- 2 days ago
Rescuing climbers is her job. But today, her head isn't in it. From a man who caught his own 60-foot fall on camera to a champion strangled while Alex Honnold held her rope…these are five of the most unbelievable falls in rock climbing history.
----------------------------------------------------------
Watch More:
This Rock Climber Fell 400 Feet - What Happened Next is Nearly Unbelievable
https://youtu.be/6pc4AmDnwRs
The Terrifying Last Minutes of Elite Rock Climber Chloé Graftiaux
https://youtu.be/3NAlWuaohrc
----------------------------------------------------------
More eXtreme Stories - Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@TheExtreme-Edge
For business inquiries only - extremeedgeinfo@gmail.com
Voiceover: https://jessegvoiceactor.com/
----------------------------------------------------------
Watch More:
This Rock Climber Fell 400 Feet - What Happened Next is Nearly Unbelievable
https://youtu.be/6pc4AmDnwRs
The Terrifying Last Minutes of Elite Rock Climber Chloé Graftiaux
https://youtu.be/3NAlWuaohrc
----------------------------------------------------------
More eXtreme Stories - Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@TheExtreme-Edge
For business inquiries only - extremeedgeinfo@gmail.com
Voiceover: https://jessegvoiceactor.com/
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00It's October 11th, 2017.
00:02The 37-year-old climbing ranger is 1,500 feet up El Capitan,
00:07higher than the Empire State Building,
00:09racing up the familiar route where she once set the women's speed record.
00:13Rescuing climbers is her job, but today her head isn't in it.
00:18As she pulls one more piece of safety gear from the rock,
00:21a voice in her head says,
00:23I shouldn't have done that.
00:25Then she falls.
00:26She's tied to a rope, but for some reason it doesn't catch her.
00:31She hurtles through the air more than 100 feet,
00:34tumbling past her partner, crashing into the boulders below.
00:38Her partner rappels down as fast as she can,
00:42knowing she's going to see a nightmare.
00:44From a man who caught his own 60-foot fall on camera
00:48to a champion strangled while Alex Honnold held her rope.
00:52These are five of the most unbelievable falls in rock climbing history.
00:57Welcome to the Extreme Edge, where the stakes are high,
01:01but nobody is just a headline.
01:03Her name was Quinn Brett, and 30 minutes earlier, she was exhilarated.
01:09She and her climbing partner, Josie McGee,
01:11were already more than 1,000 feet up El Capitan,
01:15racing their way up the nose,
01:17one of the most famous climbing routes in the world.
01:19Five years earlier, Quinn had set the women's speed record on this exact route
01:24when she climbed this entire 3,000-foot wall in just 10 hours and 19 minutes.
01:30She was back to see how fast she could do it again.
01:33The problem was that speed on a wall like this came with compromises.
01:38To climb faster, Quinn was doing something unusual with her safety gear.
01:43As she climbed, she would jam a small piece of metal into a crack in the rock
01:48and attach a rope to it,
01:50a decision she'd regret almost immediately.
01:54Think of it as an anchor meant to catch her
01:56and stop her from falling all the way if she slipped.
01:59Normally, you leave that anchor behind as you keep climbing,
02:03but Quinn was pulling hers back out.
02:05Once she climbed above one, she would reach down,
02:09remove it from the rock, and take it with her.
02:11Climbers call this back-cleaning.
02:13It helped Quinn move faster,
02:15but it also meant that for long stretches of the climb,
02:18the last piece capable of stopping a fall could be terrifyingly far below her.
02:23But if anyone on the mountain had the resume to justify taking that kind of risk,
02:28it was Quinn.
02:29She was a former climbing ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park
02:32and a wilderness medicine instructor who had spent years doing technical
02:37search-and-rescue for other climbers.
02:39And Josie, the woman holding the other end of Quinn's rope,
02:43had worked with Yosemite Search and Rescue.
02:45These were two people who understood exactly what could happen if something went wrong,
02:50and within the hour, one of them would be rescuing the other.
02:54That morning, Quinn reached a famous section of the nose called the Boot Flake.
02:59She wedged a red cam into the crack, climbed above it,
03:03and then looked down between her legs.
03:06She reached back and, just as she had been doing all morning,
03:10pulled the cam out.
03:12Almost immediately, a quiet voice spoke in her head.
03:16I shouldn't have done that.
03:18Then her foot slipped.
03:20To this day, nobody knows exactly what caused it.
03:23Maybe her foot lost purchase on the granite.
03:26Maybe something else happened.
03:28At that moment, none of it mattered.
03:31Quinn dropped more than 100 feet down the face of El Capitan.
03:35If there had been nothing beneath her, that could have been her end.
03:39But directly below was a massive, sloping piece of granite called the Texas Flake
03:45that Quinn slammed into back first.
03:48Her right shoulder took most of the impact as her back raked across the granite.
03:52Somewhere in the crash, her helmet came off.
03:56But she still wasn't done falling.
03:58Because the rock was sloped, Quinn bounced off it and kept tumbling downward.
04:03She fell another 12 feet before crashing into a dark gap between massive boulders.
04:09And then, nothing.
04:10Just 30 feet away, Josie had been managing the ropes.
04:14She heard a scream, looked up, and watched her best friend's limp body fall straight past her.
04:21She saw Quinn's helmet come off and watched her disappear into the boulders below.
04:26Josie screamed her name and got nothing back.
04:30At this point, she was already expecting the worst.
04:33But she had to know for sure.
04:35So, Josie carefully made her way down into the boulders.
04:39When she reached the bottom, she saw a miracle.
04:43Quinn had smashed four ribs, punctured a lung, bruised her liver,
04:48suffered a serious gash to her head, and badly injured her shoulder blade.
04:53But she was alive.
04:55She was breathing.
04:57For now, that was enough.
04:58Josie checked her airway, took her vitals,
05:02wrapped her own neck gaiter around Quinn's bleeding head,
05:05and called for an emergency rescue.
05:07While they waited, minutes passed.
05:10Finally, Quinn slowly drifted back into consciousness.
05:14She opened her eyes, looked up at her partner,
05:17and said five words that changed her life forever.
05:20I can't feel my legs.
05:23Yosemite Search and Rescue flew a helicopter to the cliff face.
05:26Two rescuers were lowered onto the wall.
05:29Quinn was carefully packaged into a litter,
05:32and she was flown off El Capitan to a hospital.
05:35Only then did doctors discover what the fall had done to her spine.
05:40Quinn had suffered what is known as a burst fracture.
05:43When she slammed into the sloping granite,
05:46the force crushed her T12 vertebrae,
05:49sending fragments of bone backward into the spinal canal
05:53and catastrophically damaging her spinal cord.
05:57Surgeons saved her life,
05:59but they couldn't undo that damage.
06:02Quinn Brett,
06:02an elite athlete who had spent her life running,
06:05climbing,
06:06and rescuing other people,
06:08was now paralyzed from the waist down.
06:11But the mountain couldn't break her.
06:14Quinn threw herself into adaptive sports,
06:16and in 2021,
06:18just four years after that fall,
06:21she rode roughly 2,450 miles
06:24of the Great Divide mountain bike route
06:26on a custom hand cycle by herself.
06:29The fall had taken her legs,
06:31and it had taken climbing from her,
06:33but it couldn't touch her spirit.
06:36And Quinn wasn't the only climber
06:38whose ambition for speed on El Capitan
06:40nearly cost them everything.
06:42The 3,000-foot sheer vertical granite wall of El Capitan
06:46doesn't care about your resume or skills,
06:49and no one knew that more than Hans Florin.
06:52He wrote the book on climbing this exact wall.
06:56No kidding.
06:57He had spent decades setting and reclaiming
06:59the speed record on the nose,
07:01and climbed El Capitan itself
07:03an astonishing 178 times.
07:06So, on Thursday, May 3rd, 2018,
07:10staring up at the pancake flake,
07:12a pitch he could have climbed in his sleep,
07:15Hans had every reason to feel confident.
07:17He had no idea what that confidence
07:19was about to cost him.
07:21Earlier that morning,
07:22Hans and his partner had made a mistake.
07:25They accidentally dropped a sling
07:27containing many of the smaller pieces
07:29of protection they would need
07:30for the thinner cracks higher on the mountain.
07:33That dropped sling would set off
07:35a brutal chain of events.
07:37At first, that wasn't a disaster.
07:40Hans was aid-climbing,
07:42which meant he could place a piece of metal
07:43into a crack,
07:45attach a small fabric ladder to it,
07:47step up,
07:48and then repeat the process higher on the wall.
07:51Usually, the piece of metal Hans trusted
07:54was a spring-loaded device called a cam.
07:56Squeeze its trigger,
07:58and the metal lobes pull inwards
07:59so you can slide it into a crack.
08:01Let go,
08:02and the lobes spring back outward,
08:05gripping the rock more tightly
08:06as weight pulls on it.
08:08But many of the smaller ones Hans needed
08:10were now somewhere below them.
08:12So when he reached the pancake flake,
08:152,300 feet above the ground,
08:17the crack in front of him
08:19was too thin for the gear he had left.
08:22Now, Hans had climbed this wall
08:23more times than almost anyone alive,
08:26so instead of stopping,
08:28he improvised.
08:29He pulled out a much simpler piece of protection
08:32called a nut.
08:33Unlike the spring-loaded device,
08:35this was just a small metal wedge
08:38designed to jam into a narrowing crack.
08:40Hans slid it into the rock,
08:43tugged on it,
08:44and it felt solid,
08:45so he attached his fabric ladder
08:47shifted his entire body weight
08:49onto that tiny piece of metal
08:50and stepped up,
08:52and the nut instantly ripped
08:54right out of the flaring rock.
08:56This should have been a terrifying
08:58but harmless mistake.
09:00Hans was roped in.
09:01Normally, when you lead climb,
09:03your partner stands below you,
09:05managing the rope
09:06through the pieces of protection
09:07you place as you climb.
09:09If you slip,
09:10the rope catches you
09:11through the last piece of gear
09:12you clipped into the wall.
09:14The problem is,
09:15this was not a normal climb.
09:18Climbing a 3,000-foot wall
09:20like El Capitan
09:21normally takes three to five days.
09:23Most climbers sleep on portable ledges
09:25hanging off the side of the cliff.
09:28Hans and his partner
09:29were trying to climb the entire thing
09:30in a single day.
09:32To move that fast,
09:33you have to take massive shortcuts.
09:35So, while his partner
09:37was hundreds of feet below him,
09:39busy pulling out the metal gear
09:41they had left behind
09:42lower on the cliff
09:43so they could reuse it,
09:45Hans was climbing alone
09:46with no partner.
09:48It's called a self-belay,
09:50and normally,
09:50that wasn't even supposed
09:51to be dangerous.
09:52But because he had no fellow
09:54climbing partner
09:55pulling the rope below him,
09:57when that nut ripped
09:58out of the rock,
09:59Hans just fell backward
10:01through the open air.
10:02Now, if he had been hanging
10:04over a sheer vertical drop,
10:06this would have been
10:07a very different story.
10:08But thankfully,
10:10Hans was directly above
10:11a small granite shelf
10:13called Triangle Ledge.
10:14Here's the part
10:15that wasn't so lucky.
10:17Before the rope beneath him
10:18could finally snap tight,
10:20his boots violently slammed
10:22directly into that solid stone ledge.
10:25And all that energy
10:26a 53-year-old climber's body has
10:29after suddenly losing his footing,
10:30all that momentum
10:32went straight up his legs.
10:34The impact was catastrophic.
10:37His right heel bone
10:38shattered into at least
10:39six different pieces.
10:41The force drove his left foot
10:43so violently upward
10:44that the ankle end
10:46of his shin bone
10:46simply exploded.
10:48And this nightmare
10:49wasn't even over,
10:50because the momentum
10:51carried Hans right past the ledge.
10:54When the loose rope
10:55finally jerked him to a stop,
10:57Hans found himself
10:58dangling upside down,
11:002,300 feet above
11:02the valley floor.
11:03He hauled himself upright,
11:05looked down,
11:06and saw that his left foot,
11:08or what remained of it,
11:09was an orthopedic surgeon's nightmare.
11:12Forget about making history
11:14on this climb.
11:15He had to make sure
11:16he survived.
11:18Now,
11:19Hans wasn't alone,
11:20remember?
11:20So when his partner
11:21heard the fall,
11:23he locked the rope off
11:24and managed to slowly
11:25lower Hans a few hundred feet
11:27down the wall
11:27to a slightly larger rock shelf
11:30called the Gray Ledges.
11:31But that was it.
11:32That was as far
11:33as they could go.
11:34They were simply trapped.
11:36So,
11:37sitting on a narrow ledge
11:38thousands of feet in the air
11:39with shattered bones,
11:41Hans reached into his pocket,
11:43pulled out his cell phone,
11:44and dialed 911 himself.
11:47He even filmed a quick,
11:48surreal video
11:49for his Instagram,
11:51calmly telling the camera
11:52that a rescue was happening
11:53and he thought
11:54he'd broken his leg.
11:56And then,
11:56they waited.
11:58Hans fell at roughly
11:591.40 in the afternoon.
12:01But it took over
12:02five agonizing hours
12:04of sitting on that ledge
12:05in excruciating pain
12:06before help
12:08could even get to him.
12:09Because there is no ambulance
12:11on El Capitan.
12:12Yosemite Search and Rescue
12:14had to execute
12:14a massive,
12:16highly technical,
12:17top-down rescue.
12:18They flew a helicopter
12:20to the summit of the mountain,
12:21and by 7 p.m.,
12:23two rangers rappelled
12:24hundreds of feet
12:25down the sheer granite face
12:27and the fading light
12:28to finally reach him.
12:30They strapped his broken body
12:32into a litter
12:32and hauled him
12:33inch by inch
12:34up the vertical cliff
12:35in the pitch-black darkness,
12:38arriving at the summit
12:39at around 10 p.m.
12:40But even then,
12:42Hans wasn't going anywhere.
12:44He had to spend
12:45the entire night
12:46on top of El Capitan
12:47with the rescue team
12:49before a helicopter
12:50could finally fly him down
12:52the next morning
12:53for further care.
12:54It took an 8-hour surgery
12:56and a massive,
12:57crazy-looking cage
12:58of metal brackets
12:59drilled directly
13:00into his bones
13:01just to lock
13:02his shattered legs
13:03back together.
13:04He spent months
13:05confined to a wheelchair.
13:07But believe it or not,
13:09a man shattering
13:10both of his legs,
13:11dangling upside-down
13:12thousands of feet
13:13in the air,
13:14and needing a metal skeleton
13:15drilled into his bones
13:17is nowhere near
13:18the strangest story
13:19in this video.
13:20Because just a year
13:22and a half later,
13:23on that exact same wall,
13:2533-year-old Emily Harrington
13:27was attempting something
13:29only three people
13:30in history had ever done,
13:32climb the brutal
13:333,000-foot Golden Gate route
13:35in under 24 hours.
13:38Emily had the experience
13:39to try it.
13:40She was a five-time
13:42U.S. national
13:43sport climbing champion
13:44who had also
13:45summited Mount Everest.
13:47And climbing with her
13:48that day was Alex Honnold.
13:50You've probably heard
13:51of his Taipei 101 climb.
13:53He's one of the most
13:54famous rock climbers
13:55of our time.
13:56So between Emily's experience
13:58and Honnold beside her,
14:00she liked her odds
14:01on that freezing Sunday morning
14:02in November 2019.
14:04It was really cold.
14:06But Emily felt good.
14:09She didn't know that long
14:10before she got anywhere
14:11near the top
14:12that the system
14:13meant to protect her
14:14would turn against her.
14:15She was confident
14:16and the only thing
14:18on her mind that morning
14:19was moving fast enough
14:20to pull this massive
14:21one-day climb off.
14:23To do that,
14:24she and her climbing partner
14:26decided to use a tactic
14:27called simul climbing,
14:29which is exactly
14:30what it sounds like.
14:31One person climbs
14:32while the other
14:33stays anchored safely below,
14:35holding the rope tight.
14:36But in simul climbing,
14:38both climbers are tied
14:39to the same rope,
14:41moving up the wall
14:42at the same time.
14:43The person in front
14:44places a few scattered
14:45pieces of safety gear,
14:47and the person behind
14:48pulls them out
14:49as they climb past.
14:51It's an incredibly fast
14:53way to climb,
14:54but it comes with
14:55one absolute unspoken rule.
14:58The leader cannot fall.
15:00Because both people
15:01are moving,
15:02the person at the bottom
15:03isn't braced
15:04and ready to catch a drop.
15:05They aren't constantly
15:07pulling the rope taut.
15:08Instead,
15:09the rope trailing behind
15:11the leader is mostly loose,
15:13meaning dangerous amounts
15:14of slack just pile up
15:16in the system.
15:17Emily was about
15:17150 feet up the wall
15:19on a section called
15:20the Free Blast Slab.
15:22She was working her way
15:23through a tricky move
15:24on a pair of twin cracks.
15:26Just a few feet above her head
15:28was a fixed safety bolt.
15:29All she had to do
15:31was clip her rope to it.
15:32But to shave off
15:33every possible second,
15:35she skipped it
15:36and kept moving.
15:37Down on the ground,
15:39Honnold was tying his shoes,
15:41getting ready to follow her
15:42up the wall.
15:43Because he hadn't
15:44started climbing yet,
15:46dozens of feet of slack rope
15:47were just pooled loosely
15:49in the dirt around his feet.
15:51Suddenly,
15:51Emily's foot slipped.
15:53Now remember,
15:54all that loose rope
15:55was sitting on the ground
15:56with no tension,
15:57so the rope just fell
15:59through the air
16:00right along with her
16:01at the exact same speed.
16:02The safety system
16:04couldn't even begin
16:05to pull tight and stop her
16:06until she had already
16:07dropped a terrifying distance.
16:10She had fallen
16:11roughly 50 feet
16:12off the hard granite face
16:13and flipped upside down,
16:16which in itself
16:17is already incredibly terrifying.
16:19But what happened next
16:20was the closest thing
16:21to a freak
16:22one-in-a-million tragedy
16:24the sport ever got.
16:25Because as she tumbled
16:27through the air,
16:28the slack rope
16:29whipped upward
16:30and wrapped directly
16:31around her bare neck,
16:32choking her.
16:33She slammed into the wall
16:35and lost consciousness.
16:37Down on the ground,
16:39Honnold immediately
16:40locked the rope off,
16:41caught her fall,
16:42and slowly lowered
16:44her limp body
16:44to a nearby ledge.
16:46Her boyfriend,
16:47a professional Everest guide
16:49named Adrian Ballinger,
16:51had been preparing
16:51to hike to the summit
16:52and rappel
16:53into the route
16:53later that day,
16:54but the moment
16:55word reached him
16:56that Emily had fallen,
16:57he rushed
16:58toward the scene.
16:59When Adrian reached
17:01the ledge,
17:01the most important person
17:02in his world
17:03was crumbled
17:04in the freezing cold.
17:06She was bleeding
17:07from a gash
17:08above her eye,
17:09sporting a horrifying
17:10burn across her neck
17:11and drifting in
17:13and out of consciousness.
17:15Given the violent
17:16whiplash of the rope
17:17catching her by the throat,
17:18they had every reason
17:19to suspect
17:20a catastrophic
17:21spinal cord injury.
17:22Honnold scrambled
17:24up to the ledge,
17:25sat directly beside her,
17:26and physically held
17:27her spine perfectly still
17:29with his hands,
17:30keeping her talking
17:31for 90 agonizing minutes
17:33until Yosemite's
17:34search and rescue
17:35finally arrived.
17:36They rushed her
17:37to the trauma center
17:38in Fresno,
17:39expecting a fractured neck,
17:41paralysis,
17:42or much worse.
17:43It turned out to be
17:45the exact opposite.
17:47Aside from a mild concussion,
17:49some superficial cuts,
17:50and that gruesome
17:51horizontal bruise
17:52on her neck,
17:53she turned out
17:54to be fine.
17:55In fact,
17:56she walked out
17:57of the hospital
17:58on her own two legs
17:59the very next day.
18:00Most people would
18:01never look at
18:02a climbing rope
18:03ever again after that.
18:04But nearly a year later,
18:06in November 2020,
18:08Emily came back.
18:09She climbed
18:10the entire Golden Gate route
18:12in 21 hours
18:13and 13 minutes,
18:14becoming the first woman
18:16to ever free climb it
18:18in a single day.
18:19She even took
18:20another brutal sideways fall
18:21on that attempt,
18:22smashing her head
18:23on the granite
18:24and bleeding heavily,
18:25but she simply
18:26bandaged it up,
18:28chocked her hands,
18:29and kept climbing.
18:30Now,
18:31I need you to stay
18:32with me for these
18:33next three,
18:34because they get worse,
18:35and I don't say
18:36that lightly.
18:37On April 16th,
18:392019,
18:40a 26-year-old
18:41named Kyle Walker
18:42walked up to the
18:43second flat iron
18:44in Boulder, Colorado,
18:45alone.
18:47And unlike Hans
18:48and Emily,
18:49Kyle was free soloing,
18:50no ropes,
18:51so if he fell,
18:52there was nothing
18:53to catch him.
18:54No harness to clip into,
18:56no gear for protection,
18:58just his bare hands
18:59and his feet
19:00against the rock.
19:01I don't need to point out
19:02that a single mistake
19:03in this form of climbing
19:04will result in
19:06the ultimate consequence.
19:07Now,
19:08Kyle wasn't a
19:09world-famous legend,
19:11but he'd climbed up
19:12and down these huge,
19:13slanted rock formations
19:14hundreds of times before,
19:16and that kind of experience
19:17would give anyone
19:18a massive amount
19:18of confidence.
19:19The fact that he was here
19:21with a GoPro
19:22strapped to his chest
19:23while recording
19:23the entire climb
19:24was proof of his
19:26self-belief.
19:27At first,
19:28things went fine,
19:29but about 60 feet
19:31off the ground,
19:32the rock suddenly changed.
19:33It got much steeper,
19:36the handholds
19:36basically vanished,
19:38and Kyle found himself
19:39on a section
19:40covered in a slick,
19:41dry growth
19:42called lichen.
19:43The GoPro footage
19:45captured his breathing
19:46getting faster
19:47as he struggled
19:48to find somewhere to go.
19:50Kyle realized
19:51he was trapped.
19:52He didn't have the gear
19:53to pull himself up,
19:55and the wall
19:56was too steep
19:57and slick
19:57to climb back down
19:58in running shoes.
19:59He muttered
20:00into the camera,
20:01Oh,
20:02what have you done?
20:03He was tiring quickly,
20:05so he had one chance.
20:07He needed to make
20:08an explosive move
20:09to launch himself
20:11off the steep rock
20:12and grab a resting place
20:14above.
20:14He planted his shoes,
20:16shifted his weight,
20:18and jumped upward,
20:19throwing his hands
20:20toward the next solid edge.
20:22That was where
20:23he sealed his fate.
20:25Real rock climbing shoes
20:26are made from soft,
20:28sticky rubber
20:29designed to grip
20:30tiny bumps and grooves
20:31in bare stone.
20:32But that day,
20:34Kyle was wearing
20:35standard running shoes,
20:36just stiff foam
20:38and hard rubber
20:39built for flat pavement.
20:40Trying to launch himself
20:42off a steep wall
20:43covered in dry,
20:44slippery lichen,
20:45while wearing running shoes,
20:47was like trying to sprint
20:49across a wet floor
20:50in wool socks.
20:51There was almost no friction.
20:53So just as Kyle jumped,
20:55the soles of his shoes
20:56gave way on the lichen.
20:57The footage
20:58is absolutely terrifying.
21:01His hands slipped
21:02off the rock,
21:03and then the entire world
21:05blurred.
21:05Kyle slammed feet first
21:07onto a slanted slab
21:09of rock.
21:09That angle
21:10acted like a violent ramp
21:12and scrubbed off
21:13just enough of his momentum
21:15before sending him sliding
21:16and tumbling
21:17into a rocky,
21:18isolated gully.
21:20For the next five minutes,
21:21the camera just stares
21:23blankly at the sky
21:24while you listen
21:26to the harrowing,
21:27ragged,
21:28wheezing sound
21:29of Kyle fighting for air.
21:30The impact
21:31had broken his pelvis,
21:33shattered both of his wrists,
21:35and snapped
21:35eight of his ribs.
21:37One of those ribs
21:38had punctured a lung.
21:39That should have been the end.
21:41I mean,
21:42the guy was even bleeding
21:43heavily from his temple,
21:44which meant a traumatic
21:45brain injury.
21:47For over an hour,
21:48he drifted in
21:49and out of consciousness,
21:50just waiting to die.
21:52But,
21:53by pure,
21:54almost unbelievable luck,
21:56a professional ultra runner
21:57named Anton Kropitschka
21:59happened to be out
22:00for a solo run
22:01deep in the Flatirons
22:03that afternoon.
22:03He heard a faint,
22:05desperate cry,
22:06scrambled over to the gully,
22:08and found Kyle
22:09badly bleeding
22:10and broken.
22:12Anton immediately,
22:13called for help,
22:14and Rocky Mountain Rescue,
22:15when they arrived,
22:17had to strap Kyle's
22:18broken body
22:19into a full-body
22:20vacuum splint,
22:21lower him down
22:22the steep slabs
22:23with ropes,
22:24and carefully carry him
22:25down a loose,
22:27rocky scree trail
22:28just to get him
22:29to a waiting ambulance.
22:31Kyle spent weeks
22:32in the hospital
22:33recovering from
22:34his massive injuries.
22:36His body healed
22:37surprisingly quickly,
22:38but when he finally
22:39got out,
22:40he became a real-life
22:41warning to anyone
22:42else who looks
22:43at a giant rock wall,
22:45thinks it looks easy,
22:46gets in way over
22:48their head without a rope,
22:49and falls to their death.
22:51Kyle's survival
22:52came down to the exact
22:53angle of the rock
22:54deflecting his fall,
22:56and he got off
22:57incredibly lightly.
22:58Because our last story
23:00is the one that I still
23:01cannot stop thinking about.
23:03Because this climber
23:04fell even farther
23:05and had absolutely
23:07no rope at all.
23:08On a busy Saturday
23:10morning in April 2021,
23:12Yosemite Valley
23:13was packed.
23:14Every climbing route
23:15had a weight,
23:16and 31-year-old
23:17Josh Urada,
23:18a former Marine,
23:20was feeling impatient.
23:21Instead of standing
23:22around in line,
23:24Josh walked up to
23:25a 500-foot route
23:26called Nutcracker
23:27and decided to just
23:28climb it free solo,
23:30just like Kyle.
23:31About halfway up
23:32this massive
23:33500-foot wall,
23:35Josh ran into traffic.
23:37A group of climbers
23:38were ahead of him,
23:39doing things
23:40the normal,
23:41safe way.
23:42One climber was slowly
23:43making his way
23:44up the rock,
23:45while his partner
23:46stood below
23:46on a narrow ledge,
23:48managing the safety ropes
23:49just in case of a fall.
23:51Because they were
23:52placing safety gear,
23:53they were moving slowly.
23:55But when you're
23:56free soloing,
23:57you don't have a harness
23:58or a rope
23:59you can just hang from
24:00to take a break.
24:01Clinging to a sheer
24:02cliff face
24:03while you wait
24:04for people to get
24:04out of your way
24:05is exhausting.
24:07So Josh looked at
24:08the guy standing
24:08on the ledge
24:09managing the ropes
24:10and asked if he could
24:11just climb right
24:12past them.
24:13The team politely
24:14stepped aside.
24:16Josh climbed up,
24:17moved past them,
24:18and kept going
24:19higher into the sky.
24:20A few minutes later,
24:22Josh reached the
24:23absolute hardest part
24:24of the entire climb.
24:26Climbers call it
24:26a mantle crux,
24:28but you don't need
24:29to be a climber
24:29to understand exactly
24:30how awkward
24:31and dangerous
24:32this move is.
24:33The easiest way
24:34to picture it
24:35is trying to
24:35heave yourself
24:36out of the deep
24:37end of a swimming
24:38pool without
24:39using a ladder.
24:40Imagine trying to
24:41do that,
24:42but instead of a
24:42flat, wet pool deck,
24:44you're hundreds of
24:45feet in the air,
24:46trying to push
24:47your entire body weight
24:48over a smooth,
24:49bulging dome of
24:50granite.
24:51There are no good
24:52handholds to wrap
24:53your fingers around,
24:55you can't pull,
24:56you just have to
24:57press your bare
24:58palms flat against
24:59the stone,
25:00push down as
25:01hard as you can,
25:02and desperately
25:03try to hike your
25:04foot high enough
25:05to stand up on
25:06the rock.
25:07It requires perfect
25:08balance and
25:10absolute friction,
25:12and nothing to
25:13stop him if he
25:14slipped,
25:14which is exactly
25:15what happened.
25:17One moment,
25:18Josh was on the
25:19rock,
25:19thinking of his
25:20next move,
25:21and then he just
25:22slipped.
25:23In a normal fall,
25:24he would have
25:25dropped straight down
25:26through the empty
25:26air,
25:27but this cliff
25:28wasn't perfectly
25:29straight up and
25:29down.
25:30It leaned just
25:31slightly backward,
25:33almost like a
25:33dangerously steep
25:34slide.
25:35So when Josh
25:36slipped,
25:37he fell backward
25:38and began sliding
25:39down the rock face
25:40on his back,
25:41feet first,
25:42and he was awake
25:43and aware for
25:44every single
25:45second of it.
25:46Imagine sliding
25:47down a cliff face
25:48at highway speeds,
25:50staring up at the
25:50sky.
25:51Josh dug his
25:52heels hard into
25:53the stone.
25:54He reached both
25:55of his bare hands
25:56behind his back,
25:57scraping and
25:58clawing at the
25:59rock,
26:00desperately trying
26:01to slow himself
26:01down.
26:02And as he was
26:03falling,
26:04he looked down
26:04between his
26:05legs.
26:06Right in his
26:07path,
26:07standing on a
26:08ledge over a
26:09hundred feet
26:09below him,
26:10was the exact
26:11same climber
26:12he had just
26:12passed.
26:14In the middle
26:14of a massive
26:15drop that he
26:16knew for a
26:16fact was going
26:17to kill him,
26:18Josh's only
26:19thought was that
26:20he couldn't
26:21take someone
26:21else out with
26:22him.
26:22He used his
26:23last terrifying
26:24seconds in the
26:25air to
26:26physically twist
26:27and aim his
26:28falling body,
26:29desperately trying
26:30to steer away
26:31from the man
26:32standing below.
26:33Down on that
26:34ledge, the
26:35climber he had
26:36been trying to
26:36avoid, a man
26:38named Cole
26:38Ramey, heard a
26:40scream, looked
26:41up, saw Josh
26:43sliding straight
26:43at him, and
26:45threw himself out
26:46of the way at
26:46the very last
26:47possible second,
26:48before Josh
26:49violently slammed
26:51into a boulder
26:51on the ledge
26:52with his
26:53back, and
26:54then silence.
26:55Cole scrambled
26:56over to the
26:57boulder, expecting
26:58to find a
26:58corpse.
26:59You don't
27:00expect a man
27:00who fell from
27:01a height of a
27:0215-story building
27:03to survive, and
27:04when he looked
27:05down at Josh, it
27:06was a nightmare.
27:07Because Josh hit
27:09the rock in a
27:09seated position, the
27:11crash acted like a
27:12bomb going off at
27:13the bottom of his
27:14body.
27:14His heel bone had
27:16exploded into
27:16powder.
27:17His other foot was
27:19ripped wide open.
27:20The sheer impact
27:21shoved his legs
27:22upwards so violently
27:24that it snapped his
27:25hips in half and
27:26crushed his lower
27:27back.
27:28His chest caved in,
27:30breaking his
27:31breastbone and
27:32popping one of his
27:33lungs like a
27:33balloon.
27:34And his hands were
27:36just raw meat from
27:37trying to claw at the
27:38bare rock all the
27:39way down.
27:40Cole was staring at
27:42a guy who absolutely
27:43should be dead, but
27:45then he saw something
27:46impossible.
27:47Josh's broken chest
27:49chest was moving, he
27:50was still alive.
27:52To understand how
27:53lucky that is, Josh
27:55had just dropped
27:56almost 200 feet.
27:58An uncontrolled fall
27:59from that height onto
28:01granite is the kind of
28:02accident nobody expects
28:04anyone to survive.
28:05But because the wall
28:07leaned slightly backward
28:08like a steep slide,
28:10because he aggressively
28:11clawed at the rock to
28:12slow himself down, and
28:14because he hit that
28:15ledge instead of
28:16falling all the way to
28:17the bottom of the
28:17valley, he cheated
28:19death.
28:19Somehow, Cole
28:21immediately called for
28:22help, but given how
28:23high up they were and
28:24how remote it was, help
28:26was going to take a
28:27while.
28:28So for the next four
28:29agonizing hours, Cole
28:31sat on that ledge and
28:33physically tried to keep
28:34Josh company any way he
28:36could.
28:36He physically held
28:37Josh's bleeding body in
28:39his arms just to keep
28:40him from rolling off the
28:42edge.
28:43Josh, for his part,
28:45knew that if he
28:46panicked, his heart rate
28:47would spike, he would
28:49go into shock, and he
28:50could die right there.
28:52So, to distract his
28:53brain from the blinding
28:55pain, Josh asked Cole to
28:57pull out his phone, and
28:59as they sat hundreds of
29:00feet in the air waiting
29:01for a search-and-rescue
29:02helicopter to finally lift
29:04him off the wall, Josh
29:06forced himself to watch
29:07downloaded TV shows and
29:09listen to music as though
29:10this were any other day.
29:12And it worked, because
29:13eventually, a Yosemite
29:15search-and-rescue
29:16helicopter managed to
29:17lift him off the wall.
29:18Josh spent 37 days in
29:20the hospital, and putting
29:22him back together took a
29:23massive medical effort.
29:25Surgeons used heavy metal
29:27brackets to fuse his
29:28crushed spine.
29:29They drove metal pins into
29:31his pulverized feet and
29:32mangled hands.
29:33He needed chest tubes to
29:35reinflate his popped lung,
29:37and he had to lie painfully
29:39still for weeks just to let
29:41his snapped hips and
29:42caved-in chest slowly knit
29:44back together, but some
29:46things couldn't be fixed.
29:48The crushing damage to his
29:50lower back was severe,
29:51leaving him unable to feel
29:53or move his feet, with
29:55doctors unsure how much
29:56function would eventually
29:57return.
29:58He survived a massive 200-foot
30:01freefall that nobody
30:02survives, but when he
30:04finally spoke about it
30:05later, his main emotion
30:07wasn't even relief.
30:08It was guilt.
30:09He felt deep, lingering
30:12guilt that his own
30:13impatience had put an
30:14innocent climber's life at
30:16risk, and he carried a
30:18profound survivor's guilt
30:19that he had fallen further
30:20than anyone ever should,
30:22and somehow he was still
30:24breathing.
30:25Josh survived the fall
30:27because of an almost
30:28impossible combination of
30:30terrain and luck.
30:31He survived what came
30:33afterward because another
30:34climber refused to leave
30:36him alone.
30:37But not every climber is
30:38that fortunate.
30:39Anton Selick learned that
30:41in the worst possible
30:42way.
30:43After falling 400 feet
30:45down a snowy winter
30:46mountain in the dead of
30:48night, Anton woke up
30:50hours later in the
30:51freezing snow.
30:52His skull was fractured,
30:54fluid was leaking from
30:55his ears, and when he
30:57blindly reached into the
30:58darkness, he found the
31:00lifeless bodies of his
31:01three best friends tangled
31:03in the ropes beside him.
31:05No rescue team was coming.
31:06Anton was completely
31:08alone.
31:09What he did next was one
31:11of the most unbelievable
31:12feats of raw human
31:14survival ever recorded.
31:16the episode.
31:20The episode is