Ice Pillar Snaps with Climber on It, Here's How He Survived | Sub-Zero, Ep. 3
Вставка
- Опубліковано 18 бер 2014
- www.epictv.com/
Sub-Zero explores the souls of four top Canadian ice climbers and this time we meet John Freeman, a mountain guide and rope access supervisor living in Canmore, Alberta, Canada who was recently in the climbing news for establishing a new route at Helmcken Falls with Will Gadd called 'Overhead Hazard'.
John also happens to have survived one of the craziest ice climbing falls ever recorded when a pillar of ice he was climbing detached from the cliff face. This exclusive footage has waited for over two years to see daylight and we're delighted to share it with you.
Director: Lukasz Warzecha/PolishedProject
Producer: Lukasz Warzecha/PolishedProject
Athletes: John Freeman, Will Gadd
Sports: Adventure,Climbing
Ice Pillar Snaps with Climber on It, Here's How He Survived | Sub-Zero, Ep. 3
-------------------------
EpicTV produces hundreds of EpicTV original extreme sports series, with new video releases every day. Visit www.epictv.com now to be the first to see the latest episodes.
Get the latest extreme sports videos on the EpicTV Facebook page
/ watchepictv
Follow us on Twitter
/ watchepictv
See what we're up to on Instagram
@epictvadventure
Keep an eye on us on Google+
plus.google.com/+EpicTV/posts
And best of all - check out our website!
www.epictv.com/ - Спорт
Him: *hits ice 5 times*
Ice: so I took that personally
When the ice hit the bottom, he was still connected with his feet and left anchor. He survived by holding on. Then as the ice was crushing underneath, he was sliding down the ice at the same time, but slowly because he was connected. Thats what broke his fall. Thats what saved his life, was holding onto the ice.
🤣🤣🤣👌
The mark of a good climber is a thorough assessment of the climb.
warm day - check
thin icicle - check
feels a bit wobbly - check
Assessment complete, let's go.
Ha yes .. I’m sure he’s safe but imo if my job is climbing ice I may have a no warm day rule I know I know weird but it’s just a rule
I would have stopped right there when it "felt a bit wobbly!" It was talking to you, dude, how could you not listen?! (One thing I do sense, though, it's easier to go up than down! You don't HAVE to look down!)
@@MJLeger-yj1ww You actually do have to look down when climbing up, for placing your feet
@@nathaniellamont9541 Oh, I know that, what I meant was look down at the ground or bottom of the area, or course they had to see where to put their feet. But that's as far as I would look down! If you have acrophobia like I do, and you absolutely must climb something, you look where you're climbing more than below you (except where to place your feet, especially on unstable terrain.) That's why you hear instructors on certain areas saying "don't look down" because it CAN incite fear even in a person who does NOT have a fear of heights. One of the basic fears of a human is fear of falling (it is apparent even in infants!). Fear of heights is slightly different but they're in the came category.
(I became a GA pilot to help with my acrophobia and it did. I could look down just fine in an airplane (you MUST unless you are on instruments), but when i was in a glider (tandem), I still kept a fear of falling, you are just riding the currents, no motor to reassure you, and it can bet bumpy in those air currents! I love flying, but not in a glider! And I would NOT mountain climb a steep mountain at all!
@@MJLeger-yj1ww I see what you mean, you're right. It is definitely scarier to down-climb. I tried skydiving to get over my fear of heights/falling, but the idea of climbing a tall cliff still scares the hell out of me. I started climbing to get over my fear of heights. Slowly working my way to higher climbs. It definitely helps to focus just on the holds and the wall.
Here is how he survived, for real:
In the footage you can see the bottom of his "climb" had a decent slope. as he fell still holding onto the ice that broke off, the sections of ice under him broke some of his fall. As they fractured into sections under him, into the ground. Not only this, the slope at the bottom where the ice hit was at about a 45 degree angle. As he hit the ground still on a large piece of ice, the ice broke under him further reducing the force of impact upon impact. Also, when you fall at and hit at an angle it's like a skateboard ramp, so his inertia shifted from down to sideways at the moment the ice broke under him upon impact. reducing the impact from that fall SIGNIFICANTLY.
Good analysis of the effect of kinetic energy dissipation by vectoring. Well figured.
Thanks for describing. The number 1 question wasn't even answered in the video
Being the sensible climber he is he had that planned out from the get go.
Amazing you can tell the angles from a first person go-pro video!
@@usernotfound904 there is this thing called ice in the video. It literally shows you the angle... icicles form from gravity.
"He's one of the most sensible guys out there."
Yeah,... in the realm of climbing free hanging ice, i guess.
That _does_ shift the Overton window. 😬
"So I poured gas all over the wood shed, lit it on fire and walked inside. And that's when I realized; my god, I could burn to death here."
"So I started harassing this rattlesnake.."
@@dylanstandingalone "So I started cutting the lines to my parachute. Suddenly I started violently spinning and picking up speed and I though, my god, this is dangerous."
"So I got a glass and started pouring. I knew that it was bleach i was pouring and when i started drinking I thought this might be dangerous."
“So I started playing hopscotch in this mine field...”
So I started cutting open my stomach with a serrated knife and thought this is dangerous.
I survived a similar thing once, by not doing it.
Lol 😂
yeah same im somewhat of a climber too
Touché.
😂😂😂☠️
What do you do? Anything?
2:39 he is basically hammering away at the very hinge point. several tons of ice are hanging from that wrap-around. its like cutting your abseiling rope right where it runs over the rock.
You're right. He should just taken his glove off, shoved his sweaty hand into his chalk bag and grabbed ahold of that hinge point and finished the climb without his picks.
Right?
@@ezekielbrockmann114 or just not slam these hammers into this fragile substance that is suspending me over dozens of feet of open air on a mountain. Its pretty fucking obvious if you think about it
@@vinny5638 so how do you climb up then if you can't hammer into the ice ?!
Exactly what i was thinking. 5 times at the most vulnerable part.
it looked like he was deliberately hitting the most sensitive part
When he said "it was a warm day", I would think that that fact would discourage climbing on ice.
Warm as in warmer than usual not as in 30 degrees celsius.
mrjt Still, it’s not just for fun that waterfall climbing are done from 4 in the morning, before the sun rise and “heat” start.
They are idiots who still keep mountain climbing even when there's new of ppl dying doing that everyday.
I don't think a warm day would discourage them
not only a warm day, but one at the end of the ice climbing season....alarm bells ?
@@sethrenegade3533 people die doing lots of things everyday. Keep hiding under the bed or go live a little.
Here's How He Survived - this part is missing.
Ark Sin I think the ice itself cushioned his fall
Jose El ChAcAl yes I've watched a vid that actually showed it and if the ice wasn't there he wouldn't be alive
Teo Yayo he was real lucky
Jose El ChAcAl yeah I'm pretty sure his body stayed on it and he was like laying down on a surfboard
Ark Sin
"Here's how he survived"
"The ice was moving and there was nothing I could do about it"
So pure luck...
Who could have ever guessed that climbing a giant icicle was a stupid thing to do.
OMG I'm so happy he lived to tell about it.
Looked like a wrong move from the beginning.
not luck, just some simple logic
@SteveQ sure, plus thing like the angle of the surface of ground he landed, even adding the slippery ice, its like, falling onto a slip an slid, its the logic, luck don't exist if you believe in physics, this is logic too
@@treeman101 when people refer to luck it’s just saying that the person had no reason to believe they would have a favorable outcome. If I win the lottery that’s luck. I had no reason to believe I was going to win. Obviously physics are responsible for everything in the universe. Just shut up
I live in the area of this video, and was lucky enough to have a few friends take me ice climbing a few times...a lot less extreme as we tied off at the top, lowered down and did multiple climbs from the base...he’s right about the attitude and mentality, every adversity is laughed off... including me on the second road trip up on a very thin road with so much snow you couldn’t see the ditches...We got bumped off the tire tracks of the truck we followed and flew into the ditch... the heaps of snow felt like we hit a pillow. we did pop the bead on a tire and it was flat. We all packed ourselves into the lead truck and knocked on the nearest house asking for directions to a local garage... the local offered to use his tractor and pull it out and fix the bead for NOTHING... without hesitation we handed him the keys and continued on our way,. After a day of climbing we went to the house, car was fixed and the guy wouldn’t let us pay...was one of the best days of my life and this video brings it all back...
dude brought coffee!!!! what a bro
Fist bump too. Wingman material right there!
Maybe some spiced rum would've been good too...lol
d rad I don’t enjoy drinking that much, but I always bring some with me, when I’m out in the wild, for situations like this.
three good gulps will make the pain and shaking go away for a bit.
I’m so British I immediately thought it was tea...
@@yh1669 You don’t know shit
Definitely super safe to climb a fragile ice structure that is literally dripping on a warm day. If this dude is one of the “safe” ice climbers it’s a miracle these people are still alive
He was pretty high up when he realized
Play stupid games, win stupid prize.
People that climb icicles deserve everything they get. Js
kinda the point of ice climbing ya know to climb ice
@@Jeffro_333 seems like an aggressive stance, amigo
I saw a picture of a man climbing a frozen waterfall in a magazine about 30 years ago and thought it was the craziest thing ever and had no interest in doing it. But as our climbing experience grew my buddies and I started doing steeper lines on glaciers until we found ourselves doing technical ice. Since then I've done a fair bit of water ice and some mixed climbs. You can certainly misread conditions and get into sketchy conditions. But the majority of ice climbing is done in a methodical and reasonably safe manner on good ice. It's the exceptional stuff that gets the views.
In further news; Guy uses chainsaw to cut the tree branch he was standing on. Says he couldn't believe it when he fell
Hah! Very funny comment! Thank you for a good laugh!
What saved him was the steep hill under the ice. It gave him a soft landing.
The NOT steep hill* if it was steep he was dead
imagine my shock when the massive, precarious, fragile icicle I trusted my life to...
Same thing happend to me, I was hitting a large chunk when suddenly one large piece of ice broke free and launched right at my head and almost made me spill my drink! At time those frost free freezers make ice completely unpredictable.
GOPRO cameras: helping people get hurt in style since they were put on the market
+Andrea Roll This stuff happens all the time, GoPro's capture the moment so that more people can see it and it's not just a story told it's a story viewed through their eyes.
The fact that he saw how thin it was, and was feeling it move early, the whole situation could have been avoided. Glad he's alive but, can't help but think "of course it broke, you idiot!"
I remove ice from buildings in Alaska and the one comment regarding the strike and placement of the strike in a critical spot is very correct. Also the numerous blows in the same spot. This is exactly what I do to remove ice and in that exact spot. If you could see the ice fracture at swing one then two then three and so on you would see he had 4 warnings b4 he had a complete fracture. Then like a bone fracture, the next climber is at risk. Now the punchline... These are my friends (ice climbers in Alaska) So, I suggest when climbing on a skinnier, smaller mass, adjust your swing to achieve bite while minimizing cracking/ penitration. Try to avoid hard (penitrating) blows in the exact same spot. An ice pick or...we use awes create an incredible mechanical 360° wedge to fracture ice, so the tip profile is also important, but create an anchor point to climb not a fracture point to crack, think about this. It's hard to explain but I want my friends to be safe climbing.
Tribute to my friend John Greene, Ice Climber, stay safe. You climb, let me do the awe fracturing.
Please think through the awe cracking the ice physics here and climb safe and have a blast. .
(Another analogy is splitting cedar with a nail, it cracks the wood, as a woodworker we pilot drill holes to avoid cracking the wood. An ice anchor must drill in and be strong (threadwise) but not fracture like the cedar analogy. Ice climbing physics , you see is very very important.. pilot drilling is good. Screw , do not wedge split.. increased knowledge and understanding = increased safety.. Glad this fella is ok.
I could bring that ice down with the right frequency.
Brittle, harmonic diffraction.
thanks for the info i was thinking the same thing about the repeated strikes in the same spot
laws of physics: makes perfect sense
"He's not some yahoo that's like, 'lets ride the icicle'..." lol
... or is he?
He fractured the ice with his pick right where the most stress is on the ice column. The top edge where it goes over the rock.
He is no rocket science major just pick the part where the whole thing comes to a 3 foot thick choke point and break it wee
wheelie w - That's why the are wouldn't go in easy... It's been compacted by the weight.
wheelie w That's the part where he should have had a helicopter lift him off ;-)
Is it just me or does it seem obvious that it would be a really really bad idea to continuously hit a heavy crystal structure at the thin point of support?
@@Antonocon You cant tell what the thickness of the ice is nor how exactly the rock under is shaped. In this case he happened to find the worst place to strike in the entire pillar by luck.
John: so I went with rock-paper-scissors.
Johns friend: Johns the most sensible guy I know.
Few key words: “I know”.
I doubt John’s friend knows very many sensible people, aside from John of course, evidently the most sensible person on the planet.
Can't imagine that fall. I haven't climbed for years. And never extreme. But my scariest ice adventure was breaking through pack ice on a moving river. A miracle to get back out, even with help. I still don't trust ice with any kind of structural integrity trust..lol. So glad you were good after this.
This video just randomly popped up in my recommended list.
Oh, my! This is John who just rode the Great Divide over the summer of 2020 with Ryan and Kev...and of course Mira!
What a surprise!
i was thinking the same looked familiar then i realise who it was..
Thanks for sharing this, hope you stay safe in the future!
that was amazing. I'm so glad you are ok. good job.
I'm not even a climber but I still would have imagined that potential outcome and concluded it was reasonably likely enough to occur that I should not climb the ice. That would be my particular survival technique.
Glad he’s okay but honestly surprised this (ice fracturing) doesn’t happen a lot more. It seems patently unsafe.
Talks up how cautious and sensible he is then proceeds to climb a thin icicle on a warm day and hammers away five times at the very top of the whole thing. Ok.
Right?! What an absolute idiot. This guy should NOT procreate.
That's what I was thinking I was a little afraid to say anything because I have no knowledge of ice climbing but that being said with my zero-knowledge I even immediately recognized all of those things 😂
Oh shit guys look out the legendary ice climber Edward chester has hit the chat, oh thank you for blessing us with ur expert knowledge
@@fhrhsharo1728So your entire contribution to this comment section is a snarky comment generally dismissing other people's knowledge and one dismissing my knowledge. If you're such an authority, maybe suggest how and why you are and then offer up a reason why those criticising are wrong. Otherwise, whatever dude.
I'm criticizing people who are sitting on their couches watching this and going "oh I know so much more" like no you fucking dont, so stop acting like you know better
great video and great passion!
Basically: So I was hanging on this rope and cut it, then I fell. Man I was lucky survived.
If you are using “Nice warm day” and “ice climbing” in the same sentence you should probably make sure your life insurance is paid up to date.
I'm glad you are here to share the story ;^)
My man doesn’t have just one guardian angel on his side, he has a whole team of them. 💪
He prob still doing this shit too lol...
I hope so!
there is no information one can learn from ice climbing, except that it's unpredictable.... period!
Wow that's amazing. Imma stay at home tho.
for anyone who doesnt know yet this guy has an amazing bikepacking channel with his dog. cant stress enough how good it is and so funny i knew he looked familiar!! you legend
I haven’t seen the long distance video where he falls but it’s clear enough that the reason why he didn’t die here is because he was on top of that big ice chunk and not at the beginning of it. So that once it collapsed, being on top reduced the impact with the ground. It’s not luck, it’s physics.
Indeed, I really admire ppl who push the boundaries. Thumbs up from the safety and comfort of my 🏠.
Mommy! Why daddy had to die?
Well, he REALLY wanted to climb that icicle.
+Lluc Llumador for shits n giggles
+llucllumador smh lol
+epicsteve your math is totally off. where did u get ur stats? Although mountaineering accidents are much less frequent than traffic accidents, they are 1.7 times more likely to "CAUSE INJURY" than traffic accidents, AND Although mountaineering accidents are much less frequent than traffic accidents, they are 31 times more likely to "CAUSE FATALITIES" than traffic accidents. Mountain climbing is just a hobby while driving is necessity, which is which to you is not my concern but I still be proud to my children to get killed by accident in traffic than mountain climbing. just my two cents.
+epicsteve Could be driving to earn money to support a family = Not as selfish as climbing icicles.
+llucllumador Mommy, why is dad always laying in front of the tv?
Fabulous story. Glad you were not hurt or killed...
The upper chunk of ice stayed intact for at least a moment - when it hit the ground below him at an angle it formed a ramp that slid him to the ground already moving sideways instead of just Wiley Coyote-ing a big ass hole into the top of the rubble. Because he was moving sideways he was able to slide down the slope with relatively little additional force from the ground. Basically, the chunk of ice and the existing slope formed a progressively shallower ramp for him to slide down. He got lucky doing something fantastically stupid.
“I can make mistakes, and learn from them.” ... so, did you climb the next day. “Oh yeah, ski out, went home, climbed the next day.”
what a fall, glad you are alive. That face was definatley sun exposed as its a southeast facing aspect and id say that warmer temperatures were the cause of the ice's britleness. be safe out there guys.
Absolutely Amazing story!
Live another day...‼️Blessings🙏
You can only learn from your mistakes if you LIVE through it, then recall, run it over in your mind, and think what you could have done to prevent what happened. Many people don't get that chance. We're glad he did! On the 3rd and 4th pick (of his 5) I think I saw the ice crack a bit. What I want to know is HOW FAR did he fall? Did he fall a ways and slide with the ice down farther, or just plunk and stop? Whatever, he was very lucky. I would have liked to see the footage taken from a distance away instead of his head cam. It's a bit hard to tell how far he was from the bottom below that ice pillar.
That had to hurt, though- he should probably put ice on it.
Incredible inspiring experience. I can only imagine you really feel alive and grateful for every day when you go out in the morning to do this . Thanks for sharing it.
Great lesson.
4:35 medic!! he needs coffee, stat!
Everybody's who comments on this doesn't get the fundamental idea behind climbing. We climb 'because it's there'. If you have to do the first pitch without rope, that's pretty common for ice climbing. He's a grown man, let him do what he wants
mosgem I'm the same way with goats, people ask me why I do them? Because they're there of course. I'm a grown man, let me do what I want
Yep and were all grown men, we can say its stupid if we want.
Paddy O'Lantern the internet will take a brief coffee break after your hilarious comment.
mosgem These commenters, comment “because it’s there”, if the guy is an idiot they will comment. Their grown commenters, let them comment...
mosgem climbing ice hangs is just stupid as hell though. Especially to sit there and hammer at it in the same spot over and over again...I mean that's pure stupidity. And it isn't just him who pays the consequences, it's his family who will have to pay for his funeral the next time his dumb ass tempts fate and isn't so lucky.
That made me shiver ( and not from the cold!)
Guy: He's a reasonable, genius climber!
Climber: It's warm out. Let's wack at ice and climb on it.
I thought about doing that but realized
I’m not an idiot
Or you realized that you had no balls?
@@jiggnorth3593 found the village idiot
@@nukacola3795 ahhh, boomer humor. It was a joke bud.
good lord, lucky you John, ii hope you slow down with these extremes sport buddy
Great video. Thanks for sharing. I think the fact you were at the top of the ice formation when it broke was key. All the tons of ice were below you.
Wow. That looks really...COOL
Wonderful! what a great story! This gentleman owes his life to Sheer randomness, he's so damn lucky not to have been dismembered with those tens-of-tons ice rocks falling and rolling.
Glad that he's alive.
Ice climber playing Russian roulette _ loads 5 bullets
When he said it was “super thin, at the beginning” but he started anyway,if he keeps using that logic on his climbs he will be a newspaper clipping one day.
Nice one….thanks!
The information I learned from this, as the failed climber put it, is that it would be best to not climb ice walls.
I can only imagine that footage from a distance would have been freakishly scary.
Came for the intriguing title, stayed for the comment section. Y'all are killing it.
As a climber I can say that all climbers are quite mad. Great people!
This sounds like drug addiction.
Thrill seekers.... Sounds similar.
Wow!!! Amazing!!! When it's not your day, it's not your day
+Eduardo “DeMontañas” C. No when its not your day, its definitely your day. FUCKIN STUPID ASS COMMENT HAHAHH
What a smart repost my friend-
I didn't repost anything, I simply replied to your post. GET REKT BRUHHH
Anyway, very smart. Regards.
cool
ride the lightning bro. that was awesome, glad u were at the top n not the mid section.
Live to conquer another day on the ICE !!! No surrender..
Meanwhile, I fall 6 feet onto dirt and can not walk for month. Some people have all the luck.
I applaud anyones right to do such things but question his "'Impeccable judgement'" as presented here. I rode a crotch rocket daily for 15 yr.s, but eventually figured I had sort of spent my luck and quit while still fully intact.
Amazing fella. I met him by chance. Ya...great guy.
What a legend
The actual SNAP is at 2:43. Rest is dude speaking..
Tysm!
And at that moment, John knew, he fucked up... He's pretty luck to survive
That is just insane!
Truly wild. Ice is a real fun time but a danger.
Wow man, ice climbing is so dangerous! This could EASILY have turned out much worse. He sure was lucky!
Here's how he survived:
His freefall time is very hard to determine based on the video but from what I can measure it's somewhere between 1.60 and 1.99 seconds. Theoretically, this means the height of the fall is somewhere between 41.2 and 63.7 feet. This can absolutely be a fatal distance (the median lethal distance for falls is 48 feet). However, the falling icicle dissipated a lot of his momentum when it hit the ground.
If the distance from his feet to the bottom of the icicle was 20 feet, for example, then you can think of this as two or more falls. One fall was from 50 to 20 feet, then from 20 to 0 feet. Realistically, his shoes probably cut through the ice which dissipated momentum, the icicle crumbled on impact which dissipated more momentum, and the icicle hit an inclining slope which probably dissipated the most momentum. The bottom line is that his speed, and therefore impact force, was slowed by quite a few factors. The clear takeaway from this is to stay on top of a breakaway object for, you know, all you icicle climbers out there.
Wow... Glad you are safe...
Timing is everything
Everyone commenting hate on this mans passion, he's a mountain guide and rope access supervisor. That means he's hanging on a rope in much worse conditions than this every day of the year. He makes more money in half a year than 90% of the ppl commenting and enjoys his job. Yes it's dangerous, but that's his choice. I'm a climber myself and take all precautions but eventually something must go wrong. It's part of life
Yep, we all die one day.
It might be in a car crash, might be riding an ice pillar.
It may also be sitting on the lounge, passing away from a heart attack while having coffee and cake.
How you go depends a lot on how you live your life. At least this bloke is out there living it.
Guides don't make any money fool. Ever hear the joke 'what does a guide and a medium pizza have in common? They can't feed a family of four.'
@@rudimatt4218 the first time I heard that joke it referred to a mexican.
Are you saying that he shouldn't get laughed at because he makes more money then other people?
Now I'm laughing at you dumb ass!
Stop climbing in dangerous places...improve your chance of living to a ripe old age.
I took an ice tray out of the freezer and two cubes fell on my toes. I know how he feels.
Got that amazing thing in extreme sports that many do not get. The second chance.
This is just insane.
Apparently he survived by falling from a height where his wounds were nonlethal. Incredible story!
Where's the other footage (from the side)?
wtf, i agree
Same q
Didn't even show the fall.... CLICK BAIT GARBAGE :-)
That was not a full film, was a photo every so many seconds, did not capture the fall.
His friends- ‘whoa dude! Gnarley! We got that all on video!”
Amazing how it always is the “safe” “ cautious” guys who end up in these situations. It just makes you wander.
Wanderlust, I reckon.
The reckless guys don't live to tell the tale.
"heres how he survived"
he fell and slid down the hill, the ice didnt hit him and he was okay
Y'all kind of left out the whole "how he survived" part of the film! ffs!!
KingsBlade explained it pretty accurately. Uses the same kinetic parameters as in controlled spins in motor racing. Look it up.
This is the man guilding people my god
Things like this should make a person more appreciative of life and the value of life. Not that he isn't or wasn't, but usually times like this make a person question their own existence and usually ignites a drive to live with more intentional purpose.
"So I did this dumb thing that most people don't do because it has no benefit or use and is highly deadly, and weirdly, I almost died."
My only question is... Why the fuck are you climbing an ice mountain in the middle of nowhere in -50 degree weather? How is that fun?
Why the fuck not?
shits and giggles
Steven Noel Darn. I'm missing out
David F Yet no one has tried explaining how it is fun.
***** I will try. It's the freedom of being in wide open spaces. It's the challenge of testing your physical and mental limits, simutaneously. It's the gorgeous views. And (perhaps most importantly) it's because we can.
Insane!
knowledge is power