"Because it's there."

Gotcha. So it's basically trusting some metal things to do their job and not kill you. That I understand. Everytime we race one of the cars, we're doing roughly the same thing. (Oddly enough, we may even hit that solid object at similar speeds were those metal things to fail.)
 
Silverlily said:
Gotcha. So it's basically trusting some metal things to do their job and not kill you. That I understand. Everytime we race one of the cars, we're doing roughly the same thing. (Oddly enough, we may even hit that solid object at similar speeds were those metal things to fail.)

You may be right:

Link.

What is the terminal velocity of a human being?
Most people quote 55 m/s (about 125 miles per hour) as the terminal velocity of a parachuter. This is a typical terminal velocity, but there are several factors that can contribute to the terminal velocity of a human.

Terminal velocity is the speed at which a falling object no longer accelerates while falling. As every grade school science student can tell you, all objects fall at the same rate in a vaccum (or more correctly, accelerate at the same rate). However, in an atmosphere, drag comes into play. Falling through air causes drag proportional to the cross sectional area of the object falling. When the drag forces offset the weight of the object (mass times gravitational acceleration), terminal velocity is reached.

A parachuter can spread out their arms and legs to increase drag resulting in the a terminal velocity of about 55 m/s. If the parachuter tucked in his arms and legs and curled up into a ball, then terminal velocity would be much faster. A parachuter wearing special equipment and diving head first or feet first with arms clasped tight against their side, can achieve terminal velocities over 90 m/s (200 miles per hour).

The fastest speed a human has ever attained while free falling was set by Joseph Kittinger, who, in 1960, jumped from over 31,000 m (over 101,000 ft). Because of the rarity of the atmosphere at those elevations, there was almost no drag during the first part of his fall. Kittinger reached a terminal velocity of 274 m/s (over 610 miles per hour) before he began to slow down with the increasing atmosphere.
 
Silverlily said:
Gotcha. So it's basically trusting some metal things to do their job and not kill you. That I understand. Everytime we race one of the cars, we're doing roughly the same thing. (Oddly enough, we may even hit that solid object at similar speeds were those metal things to fail.)


Some of those metal things:

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I can't imagine myself climbing a wall of rock. I have no upper-body strenght. I would probably climb up 10 feet, and start crying....
 
HappyMisha said:
I can't imagine myself climbing a wall of rock. I have no upper-body strenght. I would probably climb up 10 feet, and start crying....

It's all technique. You need less upper body than you think; you're supposed to stay on your feet.
 
Silverlily said:
What are those called? The littlest Lily asked me one night after watching "The Cave" and damned if I knew.

The most technical generic name is "spring-loaded camming units." Climbers refer to them as "units," "cams," or by brand name; those in the pic happen to be Black Diamond corp's "Camalots." Others are Friends, made by Wild Country, which were the originals invented by Ray Jardine, who went on to spawn a revolution in lightweight backpacking gear and technique.
 
Peregrinator said:
I was on an expedition to Denali that was cut short when my partner had a personal crisis. Spent five nights on the Kahiltna. I'll be back one of these days.

I've been in storms and stuff, but this really opened my eyes to what an avalanche could be. This is as seen from base Camp on Denali. The buttress with the conical snowcone on top is about fivethousand feet high, and is three miles from where I'm standing.

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We've flown over Denali in a small plane and in a helicopter (lower part, not the summit)- that's about as close as I'll ever get. It is beautiful, but no way in the world would I be interested in climbing it.

The tour people told us more people die on the way down than on the way up. They get careless and forget basic safety rules on the way down.
 
Cheyenne said:
We've flown over Denali in a small plane and in a helicopter (lower part, not the summit)- that's about as close as I'll ever get. It is beautiful, but no way in the world would I be interested in climbing it.

The tour people told us more people die on the way down than on the way up. They get careless and forget basic safety rules on the way down.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Your tour operator was right. Far more accidents occur on the way down in any mountaineering situation. People drop their guard and get careless. One of the factors in a climber's favor on Denali is that there are almost always a lot of other climbers around, most of whom are willing to help. There's also an Air Force unit near there that uses rescue on the mountain as training; it's the only military unit with civilian rescue responsibilities other than the Coast Guard, I believe. You could do worse than have a few PJ's show up when you need them. Those guys are solid.

From the plane on the way out:

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Peregrinator said:
Beautiful, isn't it?

Your tour operator was right. Far more accidents occur on the way down in any mountaineering situation. People drop their guard and get careless. One of the factors in a climber's favor on Denali is that there are almost always a lot of other climbers around, most of whom are willing to help. There's also an Air Force unit near there that uses rescue on the mountain as training; it's the only military unit with civilian rescue responsibilities other than the Coast Guard, I believe. You could do worse than have a few PJ's show up when you need them. Those guys are solid.

From the plane on the way out:
The helicopter tour we took was from the Princess McKinley Park Lodge. Another guy with us told us the thing was a million $ +, some fancy French helicopter I think. It was great! And fast! I think the highest it could go was 10,000 feet (patient1 probably remembers more of the technical details.) But it was very fast. The pilot said the small plane operators that take the climbers to the base camp hate him because he can easily pass up their slower planes in his fast copter. He was like a little kid with the fastest bike. :D But the trip itself was literally like being in an Imax film.

The day we flew over the summit the pilot told us was the clearest day he'd had all year. We did extra turns around it so the pilot could video the summit to sell the pics to future passengers who wouldn't be so lucky to have such a clear day.

Yes, it was all beautiful. Very much so. But I'll still keep my butt in the plane/helicopter. No WAY would I want to be on Denali climbing the thing!
 
WEll this is a most interesting thread. I have learned a lot too. Thanks for the info on charging the stupid climbers. Makes me feel a bit better. I don't know if they charge the stupid snowmobilers on the Lake - but I hope they do.

I, for one, don't like to stand on a step stool cuz I get light headed.
 
Cheyenne said:
The helicopter tour we took was from the Princess McKinley Park Lodge. Another guy with us told us the thing was a million $ +, some fancy French helicopter I think. It was great! And fast! I think the highest it could go was 10,000 feet (patient1 probably remembers more of the technical details.) But it was very fast. The pilot said the small plane operators that take the climbers to the base camp hate him because he can easily pass up their slower planes in his fast copter. He was like a little kid with the fastest bike. :D But the trip itself was literally like being in an Imax film.

The day we flew over the summit the pilot told us was the clearest day he'd had all year. We did extra turns around it so the pilot could video the summit to sell the pics to future passengers who wouldn't be so lucky to have such a clear day.

Yes, it was all beautiful. Very much so. But I'll still keep my butt in the plane/helicopter. No WAY would I want to be on Denali climbing the thing!

There was a crazy French pilot that actually landed on top of Mt Everest last year in a specially modified helicopter. Mountain pilots, like eveyone else, just keep pushing the envelope, I guess.

I think you can see the video here:

http://www.digg.com/science/Helicopter_lands_on_the_Summit_of_Mt._Everest:_1st_time_in_history

The pilot we flew with crashed with clients and all three died a couple years later.
 
crazybbwgirl said:
WEll this is a most interesting thread. I have learned a lot too. Thanks for the info on charging the stupid climbers. Makes me feel a bit better. I don't know if they charge the stupid snowmobilers on the Lake - but I hope they do.

I, for one, don't like to stand on a step stool cuz I get light headed.

My pleasure. I hope they charge them, too, but somehow driving machines around is seen as "normal" while walking in the mountains isn't. Often there's a sort of unspoken rule that snowmobilers are just doing what everyone does, while hikers and climbers are crazy and deserve whatever they get.
 
Peregrinator said:
My pleasure. I hope they charge them, too, but somehow driving machines around is seen as "normal" while walking in the mountains isn't. Often there's a sort of unspoken rule that snowmobilers are just doing what everyone does, while hikers and climbers are crazy and deserve whatever they get.


Well - I'm not saying you're NOT crazy!!!! lol
 
SkAoUt said:
A must have for a climbers music collection

It was really funny when that album came out and Messner sued them, or whatever. They had never heard of him, which is a little like having never heard of, I don't know, Arnold Palmer, maybe.
 
Am I the only climber? Anyone who climbs, has climbed, wants to climb, I want to hear about it.
 
Peregrinator said:
Am I the only climber? Anyone who climbs, has climbed, wants to climb, I want to hear about it.

My daughter climbs. Started in college on one of those walls. Was teaching the wall about a week later. She just does small stuff though - and I don't think she's been climbing in a while.
 
crazybbwgirl said:
My daughter climbs. Started in college on one of those walls. Was teaching the wall about a week later. She just does small stuff though - and I don't think she's been climbing in a while.

She's probably more skilled at the actual movement of climbing than I am; those walls are fantastic training. I always get swatted on the damn things.
 
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