It's a wonderful way to get over your fear. I was terrified too before I started. Yes, the pads help a lot and you can also wear a harness connected to a rope. I, as you can see, did not wear a harness there as I am "bouldering" which is low to the ground climbing (10' up or less)

Alright. I'll try it for a while, and if I can handle it, I'll use it to train myself to... not have a panic attack.

If it makes you feel better, I'm terrified of heights as well. I climbed up a rock spire (basically a tower, as in death on all sides) that is approx 150 feet high a couple of weeks ago, with the intention of drinking a beer and smoking a joint. The climb was terrifying, and it was even worse being on top. There was literally nothing around me but air, with enough room for only 2 people to sit on the top. I was borderline panic attacking when I got to the top, and barely managed to drink a beer. I didn't dare smoke a joint because I knew I would never get down if I did.


Here's a shitty image of the spire I'm referring to. Don't be fooled, the other side of the rock looks the same as this side. It is not attached to the mountain behind it. The point I'm sitting at when I took the picture is somewhere around 75-100 feet from the ground. I think I might have a shitty video from that point as well, which I'll attempt to upload to youtube or something.

Someone should resize this if they are feeling ambitious. I'm not, so it's massive. Right click and "View Picture" in firefox for auto resize.

Here's video, featuring one of my stoner friends.

I feel like most of the times I hear about this kind of activity, it's either in an inspirational movie about someone getting conquered by nature and surviving or at the end of a missing persons report.

All it would have taken was one good gust of wind to take me off that thing. It was literally everything I could do not to have a panic attack. I do shit like that all of the time though, you only live once. I almost turned around when I was about 20 feet from the top and I would have hated myself if I hadn't continued.

Isn't YOLO just an overused excuse to endanger your life?

I personally look at it pragmatically. Why not enjoy life with a bunch of little-medium things rather than one big thing that could topple the first domino?

Because you can die doing pretty much anything. I could die right now just sitting here at my desk at work. The world could end tomorrow.

Or you could keep doing your work at your desk and go home, chinese food in hand, to an episode of Game of Thrones. You could wake up tomorrow to a nice cup of coffee and your lifetime partner, and you might even get a bonus at work the next day. Wouldn't that positive possibility be enough to spur living another day? Your "status" says it perfectly: Don't worry, be happy.

Now I'm not telling you to not do these things. For me, the thrill is enough to live a life above rooftops and in forgotten woods. But get a better excuse than YOLO.

I don't need a better excuse than "you only live once," I firmly believe it to be true and as a result I try to experience as much excitement as life can offer. For the most part I don't endanger my life, and I don't take exceptionally stupid risks, because I want to continue living, but I'm not going to shy away from potentially dangerous adventures. I don't do anything that I feel I'm incapable of doing successfully. And while you're sitting on your couch watching Game of Thrones I'm sitting on top of the world with the greatest view of my valley.




Couch some crazy person carried hundreds of feet up the canyon, I sat there and watched the fireworks all over the valley on the 4th of July.


View from my back porch with my favorite girl.


etc.

That doesn't look so bad. Give me a crack at that. It would be fun.

Actually I haven't started Game of Thrones. But I have been scaling mountains since I was a wee boy scout.
Last one I climbed was down in New Mexico at 12,441 feet. I would love to stick a couch up there and take in the view again, like you do with your valleys :)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...opper_Park.jpg

I wanna put my couch on a big hill like that...
Too bad my huge house is in the way.

Only like 1/4th or 1/3rd of the spire is shown in that image, but yeah, it isn't a terribly difficult climb. It's more terrifying than anything.

I should probably mention that this canyon tends to have 20-40 MPH cross-winds in this area. Every time I've been there the wind has been gusting at at least 20 MPH.

I agree. K_A lives in a very beautiful place. I envy that.