks in the Tahoe area and was rescued by helicopter. Which made me respect that specific mountain even more because I had been doing it solo and without an avalanche beacon because I figured it was just not that risky and if it was meant to happen then that’s how I was going to end up. Still not sure if I was just pushing fate or getting overly comfortable with my own abilities?
I also remember that another climber was just about to beat Alex at El Cap but he died doing what he lived for.
[media=https://youtu.be/OIIzoc7PChY]
Dean Potter died in a BASE accident before he could claim the El Cap Free Solo record.
He was a very controversial figure in the climbing and BASE communities for doing what he wanted no matter what the consequences were in his business life he lost sponsors due to his choice to “play” on the Arch in Utahs Arches National Park and his death in Yosemite
[media=https://youtu.be/JCSwAvK7LM0]
I respected him for his BASE jumping abilities almost as much as Shane McConkey who also died doing one of his own inventions and passions while shooting a commercial for Red Bull while doing a Ski BASE jump in Italy 🇮🇹.
[media=https://youtu.be/IWFTpkDq56U]
There was definitely Something about McConkey
He was unique and thoughtful and respectful as well as inclusive and approachable especially for someone that was a very big part of the BASE and Tahoe and Ski communities. I don’t have words that could do him justice but I’m honored and grateful for the times that I got to spend in his presence.
[media=https://youtu.be/F3VhF5-37zk]
[media=https://youtu.be/7d6S1BPWdO4]
I just can’t imagine what it was like for his wife and daughter and she was actually pregnant with a child who never had a chance to meet her amazing dad. As well as Dan Ozman who was killed doing his favorite thing with climbing ropes instead of a parachute in the Yosemite National park where they locked up BASE jumpers and where another one of the people I was inspired by died BASEing Frank Gambalie [media=https://youtu.be/tgURmN3hLv8]
who drowned in his parachute rig after being chased by a a Ranger intent on locking him up and where Jan Davis died on impact during a protest when she jumped with an unfamiliar borrowed parachute rig when she was going to be arrested upon landing and didn’t want to lose hers to confiscation by the park service.
[media=https://youtu.be/L46Ht__Y2a4]
10/22/99 I was actually not able to attend.
But I was present for one of the sadder accidents that I’ve seen in person at Squaw Valley (now palisades ski area when Erik Roner died in a BASE accident in the celebration of Shane McConkey’s life in the summer of 2016. It was actually pretty basic but accidents happen. [media=https://youtu.be/_6rBEbauskM]
His GoPro as well as the local news report.
[media=https://youtu.be/vtM8ZK0QxaA]
I just feel fortunate to have been around such amazing and dedicated people and I really did feel an interesting pull or push to try and join the crowd as I knew that I have had the fortunate ability of being stress motivated as well as being able to focus at my best when I am surging with adrenaline. My poor parents have had the harder positions of worrying about my pursuits. I remember my mom telling me that I had to promise her that I would never try to surf a large break in between Santa Cruz and San Francisco in Half Moon Bay when I was still in high school because in 1994 it killed a Hawaiian and world champion surfer named Mark Foo
[media=https://youtu.be/bqNdFxH4RHk]. Sadly I was watching from the cliff when it killed another Hawaiian named Sion Milosky
[media=https://youtu.be/fn5_ivjLa_Y]
[media=https://youtu.be/yw1zrNgZtu4]
and almost killed a Southern California 24 yo who slept in his car the night before and shaped his own board and was way out of his depth and comfort zone and it was sickening to witness but he was lucky enough to be pulled out of the water and the first 2 people that rescued him were an off duty firefighter and a doctor and not this @sshat 👇[media=https://youtu.be/WjVmvibzpKY]
Jeff Clark who has an ego bigger than that wave itself and who arrived on the scene after the fact. I was actually one of the first 4 people on land to get to the sand from the cliff where I happened by chance to be chatting and looking at the wave with 2 professional big wave surfers and a local heavyweight charger and I watched pink foam come out of the young man’s body as the jet ski pilot and the then the fire department worked on him and the helicopter came in to take him to Stanford university’s hospital where the doctors induced a coma and the collective effort saved his life.
[media=https://youtu.be/ubAi6rCZwgw]
[media=https://youtu.be/uz8GNGE7eeY]
[media=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p13zIx-kFGo]
A real miracle of science and luck and maybe more I was there and I can’t say for certain but I’m sure that I told Jeff Clark more about it than he actually witnessed. I was pretty turned off about surfing it after that and it was almost
A solid year maybe 2 before I even went back in the water and I was pretty focused on being the first female to Stand-Up Paddle board the break on a big day but I was beaten by another woman who was a local and a dedicated surfer as well. I really wanted to be able to do anything that looked fun and achievable but I never wanted to just focus on one thing. It was important to me that I could do all of the things I found myself weighing the risk on and I don’t regret that approach at all at least not at the moment.
And now I’m emotionally exhausted 😥
I really just want a little adrenaline rush and I can’t get that right now.
