Brad Gobright: Free solo climber falls [rappelling] to his death

bbc ^ | 11/28/2019

[BenLurkin]

Gobright was best known for free soloing, or climbing without any safety gear, but at the time the two were rappelling, a technique using ropes.

Climbers descend a rock face by using a doubled rope coiled around the body but the method is described by experts as one of the most common causes of deaths in the sport.

"We started rapping," Mr Jacobson told the Outside website. "I was a bit above him. I was on the left. He was on the right. Then all of a sudden, I felt a pop, and we started dropping."

[oldplayer]

Too bad. These talents are levels above what we mortals can do going up or down. I’ve done some climbing and have nothing but respect for these guys.

R.I.P.

[Pelham]

ping

[PAR35]

Brings to mind the Clint Eastwood movie. The Eiger Sanction.

[Drew68]

He died doing what he loved. Screaming.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Gobright, Gobwrong.

[Pearls Before Swine]

That was a good one!

“Jonathan... you’re not going to leave me here, are you?”

[wastoute]

“Australian” rappelling. Using your body as a brake bar. It works until it doesn’t.

[Larry Lucido]

“We started rapping,”

I’m no expert, but I’ll venture that there is never a good time to rap.

[John S Mosby]

Zero sympathy or empathy for adrenalin junkies. This was not solo— it involved a climbing partner who is lucky (he sure knows it) to be alive, thanks to a bush breaking his fall.

Solo? Ok, you lose a grip, you fall and probably die your choice. But “rapped” to another? The math of gravity is absolute, and inexorable, and all the worse that this is done for a “self” and not “for” anyone else, except probably gear sponsorships. Gravity is a non-variable, and non-controllable, by the limits of human personal strength and perception.

Someone climbs higher than 30 feet above the ground without a rope and gear- they’re in the death zone and a fall means death.

[headsonpikes]

My first thought upon seeing this story was a poem we read in 1960 Canadian 10th grade. Earle Birney’s “David” speaks of the unspeakable. As the father of former rock-climbers and mountaineers, I’m relieved that they all survived into their forties.

I had a few concerns about the risks, back in the day.

This is a moving poem:

https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/david

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m the dude on the rope
I ain’t no dope
I don’t do it alone
I don’t do it at home
I look for high places
And the look on their faces
When I’m sliding down fast
I won’t be the last
to go bouncing on down
right over the edge of this effing cliff

[Larry Lucido]

Exactly.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yeah, it’s really too bad that some people have to do stuff like this just to feel something.

[deadrock]

[John S Mosby]

Yeah- so true

With your indulgence— may I tell you, your comment brought to mind a song from Nine Inch Nails-— “The Hurt”

One of the last recordings of this was Johnny Cash. While the topic is heroin, and the “empire of dirt” and death, that the individual forces on all around them— it is really about a death wish (like what people who are addicted to the suppression of fear, or feeling of uber-strength,imho). The ego of thinking one is capable of beating.. Nature, and God.

Cash’s version is simply haunting, dang powerful song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ahHWROn8M0

“I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel”
“I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real”
“The needle tears a hole the old familiar sting”
“Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything”
What have I become? My sweetest friend. Everyone I know goes
away in the End.

Nihilism. And the almighty Self. Self anointed self- with a Crown of Thorns (self installed).

[heartwood]

"It was basically a blur," Mr Jacobson added. "He screamed. I screamed. I went through some vegetation, and then all I remember is seeing his blue Gramicci shirt bounce over the edge."

Product placement?

[Vendome]

A friend died earlier this year
https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/deeply-inspired-remembering-kyle-roseborrough/

[TruthBeforeAll]

People who live on the edge too often forget that they are able to live there not only due to what they control, but because of an innate ability born into them. One that will degrade as they near there 40’s. Reflexes and reaction times may have saved them 100 times without them even realizing it. But one day they will reach for the bar, and it may not be there...

[krogers58]

So unexpected. Who could have ever seen this coming?

I mean I am a pro tower climber, but the gear I use makes my climbing safer than riding to the tower on the roads. The only danger in my job, is me, and my becoming comfortable at what I'm doing. Here's the math:

50% of falls above 6 ft are fatal. (I doubted this initially, but did my own research and it's a valid stat)

90% of falls above 15 ft are fatal.

I think the numbers reach 100% shortly after 15 feet.