Are you guys afraid of heights ?

[arcadefever]

 

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

any of you will try that trail ?


edit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey

[Ed_McCarron]

Theres afraid of heights, and then theres dumb.

My job entails climbing water tanks; no way you'd catch me on that path.

[shmokes]

What's with the rave music?  I can hardly think of less appropriate music.

[ark_ader]

I used to be then I started a Job in Aerial Photography with fly by seat helicopters with a thin strap holding you in.  Much more scary than that footpath, expecially at 13K feet or skimming the ground doing 120mph.  Vertigo, 130F in the Vegas Valley.....

I digress....

Yeah that path is dodgy, but if you are dumb enough to do it, why not bring a video camera to ensure that you get committed.

[danny_galaga]

yep. way, way too scary for me. i feel a bit queezy looking over the handrail of an escalator...

[grantspain]

this place is called El chorro and is about 30 mins from where I live,i don't think i will attempt it though

[ratzz]

Its very beautiful, but I, too, will be passing!

[shardian]

I have issues with heights, and it irritates the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of me! I've been working on dealing with it by forcing myself to climb ladders and do it naturally. I feel thoroughly uncomfortable working at the top of a 6' ladder.
With my job, I have had to climb some pretty interesting job site ladders too. The worst was at an apartment building that I was surveying. There were no stairs yet, so the only way to the third floor was via a single ladder roped to the building. It was about 10 degrees, and snow and ice was covering everything. I was contemplating my fate at the base of the ladder when some construction guy zipped past me and right up the ladder while hauling 2 8' 2x4's over one shoulder. Hell, if he can do that so effortlessly, then I should be able to handle it. Of course, I was in a big jacket, and had to carry my clipboard and survey tools. I made it to the top, only to find the landing covered in ice. I slowly and shakingly swung around the ladder and got my jacket caught. I freaked out for a second, but recovered and made it onto the landing.

Having said all of that, I never had a problem with high dives at the pool, or jumping off a rock at the lake.  I guess the comfort of knowing I could only land in water made it better.

[Minwah]

I thought I was pretty brave climbing this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester_Tree

...but having watched the 'fast walk' video of  El camino del Rey, I think I'll give it a miss    The views look wonderful mind you...

[shmokes]

FWIW, this guy clearly is wearing a helmet cam, so at least he had full use of his eyes and hands throughout his trek along the path.  He was clearly not clipping onto the cable, though, which seems pretty crazy.  Apparently the government has made plans to restore the path, so maybe some day those of us who are sane will actually have the opportunity to see this stuff first hand.

[arcadefever]

this place is called El chorro and is about 30 mins from where I live,i don't think i will attempt it though

Can you go take some pictures for us 

[Ginsu Victim]

FWIW, this guy clearly is wearing a helmet cam, so at least he had full use of his eyes and hands throughout his trek along the path.

The shadow never makes it look like a helmet cam. Maybe it's a just a very small handheld strapped to his palm.

[grantspain]

this place is called El chorro and is about 30 mins from where I live,i don't think i will attempt it though

Can you go take some pictures for us 

yeah,from the bottom of the valley-i may go there next week for a visit to lakes(there is very nice tapas bar/restaurant)

[CCM]

I didn't think I was afraid of heights, but after watching that video I think I am!!   

[gavkiwi]

omg, this is crazy, I would never in a million years do that, I am petrified (sp) of heights like that 

[RandyT]

When I was 16, I would hang off the sides of aluminum extension ladders and paint billboards 30 feet in the air.  But this is wayyyyyyyyyyy different.

I want a high-res version to play on my projector so I can really scare the crap out of myself.

RandyT

[ahofle]

I want a high-res version to play on my projector so I can really scare the crap out of myself.

Heh, someone should carry one of those massive IMAX cameras along that path.  I guarantee I'd soil myself if watching that in an IMAX theatre.

EDIT: I don't understand the point of that path.  Seems like it would have been much easier to just build a bridge to cross the gorge (like that pipe he crosses over) including a larger walkway and/or maybe a service tunnel along the pipe underground.

[shardian]

How do you know he is not clipped to the wire running along the wall?

And I agree that it does not appear he is wearing a helmet cam. He might have some small cam attached to sunglasses or something, but I doubt those would give that good of resolution.

[boykster]

How do you know he is not clipped to the wire running along the wall?

He's moving too smoothly and quickly to be stopping to unclip/reclip along the wire...at least that's how it seems.

No clue what kind of camera he's using, could be helmet or otherwise mounted, hard to say.

You wouldn't catch me on that trail, no way!  I've hiked some treacherous trails, climbed some mountains, and crossed my share of dodgy bridges, but that?   

[ahofle]

How do you know he is not clipped to the wire running along the wall?

There is a point (3:25) where he breezes right past someone who you can see using the clips (who is stopped to unclip and reclip around an anchor in the rock).

[shardian]

I'm no rock climbing expert, but I would have to assume there would be some kind of wind activity up there. That guy would have to be the craziest person alive to walk those narrow steel beams while holding a camera AND not be clipped. There is one part near the end in which he is walking a beam, and he steps right on an small, odd shaped chunk of concrete attached to the beam. Noone would step on that bit of material without a safety device!

[polaris]

i think its a via ferrata route hes doing , mad routes through mountains with a safety line and ladders built in to rocks. there is a special via ferrata lanyard with 2 seperate clips on it so it would be possible were he really slick , to move and clip in as you move along. however i think this guy could be just nuts and not clipping in. i think grant should try it for us to find out for sure.

[grantspain]

not sure what that path is all about but years ago there were bandits up in them hills,
there is a big water pumping station and hydro electric thingy up there

camino del rey translates at "track/path of the king",can't imagine the king of spain walking on that path.

and no i am not gonna walk on it,i will probably go right through it

this is where von ryan's express was filmed btw

i went up to this place a few months back with a pal of mine and even the roads are treacherous with drops of hundreds of feet

[SavannahLion]

Holy smokes. I thought I had my heights thing down pat, but that is cause for concern.

The home I grew up in, the deck is over twenty five feet off the ground at the lowest point. My dog and I used to walk out on wooden gargoyles my father isntalled and just sit/stand there. I also used to take a lot joy sitting on ski lifts, without restraints, while the wind swings the chair around. Or traversing a rope bridge about 100 feet over a water fall. Or sitting on top of a catwalk fifty feet off the ground... you get the idea.

Since moving to the valley and gaining all this excessive weight and age, that video actually put a chill in my spine. Especially right when the cameraman traverses what looks like a narrow rusty beam.

[Ginsu Victim]

The video just makes me want to play Mirror's Edge even more....

[shmokes]

It is absolutely a helmet cam.  Look how steady it is.  No way this guy is tight roping across beams, while watching the LCD on his video camera to give us a steady shot of his feet.  Nobody could walk that route that swiftly, keeping the camera that steady, if he was holding it in his hand and watching the LCD.  Especially considering that he's not clipped to the wire.  There are quite a few very nice consumer helmet cams available these days.  They're not even particularly expensive.  I included a picture of a Samsung one.

And as boykster and ahoffle said, he's moving too smoothly to be clipped to the wire, since every time he reached a point where the wire is anchored to the cliff-side, he would have to unclip from the wire and reclip on the other side of the anchor, as you can see another hiker doing at 3:25.

[patrickl]

Whatever it is, he doesn't have it mounted on his helmet. Look how low the point of view is. Looks more like he has the camera strapped to his chest.

Was looking for a picture of a chest mount and found this:
Chest camera footage (guy on a mountainbike racing down a BYO rollercoster type track)

[shmokes]

I could go with that.  Actually, his shadow does look like he's got an apparatus on his chest/shoulders.

[(+_+)]

Yes.

I recently saw that video and the crumbled, narrow paths hanging of the side of cliffs sent shivers up my spine.

"One slip, and down the hole we fall."

No worth it to me.

[fjl]

This was built in 1905. I imagine many people got hurt died and during the construction of it. Cause after all we know how much people cared about safety training back in the 1900's. 

I wonder how they got cement to such an area.