900 Feet Up With Nowhere to Go but Down
14. March 2008 by Tridad.
He had learned this extreme form of tightrope walking from a homeless man who wrote books on quantum physics. But that was years ago, while goofing around on a flexible piece of nylon webbing tied close to the ground between a tree and the bumper of a Chevy van.
This was something else entirely for Dean Potter, one of the world’s best climbers, barefoot in the dying sun last Friday, walking between ledges of a U-shaped rim above Hell Roaring Canyon, a 400-foot sheer sandstone wall on his right, a 900-foot drop to a dry riverbed on his left. No leash tethered him to the rope. Nothing attached him to earth but the grip of his size-14 feet and the confident belief that, if needed, his parachute would open quickly and cleanly and not slam him into the canyon wall.
At 6 feet 5 inches and 180 pounds, wirily strong, Potter dressed in jeans and blue T-shirt emblazoned with a hawk. He wore a wide headband over unruly hair, gaining the appearance of a less gaunt and reckless Keith Richards as Alpine daredevil. As Potter stepped onto the 180-foot rope — a strand of iridescent blue against desiccated canyon shades of brick and tan and coppery green — he was believed to be the first person to combine the adventure sports of highlining and BASE-jumping.
He was also taking another stride toward his longing for avian flight, not as a birdman in a nylon wing suit or squirrel suit, which he had tried, but as a soloist who could jump off a cliff in a way that he did not yet understand, with a strength and concentration that he did not yet possess, and simply fly. Trance music pulsed from speakers on the canyon ledge with knowing lyrics: “Sometimes I think my dreams are wild.”
Highlining was a high-wire version of slacklining, an extreme cousin of tightrope walking in which no pole was used for balance and the rope was elastic, allowing for various tricks involving walking, sitting, lying down, flipping, even spinning hula hoops. BASE-jumping was an acronym used to describe parachuting from objects like buildings, towers, bridges and cliffs.
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Snowboarders’ bones twice as likely to break
21. January 2008 by Tridad.
Snowboarders are twice as likely to break their bones on the pistes than skiers – with ‘Foosh’ set to blame.
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Those heading to the pistes with boards strapped to their feet are most likely to fall foul of a Fall Onto an Out-Stretched Hand, or Foosh as emergency staff dub the injury.
“Snowboarding is a relatively new sport – but now we are seeing just how hazardous it could be, with 34 per cent of snowboarders – compared to 17 per cent of skiers – likely to sustain an injury from their sport,” said Diane Jackson, spokesperson for Debenhams Travel Insurance, which has carried out the research.
Those most likely to suffer a snow boarding injury are people aged 15 to 24.
Despite the increased risk of snowboarding, many travellers are putting themselves at risk by not organising travel insurance to cover them – either falling back on standard policies or just a European health insurance card (EHIC), which only covers basic treatment costs.
“Winter sports holidaymakers shouldn’t think all they need is an EHIC card,” warned Ms Jackson.
“While it does provide free or reduced cost medical treatment, it doesn’t cover expenses such as being air-lifted off a mountain top – and that could cost thousands.”
She added: “Winter sports insurance is also essential to safeguard your holiday against piste closure, avalanches and theft of equipment – all things that can put an end to the week’s fun.”
Ski Club of Britain research shows there are 210,000 snowboarders in the UK, around a sixth of the snow sports market.