Nightmare Fuel

[xoxoxoBruce]

The sky doesn't lie, though.
How about Times square...

[DanaC]

Even tilted that gives me the shakes :p

@Bruce - eww...no way dewd

[Happy Monkey]

In that first cliff picture, the distortion isn't a tilt; it's a fisheye. I think it was probably pretty much vertical originally, but the horizon looked tilted because it was curved down as it moved away from center, and that fact was hidden on the right side by the cliff.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think you're right.

[glatt]

I was wrong. It's called "Thank God Ledge" on Half Dome.

[glatt]

From above:

[glatt]

OK, I'll just post this and then stop.

The young smartly dressed male in the photo above must be like lots of young males who don't consider that they can die.
Here he is in a collection of short animated GIFs, climbing the face of Half Dome without any safety ropes.

Safety ropes, when used by a skilled climber, don't do anything and basically just get in the way and slow you down. But you use them for a reason. In a three hour climb, where you get a new new handhold or foothold about 10,000 times, you have 10,000 chances to make a mistake that kills you. You may have mad skillz and great stamina, but the math is going to eventually work against you.

[Carruthers]

Daredevil Nik Wallenda wowed Chicago and the world Sunday with two hair-raising skyscraper crossings on the high wire without a safety net or a harness.

...and on the way back he did it blindfolded!




Just the thought of this endeavour brings me out in a cold sweat.

I take my hat off to the chap for having the courage to do it, but I still have to ask myself 'why'?

National Post

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

I was wrong. It's called "Thank God Ledge" on Half Dome.

I think we should start a campaign to change the name to, "Get Down From There You Idiot".

Originally Posted by Carruthers

...and on the way back he did it blindfolded!

I've a feeling blindfolded doesn't make much difference, they work by feel and balance, and seeing wouldn't help. It's not like somebody is going to leave a Lego on the wire.

I agree with the why, but I suppose it's better than working at walmart.

[Carruthers]

Bewildering and horrifying in equal measure.

[Sundae]

I would rather eat a tarantula (sorry Clod-babies, but they do in Cambodia, ask Mummy never to tell you how people survived the Khemer Rouge).

No more heights please.

[infinite monkey]

Nope nope nope. Give me heights over spiders any day of the week. Even Monday. Funny I'm more afraid of things that probably won't hurt me than things that are obviously dangerous. Well, actually, I won't be crossing anything on a wire, but those glass platform things don't bother me. And spiders chase me, I know they're trying to kill me. They would if they could. I see it in their multiple eyes. *shudders*

[Gravdigr]

I had and worked out of a 52 foot bucket truck. That was plenty for me.

[glatt]

I spent a while trying to figure out exactly where they walked. In Google Earth, Victoria Falls is 1.1 miles long, but they use a Big Shot Pro line launcher to get the line over to the other side, and the Big Shot Pro can only shoot up in the air about 100 feet or so. So I imagine at a 45 degree angle, it can go about 200 feet. That's far short of the 1.1 miles they would need. (I want a Big Shot launcher, by the way.)

So I think they are going across the short way. I think they are crossing around here, which is about 250 feet across and crosses a national border.

[Carruthers]

LONDON — Got a head for heights? If so, step right this way, across a glass walkway 42 metres above the River Thames.

The Tower Bridge Exhibition, at the city's iconic bascule and suspension bridge spanning the river, has just unveiled a brand new feature at the attraction. New glass floors in the high-level walkways, two years in the planning and costing £1 million ($1.6 million), offer visitors the chance to look down on river below and the estimated 40,000 people who cross the bridge every day.

The two panels measure 11 metres by 1.8 metres and weigh around 530kg each, and their installation mark the biggest change to the exhibition since it opened to the public in 1982. Engineers carefully designed the panels to ensure they don't scratch or crack and installed special lighting to protect the modesty of people walking across them. They'll no doubt be hoping the glass doesn't crack as it did on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower in Chicago earlier this year.

The project has been funded by the City of London Corporation and the charitable Bridge House Estates. Around 600,000 people a year visit the Tower Bridge Exhibition, generating money that goes to city charities.

The view was somewhat daunting for some of the early visitors. “There is that sense of trepidation,” said Chris Earlie, head of the Tower Bridge Exhibition. “It is more exciting I think because you are not actually that high, you can see everything in detail beneath you. I do a lot of climbing and adventure sports but, even for me, the first time was a bit difficult.”

The ideal time to visit the glass walkway is during one of the 850 times a year that the bridge is lifted.

Mashable.

Mailonline Good selection of images.