You inexplicably find yourself hanging by both hands on the edge of a cliff. Below you is a seemingly endless expanse of jagged rocks, hundreds of feet down. You’ve got a good grip and the ground you’re holding is secure, not crumbly or anything. There’s no vegetation or anything like that within reach. You’re going to have to rescue yourself all on your own.
Could you pull yourself up, unassisted?
I give myself 20 seconds tops before I can’t hold my weight and I go tumbling to my death.
Is this basically a question of “can you do a pull up”?
Essentially, but with the additional difficulty of having to actually get your whole self over the bar, which is a lot harder than being able to do just one pull up.
About 30 years ago, I slipped off a cliff-top path and managed to catch myself with both elbows on the trail, and the edge met at my rib cage. Had I fallen, it would have been probably 75 feet into an icy glacier lake with no shore for a long distance.
I managed to squirm back up on top with a buddy doing final assist. I shudder to think about the alternative.
Myself, ten years ago no problem. Five years ago, not quite as confident but I’m certain I could make it, a lot of struggling and swearing later. Today, I’m pretty out of shape but I’d still give myself 50/50 odds.
I don’t think I could anymore. I’d hold on 2 or 3 mins and die.
I received training in rappelling thirty years ago. It’s the fastest and sometimes only practical way down a cliff on backpacking trips. I stopped taking trips like that 12 years ago.
I could easily pull up my own weight back then.
I still backpack on much easier & shorter trails.
Arm strength declines quickly when you age and stop rock climbing.
I’d rather not find out for sure, but I think I could probably do it.
On a good day, I can get 15-20 pullups, and I can pull hard enough even to get my chin over the bar. And I can do roughly the same number of dips, so upper body strength is probably not the limiting factor. So maybe I could pull myself up high enough to get my chin on the edge, scramble/kip hard enough to get a leg up, then lever myself up.
Then change my undershorts, and watch nature documentaries on TV instead of hiking.
Regards,
Shodan
I’d be a goner pretty much instantly. I have nightmares about this very thing; just thinking about it gives me a slight panic attack.
I believe so; I can do a handful of full pullups unaided, and I think I could swing myself over to get a leg up. I’m also a decent boulderer, though only at the basic difficulties.
I’m pretty sure I would be fine, I do push ups and pull ups about twice a week. I’ve seen a few videos of guys doing parkour where they would be hanging down a flat wall just by their hands and there were some where they gassed out and fell to their deaths. Very hard to watch cause I think any human can appreciate how that would feel. The moment where you just know you’re fucked, and you have to let go.
I give myself 50/50. I’m not in the shape I used to be but painful death is a great motivator.
I said “Yup, no problem,” but in reality, this is a much more involved scenario than just doing a pull-up (or more accurately, a muscle-up).
Is the cliff undercut? If so, and there’s no place to brace your feet, then I (and most people) are going to fall.
What does the edge look like? Are there places to grip, or is it like the edge of a granite block? Are there places to grip farther from the edge?
I can do a bunch of strict pullups, and tons of dips, but I’ve never been able to do a muscle-up. That said, if there was a place for me to brace my feet, and good handholds, I don’t think I would have any problems.
I’ve almost done it myself, once. I was on the edge of a crumbling mudslide, not a cliff, so I was only rescuing myself from tumbling 100 feet down a slope into a frozen creek, which still would not have been comfortable. I think the mud still gave me a boost to push off of so it wasn’t as hard as doing a pull up from a dangling position. But I definitely wasn’t assisted by the cliff edge since I was hanging onto a root above an overhang, so I had to pull myself up with one arm until my other arm could catch the next root.
(My plan had been to crawl down the slope to the creek, but I preferred not to slide uncontrollably so close to a creek in wintertime once I discovered that there was mud under the leaves.)
Yeah, I would probably be able to do this. You don’t mention if your legs are able to find purchase on anything, or if they are just dangling. This would make a difference in my confidence to rescue myself in this scenario.
Yes I meant to bring that up, if the cliff is undercut in such a way or even just completely dead flat and no little outcroppings of rock at all and you have a poorly positioned grip, the majority of people will probably die.
Assuming there’s no way I can bring my legs into play to help raise myself up, I’m a goner. Bye. (That’s how I answered, fwiw.)
If I can get my toes or knees somewhere where I can get some traction and raise myself up a bit while I hold on with my hands (and arms, once I can get them on top of the edge), I’m still probably dead if it takes me too long to get my arms above the elbow atop the cliff, but I’ve at least got a fighting chance.
We’ll keep it relatively easy. Undercut about 4-6 inches where you’re hanging, so you’ve got a bit of thumb purchase, but vertical and flat below that, at least as far as you could reach with your legs. It’s rocky but not smooth, and dry. It’s like this as far as you can see in either direction, so shimmying laterally isn’t going to get you to a better spot.
Yeah, I think if your lower body has contact with something, even with no grip per se, you have a lot more leverage with your upper body. At least you can stabilize your core and not be swinging as you maneuver your hands and arms.
If I can reach the edge of a flat roof/wall I can climb on/over it. That childhood skill surely hasn’t disappeared. Last time I actually climbed a roof that way is 10 years ago, I should go out and try it:)
Well sure, but you’re an orangatun. 