Speed Climber!

[pinkkid]

this guy, Dan Osman, is fast climbing this rock free style!!!!

[FightingForAir]

Awesome climber .... died back in like 2001 or so ... not climbing but taking a jump off climbing ropes ... equipment failure. Crazy dude.

[SkaFreak]

Eh, it was only kinda equipment failure. It was more a lack of thinking. He was taking 1000ft plus jumps onto just climbing ropes to set the world record for it. He had already broken the record but wanted to push it a little higher and moved the jump to a slightly higher spire not thinking about the lines below. Where he moved to made the retrieval line cross the jump line and it just sawed right through.

[Karl]

Kinda explains what SkaFreak was saying.

[FightingForAir]

Thanks for the additional detail. I knew it had something to do with a rope failing ... did not know why.

Todd Skinner ate it a while back too. Too bad to lose two of the best climbers in the world. I heard Todd's was also equipment failure ... though could also be blamed on bad judgement ... using a harness long after it should have been retired.

[SkaFreak]

Yup. From what I heard, he even had a new harness on the way at the time. His belay loop was frayed, and he used it anyway. He knew it was not in the best condition but made the judgement call. So many little things could have been done that would have saved his life, but hindsight is 20/20. Even just using the two tie-in points instead of the belay loop would have been enough.

[nate]

what?! no way he was jumping like that on a vertical wall when he was so high

[FightingForAir]

Yup ... there's some other old footage of him taking dives off of bridges on only a single line dynamic climbing rope. "Hard Rock, Masters of Stone 2" video I believe.