I can do a few chin ups* but can’t do a muscle up so without some sort of purchase for my feet I’d be screwed.
*The palms out way which would be a better approximation of cliff hanging than the more usual palms in version. Those basing their answers on regular chin up a might like to try the other way and reconsider.
Palms facing you = chin up
Palms facing away from you = pull up
.
I would just like to go on the record as saying I have never heard this.
The differentiation is relatively recent, and certainly not universal. Up until sometime in the 80s the terms were largely interchangeable (or even reversed), with the palms-out version simply being “reverse grip.” Some organizations, like the US Marine Corps for example, still use “chin up” interchangeably.
That’s always the way I’ve understood it.
Best case situation - let’s say there is a ladder or equivalent lying flat on the ground and affixed at the top of the cliff. I’m hanging onto the end rung. The cliff is not undercut, so all I need to do is work myself up rung by ring, using my feet to assist. I PROBABLY could do that.
But eliminate ANY of those factors, and it gets A LOT more difficult. For example, doing a pull-up/chin-up. I could only do that if I were hanging onto a solid branch/root. No way I could do a pull up hanging from a 90 degree angle on a rock face.
With a good grip, I can imagine doing a pull-up such that I have one/both of my armpits at the cliff edge. No if I am able to grab onto something solid up there, or hook my arm/elbow around something, I’m in a better position to continue. But if the cliff top is nothing but grass/smooth rock/dirt…
Full disclosure, I used to lift quite a bit, and had some decent strength for my desired activities. But at no point in my life could I ever do more than 3 pull ups. Today, I guarantee I couldn’t do any, and could maybe do 3 chin ups. If I were hanging on a jungle gym, and able to use my feet on the upright supports, there is a remote chance I could get on top.
Ignorance fought, thanks.
I’ve always found pull ups much harder than chin ups.
They are.
Pull-ups use more of your upper-back muscles, and you need a wider grip, which reduces your leverage.
If there were steps, handrails, and a couple of strong dudes assisting my odds are 50/50.
So, no.
mmm
Based on a fair amount of rock climbing, I’ll say that the actual difficulty of this will very enormously depending on some details:
If the ledge is wide enough, it’s not that hard to kick / scramble a leg up to one side. Once a foot is hooked onto of the ledge, the weight your hands must support is much lower, and leg strength can contribute a lot. If the ledge is not wide enough for this, it’s much harder.
Another consideration is the quality of your grip on the ledge. If this will allow you to pull yourself in toward the cliff, your feet can help a lot, making use of friction against the vertical face. If instead it’s a pure right angle, your feet will not be nearly as effective.
And what handholds are available just above that ledge you’re holding? If they are close and of good quality, you’ll be able to reach them and use them to make progress; if not, you may get no further than raising your head up to about hand level.
My daughter is also a serious rock climber, and I’m dead certain she could do this, because she demonstrated to me just the other week her ability to hoist herself over an 8 foot brick wall. I’m going to call that equivalent, or slightly harder (because you don’t have a big flat surface up top to spread yourself out over
No way could I have pulled that maneuver.
Not a chance. I couldn’t do a pullup to save my life. I doubt I could do it even with sufficient fear-driven adrenaline. I’m a goner.
I know how to properly execute a mantelshelf . . . but that don’t mean I could actually do one myself!
CMC fnord!
Yeah. I do bodyweight excercise regularly, and perform sets of pullups, chinups, neutral chins, dips, elevated pushups etc. with ease, but the ledge-hanging scenario is a completely different maneuver, requiring hell of a lot more total body control and coordinated strength and timing, with no room for error.
I gave myself a 50/50 chance, and I’m being generous there.
Could I do that with only good hand? What do you think?
If a lifetime of watching movies instead of going to the gym have taught me anything it is that either I will get a sudden burst of strength and be able to determinedly pull myself up over the cliff edge or that the “seemingly endless expanse of jagged rocks” has been misidentified and there will be something for me to bounce off or sink softly into when I fall.
As long as I’m the hero of the story, I’m fine.
I am the hero, right?
I’ve done it. Like I said, if I can throw an arm over the edge, I can get up – it’s getting to that position which will kill me. Once you’ve got your chin well up, you can throw an arm over: you only need to hang on with the other hand /and you can use your chin as well/ Then you dig down with your elbow (this hurts), and use friction on your chest (this hurts too). Your hanging-on hand is at the wrong angle, gives you poor purchase, and you hurt that joint. If you get scared, you lose all the blood to your arms, and you fail. If you succeed, you’ve got scrapes, tears and lactic-acid buildup.
I wouldn’t have been able to do that from a hanging position, because even if I could do a pullup (I don’t think I ever could), I would have started this next step too exhausted. But I could manage this part of the exercise.
I don’t imagine that would work on ice, but I think it would work on bricks like it works on wood or stone.
… Actually, I think most people who could handle the pullups could handle the change of position and change of balance more easily than that. I’m just describing how I could do it, and I never had much upper body strength.
Thought of this thread when I saw in the news this a.m., that a youth who fell to his death in Yosemite last fall was apparently trying to get a selfie of himself hanging from a cliff. :rolleyes:
He was unable to pull himself back up. Bystanders tried to grab his arms, but were unable to pull him up, and his sweat caused him to slip from their grasp.
Given his surname, has enough time passed to refer to this as a hotdog stunt?
Why not - we all relish a good pun.
Regards,
Shodan
Oooh long Jonson…