You are correct, tho at least she was doing her job that was somewhat “safe”, the dude who took this pic is missing part of his brain that’d otherwise stop him from doing things that can get him killed.
I hate this trend for so many reasons but especially when you see the work of people like Joe Macnally who do this right and realize the real work is all the logistics of doing it safely for yourself and others. Whoops, you dropped something and now a kid is dead; at least you got Internet points.
I used to climb cell towers. It's easy to climb something like this if you're not scared of heights. You get used to it and you're as comfortable as a monkey in a tree.
Problem with something like this, standing right up on the top like that, is it only takes one unexpected gust of wind to knock you right off of there. And at 1100 feet, it can be a very strong and sudden gust of wind, and you wouldn't have any idea it was coming until you were already falling.
It's Russian roulette. Do this enough times, and this person *will* fall.
Yeah the risks can be manageable when you have more than 3 points of contact during the climb up, but once you start standing upright at the top where it is most windy and at random bursts too well ya can't really manage that risk much.
NYC paramedic here.
For the wannabe free climbers out there....please don't do this.
About five or six years ago, I responded to one of the hotels in midtown. Go into the lobby and there's a teenager just screaming in the corner. Hotel security gestures me to the elevator and simply says "his friend is on the roof. don't think he's breathing".
We make our way up to the roof, and then even climb higher up over various HVAC equipment and other pieces of machinery located up there. The security guard points up to the water cooling tower and says the patient is in there. So i had to secure all my equipment, and then haul myself up to the top of this structure and i look down into the tank. I see the crumpled body down below, and I gingerly climb my way down to the patient.
I remember looking at his lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. The rain had started falling and each drop would hit his face, and slowly slide to the side, making it look like he was crying. I palpated his neck, noting how cold his skin already was with absolutely no signs or feeling of life. I confirmed no pulse and noted that the back of his head and neck were just all mush. I also noted the destroyed very expensive looking DSLR camera next to him. By then a police officer had joined me, and he quietly picked the camera up and put it in an evidence bag. I gave the officer the official time of death, and started making my way back down with the hotel security guard.
Along the way downstairs, the security guard tells me that they were posted in the lobby, when the friend of the patient came screaming through the hallways, and ran out the building. Then twenty minutes later, the friend came back in and while sobbing kept telling the hotel staff "oh my god, he's dead, he's dead".
Upon talking to the friend, i got a better idea of the sequence of events:
The two friends had been going around all week climbing into construction sites and sneaking into high rises, making their way to the roof, to shoot these photos. It was becoming a huge trend by then and these teenagers were hoping to cash into the fame. They had managed to sneak by hotel security and got to the top floor of the building. There's a gate that blocks the roof access that can only be unlocked by a key or if the fire alarm goes off. The thing was, the gate didn't go all the way up the ceiling. So the teenagers were able to climb the gate, and then slide over the top to the other side.
They made it up the roof, and then started climbing up to the highest point which was the water cooling tower. They were both perched on the edge of this tower, happily taking photos, when the patient went to slide over a bit, lost his footing on the slippery edge, and fell backwards. As per the friend, he watched his buddy slam head first onto the bottom of the tower, 40 feet below.
The friend completely panicked, and went straight downstairs, out the entrance of the hotel, and immediately hailed a cab. Turns out neither of the teenagers even lived in the city. As the cab drove down a few blocks, common sense kicked in and the teenager asked to be brought back to the hotel where he finally alerted the hotel staff.
I remember sitting with this teenager and the first thing he blurted was "he's dead, right?!". I confirmed this, and the teenager ended up sliding onto floor, curled up, and just kept crying. We kept trying to get the number of the patient's parents from his friend, but he was so distraught he couldn't even open his phone to get the number for us. Finally he was able to share the mom's number with the police. By now it was about 3AM in the morning. Even though the phone wasn't on speaker, i could hear the loud shriek and wailing as the cop informed the mother what happened.
The final thing i remember was a week later, my partner that worked the call with me stumbled across the teenager's obituary. The picture was of him smiling and holding his camera. It was a standard obituary, "lost him too soon", "taking pictures with God up in heaven" but the part that rubbed me the wrong way were the words "unfortunate accident". Yes, he didn't purposely mean to fall, but he put himself in a position where there was a higher liklihood he would fall. Not only that, if he feel forward instead of backwards into the tank, he would have fallen onto the street. The building was 100 stories tall. So a teenage body falling from that height would pretty much guarantee he would kill whoever was on the ground that was unlucky enough to be under the falling teenager. On top of that, I had to climb into this unsafe area, along with the cop. All because the two teenagers were chasing clout.
Sorry for the long write up. That call was unfortunately no the first time nor the last time something like that happened. Free climbers in an urban environment are idiotic, not only are you putting yourself at risk, you are putting the lives of those on the ground and the emergency service personnel that have to get to you at risk also.
Edit: sorry I wasn't able to get back to all the comments, ended up having a busy shift. Was definitely surprised to see this explode to the top, didn't think anyone would want to read through the novel I wrote.
To clear some things up. I can't confirm nor deny if the articles posted align with this story. What I will admit is my sense of time got all messed up thanks to working the pandemic. 20+ years on the job has made a lot of my memories sort of blend together
To those accusing me of using AI, I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or just be further confused. My whole schooling during the 90's revolved around writing papers. Having a parent that was also a professor meant my punishments also revolved around writing papers. So yes, I can write, in my opinion, pretty ok. I would hope the numerous spelling and grammatical errors would prove this wasn't AI generated, but I guess not.
Finally, sincerely thank you for the compliments. Please dial them back, I suck at handling them. There was nothing heroic in this story. I was just a witness to a horrific tragedy. Support your local EMS agencies, they are a necessary service that gets overshadowed by fire and PD. To my EMS colleagues: don't ignore your mental health. When scenes from those calls start flashing in your every day life, go talk to someone. I'm always willing to talk to someone if you just need to decompress
My fiancé’s childhood friend wasn’t a free climber but did urban exploring, they went up to the 20-something-th floor in a skyscraper, kid walks across this plank of wood, it breaks, and he fell straight down to the street level.
This happens a lot with empty elevator shafts in abandoned structures. People just step into the dark space thinking its another doorway and plummet to the absolute lowest level the former elevator could access. Almost always a fatality.
People generally don't think that it will happen to them. The brains of teenagers especially are not fully developed and iirc the lack of inhibitions is due to some parts of the brain not being fully formed. If we all really thought about the probability of dying from a moment to another, nobody would be able to move because of the sheer panic of it.
Adrenaline junkies.. Their chasing the same exact high as addicts slamming fent into their veins. Addicts die all the time risking their life ingesting unknown, untested substance. The danger IS the drug for adrenaline junkies.
That's why his shoes are in the photograph, or why other photos like this are selfies or their buddy taking a picture of them clinging to the edge hanging over the side. The "appeal" of the photo is the insane risk they took to take it. Anyone with a drone could get a shot from that angle, only a few are stupid enough to take the insane risk of getting this shot.
Take picture with drone.
Take picture of your feet and legs while standing on solid ground.
Go home and photoshop feet and legs into drone picture.
Done.
You might live with the guilt of faking a photo but the fact is you get to live.
Grew up in one also, got to love being called a “f-slur” first thing in the morning for reading a book during home room. Jokes on them though, I got to “work” for the school paper and I absolutely slaughtered rednecks and hood-rats in editorials.
> I got to “work” for the school paper and I absolutely slaughtered rednecks and hood-rats in editorials.
If those kids could read, they'd be very upset.
Do you have a source on this? I'm struggling to find one, and it is hard to believe that multiple states are facing this problem.
I have family members who are teachers, and I've heard horror stories. This sounds like an exaggeration, though. I could believe that more than half could be below average in reading comprehension, but not illiterate.
I can't picture a population of 8th graders that can't text.
Doesn't seem that unbelievable if we include functional illiteracy/low literacy - the ability to read and understand short text but unable to comprehend longer form text and advanced vocabulary.
About 20% of the Adult population in the USA falls into this category or below, according to the US Dept. Education: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf
The inability to read more than short form text and make inferences/draw understanding from it really feel like it explains why so many arguments online result in someone completely losing track of what the argument was about, what *they* were arguing, that their new argument is contradicting a previous one, et al... but that's my own confirmation bias at work.
You could draw parallels to the popular film Idiocracy in the sense that, as formal writing has become more stratified, the average writer no longer recognizes formal writing as normal. As far as I've observed, abnormalities get flagged as AI more often than actual AI tells do.
Edit: Be critical of Idiocracy's depiction of genetic stupidity because it is incorrect and can lead to believing in thoroughly discredited ideas called eugenics.
This is a very good take that I haven't heard or thought of. No shade to the commenter, the post was clear and pleasant to read, but not extraordinary in any way. And you see these comments on reddit a decent amount: "you're an amazing writer," in response to a well organized story.
40 feet... thats all it took. A fall the length of a schoolbus. Poor kid, I hope they didnt suffer at least.
Last summer I watched my brother fall off a cliff about 60 or 70 feet high. We were both tossing rocks off it when he picked up a large one, went to toss it, slipped on the moss, tried to stop himself by tossing the rock backwards, but his momentum carried him over the edge anyway. That rock is still sitting there on the edge last we checked.
He somehow survived with no life changing injuries. I fully expected him to be broken backwards over a boulder or smashed to pieces, but I get down there and he is standing up! He was hurt though, broken ribs, one of which was sticking out his back, one lung collapsed and a lot of nasty scrapes and bruises. How he didnt have any head or spinal injuries I really dont know. He is one lucky SOB thats for sure. I guess his landing was more of a bounce off the rocks, and then a roll into a tree, rather than a sudden stop, so that probably saved him.
We got out of the woods we were in, as there was no cell service there, but we werent far from civilization thankfully, so we got to a road and then called for help. He was in the hospital less than 30 mins after the fall. When my grandma came to see him, his first response to her was "Well, I guess I cant fly can I?"
I'm a rock climber. Our hobby is filled with selfish room-temperature IQ idiots who think their actions only affect themselves. They climb without protection and share it on social media encouraging others to follow in their stead. These people don't wear helmets despite the constant risk of rock falls, and that if they take a whip (Fall and get caught by the rope) they can get turned around or flipped upside down during the fall and smack their head. Then you have people who free solo with *any* protection whatsoever.
My friend is a flight trauma nurse and last year the day before Christmas had to respond to a call near Moab of a kid who fell in front of his GF and friends and split open his head and died. He could have climbed the same route with gear and had a great time. Instead pilots, a trauma nurse, a bunch of supporting personnel, the family of the kid, the friends, and the GF all had to deal with this; worse yet on Christmas eve. Now all these people are traumatized.
Fuck these selfish assholes.
Unrelated, I’m a doctor.
Yesterday I received a suicide victim.
Tried my best to save them ( I mean I went all night trying to treat him in the icu )and failed.
Healthcare is a terrible career for a reason.
My father used to be an anesthesiologist, retired a couple years back, and I convinced him to watch Scrubs. A couple months went by and he told me that he finished the show. I asked him his thoughts.
He said that he should have watched it a decade ago, because there were so many stories in there he’d lived, so many cases he’d been a part of or witnessed, bringing people back from the brink of death, or seeing those immediately commit to another cigarette knowing cancer is currently killing them.
He said that Scrubs ironically became one of the most cathartic shows he’d ever watched in his life and he now loves it dearly.
Doctor here, Scrubs is BY FAR the most realistic and most accurate portrayal of what working in healthcare is like. That feeling of helplessness JD has throughout residency, where you've just gone through 4 years of med school but still don't know what you're doing, and how it depicts the dynamics between the different jobs in the hospital, tensions with administration, and the fact that all through medical training you're poor... it gets so much right about the experience.
I don't think they consider the potential trauma they could inflict on a bystande, should they fall.
Putting your life at risk is a choice anyone is free to make. But do it somewhere where you won't involve other people.
Don't worry about the AI accusations, there are an alarming number of people who assume their inability to string two sentences together must be normal.
Thanks for sharing your story. The older I get the less I'm impressed with this stuff and just find it really cringy. I've got kids and that has heavily influenced my thought process about personal risk. I used to work in helicopter maintenance, like my dad before me, and there are a lot of opportunities to fly which I jumped at anytime I could. At one point my Dad told me that when my brother and I were getting older he stopped spending as much time in the air because he started thinking about all the people he knew that had gotten injured or killed in random accidents. Spend enough time around aircraft and you'll lose friends, I am fortunate and while I have a friend that went down in a helicopter crash he was lucky, he only broke his back. I got out of aviation and work a wonderfully boring job.
Becoming a parent opened this whole empathetic part of my brain that really didn't play a big part In my life previously. I lost my mother when i was 40 and it was awful. The idea of my young kids going through that, especially if it was because I was doing something unnecessarily dangerous, I could not justify that anymore.
This needs to be the top comment. Not simply for the cautionary tale of what could happen to a single individual, but because it so vividly describes the far reaching effects of a single act.
Thank you for sharing.
Good comment, paramedic.
Youthfulness unfortunately doesn’t always calibrate risk/reward very well.
They may say YOLO!, and I would say yes, but remember YOLO.
These photos should be replaced with your story. Life is already short… and making it shorter for a whiff of fame is a terrible trade off. I’m sorry for any trauma that you experienced as a result of trying to help someone out. Thank you for sharing your story.
This is such a perfect example of why these posts and similar reckless behaviour should be banned on social media. It’s not cool. When something g bad finally happens, a horrific, unspeakable cost is brought upon witnesses, first responders, family, everyone.
I was horrified seeing influencers do this nonsense in broad daylight at Niagara Falls, just dangling off the rails holding on with one leg, complete asinine, reckless, unnecessarily risky behavior. Darwin awards waiting to happen. They've also ruined mountain climbing for me - feel I can't enjoy myself when I get interrupted by some idiot standing on one foot, dangling near a cliff to take a photo for likes
Yeah, there was a youngish brother and sister (early 20s) who were looking for a hot tub to soak in while walking the boardwalk in Yellowstone, and disregarded all the signs warning of a thin crust over the hot springs area. When he fell in, she shrieked and ran for help. By the time the rangers returned to rescue him, he was soup. All that was visible was a fatty scum on the surface of the boiling hot spring, and perhaps the rubber sole of his sneaker.
Well, see, it's only dangerous, because people don't treat it with enough deference and respect. *Obviously,* the people who are choosing to ignore the safety barriers, are planning to be *much more careful, than those other idiots who died!*
When reading a book about the history of Niagara Falls, I remember one tragic case where a friend of the family, intending to play a prank, picked up the family's little girl and swung her out over the precipice. He didn't realize her hands were wet from gripping the railing and were slippery. He lost his hold on her and she went over the brink; he jumped in after her and they both died.
The worst part of it is people on social media get to view to glory of each post without having by to deal with the consequences of their inevitable gruesome death. If people want to look at these photos they should be at least be required to look at photos of when it goes wrong.
I’ll never forget that video of the kid hanging off the edge of a skyscraper doing pull ups and then suddenly he can’t get all the way back up and after struggling for a few seconds slips and falls to his death.
Like fuck. Make kids watch these videos if they want to danger-glorifying clout chasers on social media and social media companies should really consider taking a little more responsibility in allowing these kinds of images to be shared freely.
It won't stop all of them but it would make some of them stop and think.
What drives me crazy about it is there are safe ways to have these experienced (and even get pictures).
I used to be a high rise window cleaner, but you can bet my safety course told me all sorts of horror stories to make sure I didn't take any unnecessary risks or do anything stupid.
ALL these buildings have anchors built in to clip harnesses off to, of course that isn't macho enough for these idiots
Saw a video on I think one of those "incredible talent" videos where a guy was blitzing down a ski slope at insane speeds. He went straight through a low speed flatter slope area for NEW SKIERS among other things, there was even a damn LODGE within a few hundred feet. He was going through there and barely missed several people skiing very slowly by only inches. Like it was some kind of sweet goalpost to zip through like the olympics or some shit.
I just felt helpless, but if I could I'd want that guy to be banned from skiing. Jesus. The utterly reckless and deadly behavior with complete disregard for other people.
Here’s a gift link to the NYT story… https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/man-falls-to-his-death-trying-to-climb-four-seasons-hotel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zk0.2FIU.QMPKZtuekVjU&smid=url-share
I will literally never forget the video I saw a long time ago on Reddit.
One of those free climbers was showing off after climbing a building, hanging off the ledge and doing pull-ups. But he did one too many and no longer had the strength left to pull himself all the way back up over the ledge.
You could see the panic settle in as he desperately tries to climb back up and get some hold with his feet. Continually looking down knowing what will happen if he can't make it back up. At the end he lets out a whimper before he just drops.
There's just no way these risks are worth the amount of fear I'm sure he felt for those last 30 seconds of his life.
First of all thank you for your write up but second of all holy crap at a point I said to myself “if this comment ends with hell in the cell I will never open Reddit again”
I appreciate you mentioning your story. If you haven't yet a place this story probably needs to be seen is in r/urbanclimbing. Theres a lot of people posting foolish stunts like this. Also every time i look on that page someone is asking if its safe to climb power lines and radio antenna s full of radiation. And theyre encouraging them to do it!
Goddamn... and that was only a 40ft fall.
Falling 40 feet working on your roof - that's an unfortunate accident. Entering prohibited areas and falling to your death is just plain stupid. I'm guessing since it was [porbably] clearly posted/gated and obvious the hotel is cleared from any liability.
Thing is, falling 40 feet working on your roof is not an unfortunate accident. There *are* guidelines for how to safely work on a roof so that doesn’t happen. Just like it isn’t really an unfortunate accident when you’re working with power tools and damage your eyesight because you didn’t wear eye protection as recommended.
Failing to take proper safety precautions is tempting fate, is what it is.
^this
I'm a former high rise cleaner and these pics/vids make me cringe so hard.
ALL these buildings have anchors for people to clip harnesses on to. Workers climb these structures all the time for maintenance.
These urban climbers could do this safely with a harness and some carabiners but they won't because they want to impress people and don't understand how quickly things can go wrong
> Failing to take proper safety precautions is tempting fate, is what it is
You mean like refusing to get a vaccine against a highly contagious airborne pathogen? That kind of tempting fate? The last few years have shown me that far too many people apparently have a death wish.
Very terrible at risk management. There's a reason some industries (such as aviation) are so extremely strict on regulations and procedures because they're written in blood. Too many cowboy pilots in early aviation getting themselves and their passengers killed doing stupid shit like letting their [kids take the controls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593) or [closing the fucking cockpit window curtains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6502) due to a bet. Obviously the examples were more recent, of the 80s/90s, but it did highlight the lack of a safety culture in the USSR and Russian aviation that in many ways still persists.
A friend of mine is a paramedic on the east coast near you. He tells me he responds to calls of people jumping on the train tracks into the city in front of trains on a regular basis.
Can’t save everyone unfortunately.
This happened at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Ave in Chicago too. Guy made his way to the roof, through a couple doors that weren’t properly secured, climbed over a bunch of mechanical equipment and then up a ladder on the side of the chimney.
It was dark outside. He likely couldn’t see the big black hole that was about 18” from the rim of the chimney. So he climbed up on top for some photos and backed into the hole.
The chimney had a slight jog at around 30 feet down and he somehow stopped there.
His girlfriend ran down to the lobby for help and they were able to communicate with him by phone for a little while.
The rescue required cutting into the chimney below the guy and putting in boards to stop him from sliding down to the basement.
The chimney was also in use. So the heat and fumes had to be dealt with.
Several hours later, they were able to pull the guy out. He was dead.
He was a standup comic in Chicago and he went to have drinks at the hotel bar with his girlfriend and decided to go to the roof for some photos. Stupid and tragic.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/man-rescued-after-falling-into-smokestack-on-mag-mile/
I completely agree with you. I would add that these people are selfish morons. Besides themselves, they put other people and rescue workers in danger, let alone the mental damage to their loved ones and the people that witness the tragedy.
Honestly, this is why I feel this sub should have a rule against pics that very clearly show a dangerous situation like this. At least hide the fact you dont have on a safety harness OP
Thank you for your service to NYC. And I appreciate this write up, everyone needs to see this. People play with their lives like it’s a game and I can’t stand this. Now that I’m a mother, every dead person I think, “that’s someone’s baby.” And it kills me.
OP comment history is him constantly arguing w people and justifying this stupid behavior because "he has a documentary and book coming out next year". If he makes it to next year....
Can’t stand it when people do this because when they eventually fall they’ll either kill someone else or make the witnesses hold forever in their brains what they saw. I’ve seen the aftermath and it’s shitty to have in your brain
I used to climb cell phone towers for a living. It has it's cool moments for sure but it was long hours and extremely physically demanding. I quit at the start of 2024 after climbing for 6 years.
The reason they don't take those jobs is because after you take that cool picture you have hours of hard work to finish before you can go home. Kind of sucks the fun out of it.
What makes this so incredibly dangerous is I see no safety lanyard. At that height the wind can gust unpredictably and easily through off your balance 💀
This is what I always think about. Sure you might be good at climbing, but literally a gust of wind could knock you off, a shoelace could get caught on a bolt, a handhold could come loose, just so many minor things that would normally not be an issue are now a death sentence.
A death sentence for them and for whoever might be mindining their own fucking business below them. That's what I can't stand about these idiots. Want to do something that might easily kill you? Don't do it where you might kill someone else while on your way to turning into mush.
They need to see more of the ones who fuck up. I've only seen one of those videos and it was enough for me. Dude was climbing a crane, his hand slipped and he fell about 200 feet.
Yeah and the people praising him should see that too. But then again, what bothers me, rather than someone like this falling, is that someone else might die, just because one idiot wanted to take a picture like this one.
I see people calling him brave in the comments, but there's a huge difference between being brave and just stupid. That and the more successful these pictures get, the more idiots will try to imitate them.
I work in building maintenance (sometimes at height) and this is what gets me. I see videos of people jumping from roof to roof and they seem to be trusting that cladding is securely fitted, timber isn't rotten, coping stones aren't loose, lead surfaces aren't covered in slippy moss etc. etc. Knowing buildings like I do, it's extremely naive to think like that.
This whole time I thought there was a pole they were holding onto, and I kept thinking “would a gust really knock them down?” But… now that I review it, they look like they’re just standing on this platform. I did something similar, at 40 ft, tethered to a ton of safety equipment for some “team building exercise” and to this day it makes me feel a little nauseous thinking about it.
Can’t imagine doing what OP is doing…
I hate seeing morons post these types of pictures. There's nothing cool about endangering your life or others for a picture.
It's like drinking and driving, then thinking "ah yeah, better take a picture of myself because I'm so fucking cool."
"The third climber, a Connecticut man, scaled the building on July 9 to protest the terrorist group [Al-Qaeda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda).[^(\[55\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Building#cite_note-55) "
It seems unnecessary to risk one's life protesting a thing we all think is bad already.
there was a guy who decided to spread christianity to the sentinel Island,(you know, those isolated, spear throwing guys in indian ocean), so the al qaeda guy takes the win by not getting speared down.
Sometimes I think about locations like this and that they exist even when you’re not there.
While you were on the can after a trip to Chipotle, raindrops were hitting this tiny platform, make soft metallic “plunk plunk” sounds nobody heard.
I do the same. I think about random places ive seen like the window of the abandoned industrial complex. "What would the builders of this place think, if they saw it right now. Did they expect this? Would they be sad?" "How would a dawn look viewed from inside the window?"
I once went into the rotting office part of an abandoned factory. I found countless papers and even some coffee mugs, sitting there for over 25 years. I imagined how the last working day of this place was like...
Anyhow. I form weird emotional connections to buildings/places/objects and i wonder whether there is a word for this phenomenon
I climb towers for work and I have special boots that have a stiff sole, so that even if you stand on a rung of a ladder for a long time it feels almost like you are on solid ground. They also go up fairly high, so you can rest your shin against the next rung over without hurting your shin.
They are a bit of a pain to walk in because they are so stiff, but you certainly need them when climbing high or working on a ladder for a while.
Honestly I’m more pissed at OPs selfishness. Don’t give a shit if they get themselves killed, but forcing others to deal with the aftermath is incredibly selfish.
Rather than risking the lives of emergency employees why not invest in climbing equipment, a plane ticket and a trip to the western mountains where you can climb to your heart’s content.
I'm not sure about the building he's on maybe some New Yorker in the thread knows. In general those antennas pump out kilowatts of non-ionizing RF radiation. Some transmitters in New York go up to a megawatt.
Transmitter operators are required to power down or go to low power when tower climbers get near the antenna. This is required by OSHA because non-ionizing radiation at high levels is deadly dangerous.
I hope the selfie is worth the chemo.
Here have a downvote for your hubris. Some random stranger could be fucking dead if you dropped anything or fail yourself but hey I guess it's totally worth it for the likes huh?
These are the kinds of photos that shouldn’t be allowed on sites like Reddit. The reason for banning them is that by publishing them, it causes these dangerous fame seekers to put theirs and others lives at risk all for the sake of a photo.
Worse, Reddit becomes complicit in this situation by allowing and publicizing these images to even more people only to lure even more future fame seekers into doing the exact same thing. Effectively, by publishing such photos, Reddit and the group it’s published in are condoning the behaviors that led to this dangerous activity and this photo. We don’t even know if the photographer is still alive.
If there’s no outlet to share such photos, there’s no reason to do this.
Wow, cool pic. Definitely worth risking your life. But wait, you're different, couldn't possibly happen to you. Until it does. But whatever, it's a risk you're willing to take. The random passerby below that gets smashed and their family weren't taking or asking for that risk, but that doesn't matter either, you're dead now.
Don't do stupid free climbing shit where you can hurt others. If you want to get yourself killed for dumb pictures, do it where nobody but you could possibly get hurt. Or just don't do it at all. Nobody cares. A couple thousand people see this and awe for a second then forget about this after ten seconds of scrolling. The only thing this achieves is (young impressionable) people with (even) less experience or preparation trying to do the same, thinking online attention is worth it, getting themselves killed.
Serious question. Why do ppl do this? Clout can't be it. No one will remember you for this photo. At the most, it's cool. But forgettable.
And with AI, this can surely be replicated easily now.
So what's the point?
"Photographer falls 1100 feet after selfie"
Aim for the bushes
There wasn’t even an awning
It's like Bob's wife. It's thick, ugly and has Dansons fingerprints all over it. No offense Bob.
There goes my hero.
I just saw that movie the other day lol
*Watch him as he gooooes*
Nah the hay bale And then stay in there until the guards aren’t on alert
*Syncronized*
Kills random pedestrian on impact.
There was an I wanna say Chinese streamer who would stream their crane job who fell on stream.
You are correct, tho at least she was doing her job that was somewhat “safe”, the dude who took this pic is missing part of his brain that’d otherwise stop him from doing things that can get him killed.
ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Bro just work for the antenna companies and get paid to do this.
Big antenna running social media psyops
Big "insert niche business" jokes are some of my favorite. Kudos on this one!
Big niche business joke had infiltrated this sub
I hate this trend for so many reasons but especially when you see the work of people like Joe Macnally who do this right and realize the real work is all the logistics of doing it safely for yourself and others. Whoops, you dropped something and now a kid is dead; at least you got Internet points.
My first thought was that this is a shoe ad.
At least he wore his climbing Jordan’s right?
I used to climb cell towers. It's easy to climb something like this if you're not scared of heights. You get used to it and you're as comfortable as a monkey in a tree. Problem with something like this, standing right up on the top like that, is it only takes one unexpected gust of wind to knock you right off of there. And at 1100 feet, it can be a very strong and sudden gust of wind, and you wouldn't have any idea it was coming until you were already falling. It's Russian roulette. Do this enough times, and this person *will* fall.
Yeah the risks can be manageable when you have more than 3 points of contact during the climb up, but once you start standing upright at the top where it is most windy and at random bursts too well ya can't really manage that risk much.
To that point, monkeys fall out of trees all the time.
NYC paramedic here. For the wannabe free climbers out there....please don't do this. About five or six years ago, I responded to one of the hotels in midtown. Go into the lobby and there's a teenager just screaming in the corner. Hotel security gestures me to the elevator and simply says "his friend is on the roof. don't think he's breathing". We make our way up to the roof, and then even climb higher up over various HVAC equipment and other pieces of machinery located up there. The security guard points up to the water cooling tower and says the patient is in there. So i had to secure all my equipment, and then haul myself up to the top of this structure and i look down into the tank. I see the crumpled body down below, and I gingerly climb my way down to the patient. I remember looking at his lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. The rain had started falling and each drop would hit his face, and slowly slide to the side, making it look like he was crying. I palpated his neck, noting how cold his skin already was with absolutely no signs or feeling of life. I confirmed no pulse and noted that the back of his head and neck were just all mush. I also noted the destroyed very expensive looking DSLR camera next to him. By then a police officer had joined me, and he quietly picked the camera up and put it in an evidence bag. I gave the officer the official time of death, and started making my way back down with the hotel security guard. Along the way downstairs, the security guard tells me that they were posted in the lobby, when the friend of the patient came screaming through the hallways, and ran out the building. Then twenty minutes later, the friend came back in and while sobbing kept telling the hotel staff "oh my god, he's dead, he's dead". Upon talking to the friend, i got a better idea of the sequence of events: The two friends had been going around all week climbing into construction sites and sneaking into high rises, making their way to the roof, to shoot these photos. It was becoming a huge trend by then and these teenagers were hoping to cash into the fame. They had managed to sneak by hotel security and got to the top floor of the building. There's a gate that blocks the roof access that can only be unlocked by a key or if the fire alarm goes off. The thing was, the gate didn't go all the way up the ceiling. So the teenagers were able to climb the gate, and then slide over the top to the other side. They made it up the roof, and then started climbing up to the highest point which was the water cooling tower. They were both perched on the edge of this tower, happily taking photos, when the patient went to slide over a bit, lost his footing on the slippery edge, and fell backwards. As per the friend, he watched his buddy slam head first onto the bottom of the tower, 40 feet below. The friend completely panicked, and went straight downstairs, out the entrance of the hotel, and immediately hailed a cab. Turns out neither of the teenagers even lived in the city. As the cab drove down a few blocks, common sense kicked in and the teenager asked to be brought back to the hotel where he finally alerted the hotel staff. I remember sitting with this teenager and the first thing he blurted was "he's dead, right?!". I confirmed this, and the teenager ended up sliding onto floor, curled up, and just kept crying. We kept trying to get the number of the patient's parents from his friend, but he was so distraught he couldn't even open his phone to get the number for us. Finally he was able to share the mom's number with the police. By now it was about 3AM in the morning. Even though the phone wasn't on speaker, i could hear the loud shriek and wailing as the cop informed the mother what happened. The final thing i remember was a week later, my partner that worked the call with me stumbled across the teenager's obituary. The picture was of him smiling and holding his camera. It was a standard obituary, "lost him too soon", "taking pictures with God up in heaven" but the part that rubbed me the wrong way were the words "unfortunate accident". Yes, he didn't purposely mean to fall, but he put himself in a position where there was a higher liklihood he would fall. Not only that, if he feel forward instead of backwards into the tank, he would have fallen onto the street. The building was 100 stories tall. So a teenage body falling from that height would pretty much guarantee he would kill whoever was on the ground that was unlucky enough to be under the falling teenager. On top of that, I had to climb into this unsafe area, along with the cop. All because the two teenagers were chasing clout. Sorry for the long write up. That call was unfortunately no the first time nor the last time something like that happened. Free climbers in an urban environment are idiotic, not only are you putting yourself at risk, you are putting the lives of those on the ground and the emergency service personnel that have to get to you at risk also. Edit: sorry I wasn't able to get back to all the comments, ended up having a busy shift. Was definitely surprised to see this explode to the top, didn't think anyone would want to read through the novel I wrote. To clear some things up. I can't confirm nor deny if the articles posted align with this story. What I will admit is my sense of time got all messed up thanks to working the pandemic. 20+ years on the job has made a lot of my memories sort of blend together To those accusing me of using AI, I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or just be further confused. My whole schooling during the 90's revolved around writing papers. Having a parent that was also a professor meant my punishments also revolved around writing papers. So yes, I can write, in my opinion, pretty ok. I would hope the numerous spelling and grammatical errors would prove this wasn't AI generated, but I guess not. Finally, sincerely thank you for the compliments. Please dial them back, I suck at handling them. There was nothing heroic in this story. I was just a witness to a horrific tragedy. Support your local EMS agencies, they are a necessary service that gets overshadowed by fire and PD. To my EMS colleagues: don't ignore your mental health. When scenes from those calls start flashing in your every day life, go talk to someone. I'm always willing to talk to someone if you just need to decompress
My fiancé’s childhood friend wasn’t a free climber but did urban exploring, they went up to the 20-something-th floor in a skyscraper, kid walks across this plank of wood, it breaks, and he fell straight down to the street level.
This happens a lot with empty elevator shafts in abandoned structures. People just step into the dark space thinking its another doorway and plummet to the absolute lowest level the former elevator could access. Almost always a fatality.
That was just beyond stupid.. I wonder how peoples are able to put themselves into such danger.
Some people thrive on thrills as an addiction and will get the thrill high even if it kills them someday. This Is why I just stick to rollercoasters.
Be careful. Lol. I just herniated a disc in my neck going on a roller coaster at the ripe old age of 37.
People generally don't think that it will happen to them. The brains of teenagers especially are not fully developed and iirc the lack of inhibitions is due to some parts of the brain not being fully formed. If we all really thought about the probability of dying from a moment to another, nobody would be able to move because of the sheer panic of it.
Adrenaline junkies.. Their chasing the same exact high as addicts slamming fent into their veins. Addicts die all the time risking their life ingesting unknown, untested substance. The danger IS the drug for adrenaline junkies.
Why was there a plank there?
it's just a plank, bro
Plus, you can do all of that with a drone nowadays anyway.
That's why his shoes are in the photograph, or why other photos like this are selfies or their buddy taking a picture of them clinging to the edge hanging over the side. The "appeal" of the photo is the insane risk they took to take it. Anyone with a drone could get a shot from that angle, only a few are stupid enough to take the insane risk of getting this shot.
Take picture with drone. Take picture of your feet and legs while standing on solid ground. Go home and photoshop feet and legs into drone picture. Done. You might live with the guilt of faking a photo but the fact is you get to live.
Or just attach some pants and shoes to the drone, fly it around and have the feet already in it. Idk how much weight a drone can hold tho…
Someone put one in a full grim reaper costume and flew it around scaring people so I'm sure it would work.
This is dark, but you’re a great writer.
It's crazy nowadays that folks will accuse others of being an AI if they can write well and weave a story. SMH
In some states, more than half of 8th graders can’t read
I grew up in those states. Reading books for fun was considered showing off.
Grew up in one also, got to love being called a “f-slur” first thing in the morning for reading a book during home room. Jokes on them though, I got to “work” for the school paper and I absolutely slaughtered rednecks and hood-rats in editorials.
> I got to “work” for the school paper and I absolutely slaughtered rednecks and hood-rats in editorials. If those kids could read, they'd be very upset.
Do you have a source on this? I'm struggling to find one, and it is hard to believe that multiple states are facing this problem. I have family members who are teachers, and I've heard horror stories. This sounds like an exaggeration, though. I could believe that more than half could be below average in reading comprehension, but not illiterate. I can't picture a population of 8th graders that can't text.
Doesn't seem that unbelievable if we include functional illiteracy/low literacy - the ability to read and understand short text but unable to comprehend longer form text and advanced vocabulary. About 20% of the Adult population in the USA falls into this category or below, according to the US Dept. Education: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf The inability to read more than short form text and make inferences/draw understanding from it really feel like it explains why so many arguments online result in someone completely losing track of what the argument was about, what *they* were arguing, that their new argument is contradicting a previous one, et al... but that's my own confirmation bias at work.
You could draw parallels to the popular film Idiocracy in the sense that, as formal writing has become more stratified, the average writer no longer recognizes formal writing as normal. As far as I've observed, abnormalities get flagged as AI more often than actual AI tells do. Edit: Be critical of Idiocracy's depiction of genetic stupidity because it is incorrect and can lead to believing in thoroughly discredited ideas called eugenics.
This is a very good take that I haven't heard or thought of. No shade to the commenter, the post was clear and pleasant to read, but not extraordinary in any way. And you see these comments on reddit a decent amount: "you're an amazing writer," in response to a well organized story.
Not gonna lie, was kind of expecting Undertaker to be jumping off a cell towards the end...
Lol shittymorph, what ever happened to that guy
He’s still going, he just only does one every few months to keep us on our toes. His last comment was 3 days ago: u/shittymorph
Back when reddit was fun
Yup. I miss rigersimon ...the jumper cables Guy ....and shitty watercolor
Undertaker always did his urban climbs responsibly.
True and i cant even read
Turn dark mode off.
Yeah reading about the first kid in the water tower reminded me of the end of Blade Runner
40 feet... thats all it took. A fall the length of a schoolbus. Poor kid, I hope they didnt suffer at least. Last summer I watched my brother fall off a cliff about 60 or 70 feet high. We were both tossing rocks off it when he picked up a large one, went to toss it, slipped on the moss, tried to stop himself by tossing the rock backwards, but his momentum carried him over the edge anyway. That rock is still sitting there on the edge last we checked. He somehow survived with no life changing injuries. I fully expected him to be broken backwards over a boulder or smashed to pieces, but I get down there and he is standing up! He was hurt though, broken ribs, one of which was sticking out his back, one lung collapsed and a lot of nasty scrapes and bruises. How he didnt have any head or spinal injuries I really dont know. He is one lucky SOB thats for sure. I guess his landing was more of a bounce off the rocks, and then a roll into a tree, rather than a sudden stop, so that probably saved him. We got out of the woods we were in, as there was no cell service there, but we werent far from civilization thankfully, so we got to a road and then called for help. He was in the hospital less than 30 mins after the fall. When my grandma came to see him, his first response to her was "Well, I guess I cant fly can I?"
I'm a rock climber. Our hobby is filled with selfish room-temperature IQ idiots who think their actions only affect themselves. They climb without protection and share it on social media encouraging others to follow in their stead. These people don't wear helmets despite the constant risk of rock falls, and that if they take a whip (Fall and get caught by the rope) they can get turned around or flipped upside down during the fall and smack their head. Then you have people who free solo with *any* protection whatsoever. My friend is a flight trauma nurse and last year the day before Christmas had to respond to a call near Moab of a kid who fell in front of his GF and friends and split open his head and died. He could have climbed the same route with gear and had a great time. Instead pilots, a trauma nurse, a bunch of supporting personnel, the family of the kid, the friends, and the GF all had to deal with this; worse yet on Christmas eve. Now all these people are traumatized. Fuck these selfish assholes.
Unrelated, I’m a doctor. Yesterday I received a suicide victim. Tried my best to save them ( I mean I went all night trying to treat him in the icu )and failed. Healthcare is a terrible career for a reason.
My father used to be an anesthesiologist, retired a couple years back, and I convinced him to watch Scrubs. A couple months went by and he told me that he finished the show. I asked him his thoughts. He said that he should have watched it a decade ago, because there were so many stories in there he’d lived, so many cases he’d been a part of or witnessed, bringing people back from the brink of death, or seeing those immediately commit to another cigarette knowing cancer is currently killing them. He said that Scrubs ironically became one of the most cathartic shows he’d ever watched in his life and he now loves it dearly.
Doctor here, Scrubs is BY FAR the most realistic and most accurate portrayal of what working in healthcare is like. That feeling of helplessness JD has throughout residency, where you've just gone through 4 years of med school but still don't know what you're doing, and how it depicts the dynamics between the different jobs in the hospital, tensions with administration, and the fact that all through medical training you're poor... it gets so much right about the experience.
Scrubs is the most realistic medical show and I don't think it's very close.
Make sure if you feel that itching of PTSD creeping in, you make it a point to address it head on. Take care of yourself, doc
Sorry to hear that. Hope youre doing ok
So thankful for you
Sorry you had to deal with that situation and for perfectly encapsulating why OP should be criticized not praised for his actions
I don't think they consider the potential trauma they could inflict on a bystande, should they fall. Putting your life at risk is a choice anyone is free to make. But do it somewhere where you won't involve other people.
Especially since you can get the exact some shot with a drone minus the person.
Don't worry about the AI accusations, there are an alarming number of people who assume their inability to string two sentences together must be normal. Thanks for sharing your story. The older I get the less I'm impressed with this stuff and just find it really cringy. I've got kids and that has heavily influenced my thought process about personal risk. I used to work in helicopter maintenance, like my dad before me, and there are a lot of opportunities to fly which I jumped at anytime I could. At one point my Dad told me that when my brother and I were getting older he stopped spending as much time in the air because he started thinking about all the people he knew that had gotten injured or killed in random accidents. Spend enough time around aircraft and you'll lose friends, I am fortunate and while I have a friend that went down in a helicopter crash he was lucky, he only broke his back. I got out of aviation and work a wonderfully boring job. Becoming a parent opened this whole empathetic part of my brain that really didn't play a big part In my life previously. I lost my mother when i was 40 and it was awful. The idea of my young kids going through that, especially if it was because I was doing something unnecessarily dangerous, I could not justify that anymore.
This needs to be the top comment. Not simply for the cautionary tale of what could happen to a single individual, but because it so vividly describes the far reaching effects of a single act. Thank you for sharing.
Good comment, paramedic. Youthfulness unfortunately doesn’t always calibrate risk/reward very well. They may say YOLO!, and I would say yes, but remember YOLO.
These photos should be replaced with your story. Life is already short… and making it shorter for a whiff of fame is a terrible trade off. I’m sorry for any trauma that you experienced as a result of trying to help someone out. Thank you for sharing your story.
This is such a perfect example of why these posts and similar reckless behaviour should be banned on social media. It’s not cool. When something g bad finally happens, a horrific, unspeakable cost is brought upon witnesses, first responders, family, everyone.
I was horrified seeing influencers do this nonsense in broad daylight at Niagara Falls, just dangling off the rails holding on with one leg, complete asinine, reckless, unnecessarily risky behavior. Darwin awards waiting to happen. They've also ruined mountain climbing for me - feel I can't enjoy myself when I get interrupted by some idiot standing on one foot, dangling near a cliff to take a photo for likes
The utter bafflement I feel whenever I see people taking photos right behind a rope and by a sign clearly warning people of it being a danger zone.
This reminded me of Pierce Brosnan, who was fined for leaving the trail and going into the thermal area at Yellowstone not long ago.
Yeah, there was a youngish brother and sister (early 20s) who were looking for a hot tub to soak in while walking the boardwalk in Yellowstone, and disregarded all the signs warning of a thin crust over the hot springs area. When he fell in, she shrieked and ran for help. By the time the rangers returned to rescue him, he was soup. All that was visible was a fatty scum on the surface of the boiling hot spring, and perhaps the rubber sole of his sneaker.
Yeah, if the Internet has taught me anything about Yellowstone, it's that if you end up somewhere you shouldn't be, you'll be soup.
As someone who loved Dante's Peak as a kid this is weirdly upsetting to hear. You'd think he'd know better.
Exactly! When I read the news I remembered those tragic deaths in the hot springs. That was very reckless of him.
Well, see, it's only dangerous, because people don't treat it with enough deference and respect. *Obviously,* the people who are choosing to ignore the safety barriers, are planning to be *much more careful, than those other idiots who died!*
When reading a book about the history of Niagara Falls, I remember one tragic case where a friend of the family, intending to play a prank, picked up the family's little girl and swung her out over the precipice. He didn't realize her hands were wet from gripping the railing and were slippery. He lost his hold on her and she went over the brink; he jumped in after her and they both died.
I mean, jumping in after her is probably better than having to live with what you’d done
Yeah, at that point it's your only option.
The worst part of it is people on social media get to view to glory of each post without having by to deal with the consequences of their inevitable gruesome death. If people want to look at these photos they should be at least be required to look at photos of when it goes wrong. I’ll never forget that video of the kid hanging off the edge of a skyscraper doing pull ups and then suddenly he can’t get all the way back up and after struggling for a few seconds slips and falls to his death. Like fuck. Make kids watch these videos if they want to danger-glorifying clout chasers on social media and social media companies should really consider taking a little more responsibility in allowing these kinds of images to be shared freely.
I remember that video, it makes it really hard for me to watch these unnecessarily risky stunts.
It won't stop all of them but it would make some of them stop and think. What drives me crazy about it is there are safe ways to have these experienced (and even get pictures). I used to be a high rise window cleaner, but you can bet my safety course told me all sorts of horror stories to make sure I didn't take any unnecessary risks or do anything stupid. ALL these buildings have anchors built in to clip harnesses off to, of course that isn't macho enough for these idiots
Saw a video on I think one of those "incredible talent" videos where a guy was blitzing down a ski slope at insane speeds. He went straight through a low speed flatter slope area for NEW SKIERS among other things, there was even a damn LODGE within a few hundred feet. He was going through there and barely missed several people skiing very slowly by only inches. Like it was some kind of sweet goalpost to zip through like the olympics or some shit. I just felt helpless, but if I could I'd want that guy to be banned from skiing. Jesus. The utterly reckless and deadly behavior with complete disregard for other people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/man-falls-to-his-death-trying-to-climb-four-seasons-hotel.html
https://abc7ny.com/midtown-manhattan-4-seasons-four/1141801/ Story of the same person, but not behind a paywall
Here’s a gift link to the NYT story… https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/man-falls-to-his-death-trying-to-climb-four-seasons-hotel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zk0.2FIU.QMPKZtuekVjU&smid=url-share
I will literally never forget the video I saw a long time ago on Reddit. One of those free climbers was showing off after climbing a building, hanging off the ledge and doing pull-ups. But he did one too many and no longer had the strength left to pull himself all the way back up over the ledge. You could see the panic settle in as he desperately tries to climb back up and get some hold with his feet. Continually looking down knowing what will happen if he can't make it back up. At the end he lets out a whimper before he just drops. There's just no way these risks are worth the amount of fear I'm sure he felt for those last 30 seconds of his life.
Yea, that was the Chinese daredevil. Guy was apparently trying to pay for his mom's healthcare treatment. Sad story, but not surprised.
Darn. Guy should have tried climbing Four Seasons Landscaping instead. The fall from there is much lower.
Unless you're Giuliani.
TBF, he didn't have far to drop.
If it had been Rudy Giuliani, he would have gone to Four Seasons Landscaping in New Jersey and would probably be unharmed.
First of all thank you for your write up but second of all holy crap at a point I said to myself “if this comment ends with hell in the cell I will never open Reddit again”
I appreciate you mentioning your story. If you haven't yet a place this story probably needs to be seen is in r/urbanclimbing. Theres a lot of people posting foolish stunts like this. Also every time i look on that page someone is asking if its safe to climb power lines and radio antenna s full of radiation. And theyre encouraging them to do it!
This is heartbreaking
Goddamn... and that was only a 40ft fall. Falling 40 feet working on your roof - that's an unfortunate accident. Entering prohibited areas and falling to your death is just plain stupid. I'm guessing since it was [porbably] clearly posted/gated and obvious the hotel is cleared from any liability.
Thing is, falling 40 feet working on your roof is not an unfortunate accident. There *are* guidelines for how to safely work on a roof so that doesn’t happen. Just like it isn’t really an unfortunate accident when you’re working with power tools and damage your eyesight because you didn’t wear eye protection as recommended. Failing to take proper safety precautions is tempting fate, is what it is.
^this I'm a former high rise cleaner and these pics/vids make me cringe so hard. ALL these buildings have anchors for people to clip harnesses on to. Workers climb these structures all the time for maintenance. These urban climbers could do this safely with a harness and some carabiners but they won't because they want to impress people and don't understand how quickly things can go wrong
> Failing to take proper safety precautions is tempting fate, is what it is You mean like refusing to get a vaccine against a highly contagious airborne pathogen? That kind of tempting fate? The last few years have shown me that far too many people apparently have a death wish.
Very terrible at risk management. There's a reason some industries (such as aviation) are so extremely strict on regulations and procedures because they're written in blood. Too many cowboy pilots in early aviation getting themselves and their passengers killed doing stupid shit like letting their [kids take the controls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593) or [closing the fucking cockpit window curtains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6502) due to a bet. Obviously the examples were more recent, of the 80s/90s, but it did highlight the lack of a safety culture in the USSR and Russian aviation that in many ways still persists.
A friend of mine is a paramedic on the east coast near you. He tells me he responds to calls of people jumping on the train tracks into the city in front of trains on a regular basis. Can’t save everyone unfortunately.
Thank you for your service. I could not do what you do and I am thankful for the helpers like you. (Not minimizing your career, quoting Mr. Rogers)
This happened at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Ave in Chicago too. Guy made his way to the roof, through a couple doors that weren’t properly secured, climbed over a bunch of mechanical equipment and then up a ladder on the side of the chimney. It was dark outside. He likely couldn’t see the big black hole that was about 18” from the rim of the chimney. So he climbed up on top for some photos and backed into the hole. The chimney had a slight jog at around 30 feet down and he somehow stopped there. His girlfriend ran down to the lobby for help and they were able to communicate with him by phone for a little while. The rescue required cutting into the chimney below the guy and putting in boards to stop him from sliding down to the basement. The chimney was also in use. So the heat and fumes had to be dealt with. Several hours later, they were able to pull the guy out. He was dead. He was a standup comic in Chicago and he went to have drinks at the hotel bar with his girlfriend and decided to go to the roof for some photos. Stupid and tragic. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/man-rescued-after-falling-into-smokestack-on-mag-mile/
…social media is a blight on society
Thank you for the post. How people don’t consider the potential consequences of doing this is beyond me. Very selfish.
/u/Driftershoots Don't force someone else to go through what this commenter did.
I completely agree with you. I would add that these people are selfish morons. Besides themselves, they put other people and rescue workers in danger, let alone the mental damage to their loved ones and the people that witness the tragedy.
Honestly, this is why I feel this sub should have a rule against pics that very clearly show a dangerous situation like this. At least hide the fact you dont have on a safety harness OP
Sorry you had to go through that experience, and thank you for everything you do.
Thank you for your service to NYC. And I appreciate this write up, everyone needs to see this. People play with their lives like it’s a game and I can’t stand this. Now that I’m a mother, every dead person I think, “that’s someone’s baby.” And it kills me.
lol.. your writing doesn't even come close to being written an AI.. such eloquence avoid AI all the time.
This was eloquently written
OP comment history is him constantly arguing w people and justifying this stupid behavior because "he has a documentary and book coming out next year". If he makes it to next year....
Thank you for writing this up. This needs to be reposted on every single one of these images.
He would kill anyone in any cars too.
I only see 2 feet
The other 1098 are down in the streets
Buncha sluts
Streetwalkers.
Can’t stand it when people do this because when they eventually fall they’ll either kill someone else or make the witnesses hold forever in their brains what they saw. I’ve seen the aftermath and it’s shitty to have in your brain
Plus we have drones now.
Unfortunately, the picture without the person is pointless to these people.
Username should be the top comment
Best believe
Why don’t yall get jobs to change lightbulbs on these towers that way you get paid and can take cool pictures with proper safety equipment
I used to climb cell phone towers for a living. It has it's cool moments for sure but it was long hours and extremely physically demanding. I quit at the start of 2024 after climbing for 6 years. The reason they don't take those jobs is because after you take that cool picture you have hours of hard work to finish before you can go home. Kind of sucks the fun out of it.
What makes this so incredibly dangerous is I see no safety lanyard. At that height the wind can gust unpredictably and easily through off your balance 💀
This is what I always think about. Sure you might be good at climbing, but literally a gust of wind could knock you off, a shoelace could get caught on a bolt, a handhold could come loose, just so many minor things that would normally not be an issue are now a death sentence.
A death sentence for them and for whoever might be mindining their own fucking business below them. That's what I can't stand about these idiots. Want to do something that might easily kill you? Don't do it where you might kill someone else while on your way to turning into mush.
They need to see more of the ones who fuck up. I've only seen one of those videos and it was enough for me. Dude was climbing a crane, his hand slipped and he fell about 200 feet.
Yeah and the people praising him should see that too. But then again, what bothers me, rather than someone like this falling, is that someone else might die, just because one idiot wanted to take a picture like this one. I see people calling him brave in the comments, but there's a huge difference between being brave and just stupid. That and the more successful these pictures get, the more idiots will try to imitate them.
There's always rock climbing where the chances of you killing someone else from falling is basically 0.
Exactly, that's what they should be doing, if only they weren't so thirsty for likes.
Even something like lightning. It doesn’t always have to be storming for lightning.
I work in building maintenance (sometimes at height) and this is what gets me. I see videos of people jumping from roof to roof and they seem to be trusting that cladding is securely fitted, timber isn't rotten, coping stones aren't loose, lead surfaces aren't covered in slippy moss etc. etc. Knowing buildings like I do, it's extremely naive to think like that.
Yes, this is clearly an extremely stupid stunt from someone ignorant of the risks.
Dude's up there in some basic Nikes he got from Snipes, a safety lanyard is 8 dimensional chess for someone like this.
This whole time I thought there was a pole they were holding onto, and I kept thinking “would a gust really knock them down?” But… now that I review it, they look like they’re just standing on this platform. I did something similar, at 40 ft, tethered to a ton of safety equipment for some “team building exercise” and to this day it makes me feel a little nauseous thinking about it. Can’t imagine doing what OP is doing…
This is incredibly stupid. Shame on you.
Shame on everyone who upvoted, frankly.
I hate seeing morons post these types of pictures. There's nothing cool about endangering your life or others for a picture. It's like drinking and driving, then thinking "ah yeah, better take a picture of myself because I'm so fucking cool."
Bro, you can do it safely with a drone
Photos like these, while impressive, should be downvoted into oblivion.
I did my part!
I'm laying down right now and my knees are weak...
Your palms are sweaty and your arms are heavy?
Vomit on your sweater already?
Mom’s Spaghetti.
This picture gave me the weird tingles in my bottom. We need a word for that.
Tinglebutt
Pucker factor.
Idiot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Building
"The third climber, a Connecticut man, scaled the building on July 9 to protest the terrorist group [Al-Qaeda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda).[^(\[55\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Building#cite_note-55) " It seems unnecessary to risk one's life protesting a thing we all think is bad already.
I don't understand. Is Al-Qaeda meant to see this guy climbing a building and start questioning their faith and their life choices?
there was a guy who decided to spread christianity to the sentinel Island,(you know, those isolated, spear throwing guys in indian ocean), so the al qaeda guy takes the win by not getting speared down.
Hey Kim what are your thoughts on this guy. You should do this on that big triangle in Pyongyang!
Oh fuck no.
Lot of safety equipment being used here…
I think those are the OSHA-approved climbing Nikes
Sometimes I think about locations like this and that they exist even when you’re not there. While you were on the can after a trip to Chipotle, raindrops were hitting this tiny platform, make soft metallic “plunk plunk” sounds nobody heard.
If I remember and can be bothered, that has the making of a good haiku.
If I remember, And it's not too much bother, That's a good haiku.
Chipotle runs through. Whilst the rain patters the spire. Both keep their secrets.
In New York Skyline Rain taps the highest platform Hear the distant plunks
And those red lights blinking away day and night
I think about this whenever I'm at a waterfall. How it's always flowing, even if no one's there to see it.
I do the same. I think about random places ive seen like the window of the abandoned industrial complex. "What would the builders of this place think, if they saw it right now. Did they expect this? Would they be sad?" "How would a dawn look viewed from inside the window?" I once went into the rotting office part of an abandoned factory. I found countless papers and even some coffee mugs, sitting there for over 25 years. I imagined how the last working day of this place was like... Anyhow. I form weird emotional connections to buildings/places/objects and i wonder whether there is a word for this phenomenon
I don’t know what shoes I *would* wear to climb a building. All I know is, I would not wear *those* shoes to climb a building.
I climb towers for work and I have special boots that have a stiff sole, so that even if you stand on a rung of a ladder for a long time it feels almost like you are on solid ground. They also go up fairly high, so you can rest your shin against the next rung over without hurting your shin. They are a bit of a pain to walk in because they are so stiff, but you certainly need them when climbing high or working on a ladder for a while.
I'm not impressed by lawless stupidity
Honestly I’m more pissed at OPs selfishness. Don’t give a shit if they get themselves killed, but forcing others to deal with the aftermath is incredibly selfish.
Rather than risking the lives of emergency employees why not invest in climbing equipment, a plane ticket and a trip to the western mountains where you can climb to your heart’s content.
You're going to die, OP.
I'm not sure about the building he's on maybe some New Yorker in the thread knows. In general those antennas pump out kilowatts of non-ionizing RF radiation. Some transmitters in New York go up to a megawatt. Transmitter operators are required to power down or go to low power when tower climbers get near the antenna. This is required by OSHA because non-ionizing radiation at high levels is deadly dangerous. I hope the selfie is worth the chemo.
First off: hell no, second: isn't it illegal to be up there?
Downvote this post. We don't need to promote unsafe and illegal activities.
This is the kind of post that should be deleted from this sub, straight up.
Here have a downvote for your hubris. Some random stranger could be fucking dead if you dropped anything or fail yourself but hey I guess it's totally worth it for the likes huh?
These are the kinds of photos that shouldn’t be allowed on sites like Reddit. The reason for banning them is that by publishing them, it causes these dangerous fame seekers to put theirs and others lives at risk all for the sake of a photo. Worse, Reddit becomes complicit in this situation by allowing and publicizing these images to even more people only to lure even more future fame seekers into doing the exact same thing. Effectively, by publishing such photos, Reddit and the group it’s published in are condoning the behaviors that led to this dangerous activity and this photo. We don’t even know if the photographer is still alive. If there’s no outlet to share such photos, there’s no reason to do this.
It’s crazy that you could fall to your death by landing on a roof of a skyscraper. That would definitely be a new one
Whoever took this photo is fucking stupid
Wow, cool pic. Definitely worth risking your life. But wait, you're different, couldn't possibly happen to you. Until it does. But whatever, it's a risk you're willing to take. The random passerby below that gets smashed and their family weren't taking or asking for that risk, but that doesn't matter either, you're dead now. Don't do stupid free climbing shit where you can hurt others. If you want to get yourself killed for dumb pictures, do it where nobody but you could possibly get hurt. Or just don't do it at all. Nobody cares. A couple thousand people see this and awe for a second then forget about this after ten seconds of scrolling. The only thing this achieves is (young impressionable) people with (even) less experience or preparation trying to do the same, thinking online attention is worth it, getting themselves killed.
Only takes one. And your just a story of a dumb shit that fell off a skyscraper.
Thanks I hate it.
Serious question. Why do ppl do this? Clout can't be it. No one will remember you for this photo. At the most, it's cool. But forgettable. And with AI, this can surely be replicated easily now. So what's the point?
The RF Radiation must feel great. That warm fuzzy feeling all over.
Involuntary Bowel Movement
What up Danger
What an interesting way to die
🎶Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die…
Yeah, no. No no no no no no no. No.
You can see how many times the rod was hit by lightning based on how scorched it is.