EXTREME DANGER!
READ THE FOLLOWING
WARNING BEFORE PROCEEDING!
Half Dome at dusk, from a more ominous angle. Photo courtesy of
Bernardo Rivadeneyra.
EXTREME DANGER!
YOU MUST READ ALL OF
THE FOLLOWING WARNING BEFORE PROCEEDING!
RETURN TO THE SAFETY OF THE
HOME PAGE
BE WARNED!
ROCK CLIMBING AND TIGHTROPE WALKING ON A NYLON
STRAP, NAMELY, SLACKLINING OR HIGHLINING, ARE ALL VERY DANGEROUS SPORTS THAT
CAN RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH, NOT ONLY FOR YOU, BUT FOR OTHERS, AS
WELL, REGARDLESS OF THE EXTENT OF THE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS APPLIED!
There are no warranties, whether
expressed or implied, that any book sold or distributed by, from, or through
chongonation.com is accurate or that the information contained within any such
material is, in any way, reliable or complete.
There are no warranties of fitness for a particular purpose or that any
book or other material offered is merchantable. Use of any book, or text, or
illustrations, or diagrams, or, art, or
any other graphic representations, or any
other material or information made available
through chongonation.com indicates that you
the user of this information assumes any
and all risks taken and acknowledges you
the user’s sole responsibility (meaning yours
alone!) for ANY and ALL outcomes.
First and foremost, there is one very
important thing that you and anyone else that your decisions may affect should
consider before considering anything else, which is this: how bitchin you might
be (or better stated, how bitchin you might imagine yourself being, however
accurate or inaccurate your conclusion) has nothing whatsoever to do with
whether you will be the unfortunate fool who dies, or spends the rest of his
life in a wheelchair, or worst, simply ends up ‘existing’, drooling in a bed
all day long, staring blankly into space (or into wherever). Nature does not care in the least, whether
you are bitchin or you are not, any more than it cares if you or anyone else
lives or dies, or is maimed for the rest of their life (because the bitchin die
and get maimed, no less than the unbitchin do – nature is absolutely fair in
questions of death and maiming).
Understand this: it’s hard to be bitchin when you’re dead, permanently
crippled, or hopelessly trapped, lying in a bed drooling, staring blankly into
space (or again, into wherever), which are all very, very real possibilities,
when you choose to climb anything, but especially if you choose to climb rock,
tightrope walk (slackline or highline) on a nylon strap, or simply find
yourself in the company of others who fool-heartedly entertain ideas of
actually doing any of these very things. If you so choose, then do so with a
clear understanding of just what and how much you are putting in peril as a
consequence of indulging in activities that, although perhaps seemingly
important now, may some day not be so in the least, especially when compared to
the simple alternative of remaining among the living and the healthy for an
entire lifetime, which is most likely achieved by pursuing instead safe
endeavors that are NOT wrought with danger and filled with hazard as the
aforementioned so much are. Long life at the expense of forgoing the
exhilaration that can come with the risking of its forfeiture can be very
wonderful too. Please choose wisely. So much more than you might think can
depend upon how you choose, in particular, if others rely upon your continued
existence! With every new season, many seeking harmless adventure pay dearly
for unexpected outcomes with horrifying consequences. Please, for the sake of
everybody, make a choice that is worth living with (if, for no other reason, so
that the notion of having something worth dying for can persist, at least in
your own life)!
The books and other material offered
through chongonation.com, any text, illustrations, diagrams, art, pictures, or
any other graphically represented information, any associated or related
companion volumes and corresponding material, any associated or related
workbook, checklist, or log, any assertions made or conclusions drawn anywhere
in this material or any contained within the web pages of chongonation.com or
any associated or related material, or any implications that they may infer,
have the very real potential for creating situations that can result in serious
injury and/or death at any given moment to yourself and/or to others.
Even if you are an practiced, expert rock
climber, an extreme outdoor sports professional, or an extremely skilled
slackliner, highliner, or tightrope walker, even if you have extensive
experience climbing big walls, rigging, slacklining, or tightrope walking
(highlining), even if you follow the instructions contained in the appropriate
corresponding material precisely, and regardless of any precautions at all that
you may take or however safe you might be, you may still seriously injure or
kill yourself as well as seriously injure or kill other individuals too. Rockclimbing can be just as dangerous, if
not more dangerous, for spectators as for active participants (which includes all
belayers).
Climbing big walls and/or
tightrope walking on a nylon strap (slacklining or highlining) require a very
advanced understanding of the tools used to most safely do either,
unquestionably rates among the most dangerous activities one could ever choose
to engage in, and flatly is the most complicated forms of adventure sports
there are. Acquiring the skill and
experience necessary to climb big walls with safety actually being something
more than an illusion, flatly takes years – and the good fortune of getting
there intact.
Climbing a rock cliff and, in particular,
climbing a big and difficult rock cliff (big wall climbing) are activities with
decades of recent history punctuated by countless tragic accidents. You can be certain that there is a very real
potential for serious or fatal injury, regardless of any and all precautions or
safety measures taken, and regardless of any level of skill applied.
Walking a stretched and elevated nylon
strap has only the briefest history, and a history that includes very little actual
testing. So far, there have been no
fatal failures, only a few injuries from falls, but the possibility remains,
and with each new highline that spans any gap the probability increases, that a
highline, for reasons yet imagined, fail completely someday, and someone on it
fall. This introduces yet another
consideration: those things falling from high above the ground can land on
those below, causing injury or death to individuals otherwise uninvolved.
Rockclimbing accidents, and certainly
slacklining or highlining accidents too, can involve innocent bystanders, just
as they can involve the actual participants, just as they can involve those who
are only indirectly involved in the activity (as support, for example). Dangerous activities can be particularly
hazardous for those who are just casually involved (e.g. the spectators), just
as much or more as for those creating the hazardous spectacle, because
spectators might very mistakenly believe that they are spared being in harms
way, by virtue of believing – again, very mistakenly – that spectators
observing dangerous events are never harmed or killed as a consequence of these
events; both harm and death can befall spectators too.
Any authors and any publishers of any text that is distributed through
chongonation.com make no assurances whatsoever that anything at all that is
either explained, described, illustrated, or in any way presented is either
true, safe, accurate, or complete, regardless of any representations, either
overt or implied, appearing anywhere in any material stating or suggesting the
contrary. Everything in any book listed
at chongonation.com as well as anything that might appear anywhere in the web
pages of chongonation.com is only opinion and nothing more, regardless of any
statement, assertion, suggestion, or inference whatsoever otherwise,
anywhere. No book or any other form of
recorded media can replace real experience or proper tutelage for activities as
dangerous as climbing rocks or walking a tensioned nylon strap (slacklining or
highlining), and all those other activities related to that pursuit (like the
rigging and tensioning of slacklines or highlines, for example, or descending
from a climb by rappelling). Do not
expect to be able to safely climb big walls or walk tightened nylon, or do any
activity involving or related to either, by simply reading a book, regardless
of the thoroughness of the material, and regardless of any implications
otherwise that might be inferred by any successes so achieved.
A great deal of the material in the books offered by chongonation.com
deals with the subject of climbing alone and unassisted, and perhaps, by
implication, even tightrope walking a nylon strap high above the ground alone
and unassisted. Be advised and forewarned that undertaking any of the extreme
activities described by any of the material made available by chongonnation.com
greatly increases the chances for injury or death in an activity that is
dangerous enough to do in a team or do with a companion. Undertaking any activity as dangerous as
climbing or tightrope walking on a narrow nylon strap (slacklining and
highlining) alone and unassisted can and usually does involve very, very, very
grave risks, sometimes for even more than just the individual participant, and
regardless of how elementary and easy the particular endeavor might be when
compared to the advanced understanding, extensive experience, and well-tested
capability of the participant. Even
those with great skill and physical capacity die climbing rocks, often “easy”
ones, and certainly expose themselves to the risk of death or serious injury by
walking narrow nylon straps suspended under tension over anything, high or low,
even when the climbing is easy or the narrow strap being walked is located very
low, close to a soft, forgiving surface.
Risks that can have very serious outcomes must be taken in order to
climb walls or tightrope walk on a stretched nylon strap, alone, without
assistance. The consequences of the
risks involved with these activities can create grim tragedy. The user – meaning you, the person
who will obtain and use and probably share with others
whom you very well may also include in your clearly risky activities, the
material distributed through chongonation.com – MUST be willing to accept and take
responsibility for every possible outcome, regardless of how horrible
that outcome might be and regardless of the devastation that such an outcome
might have upon the rest of your life or someone else’s, because that is the
inescapably dangerous nature of both rock climbing and tightrope walking, even
low to the ground.
If you are not willing to run the enormous and very real risks involved
nor are ready to accept the consequences that they may render, then you, or
anyone else contemplating such risks along with you, should stay safely in the
security of their cozy home and simply never go big wall climbing (or, for that
matter, ever consider climbing anything again), and likewise never even
consider the proposition of either highline or lowline tightrope walking. In this way, neither you, nor
anyone affected by your decision to risk human life, can lay blame on a web
site providing information to those individuals who clearly understand the
risks that they take, who are fully willing to run those risks despite the
tragedy that their actions can bring, and who are willing to take
responsibility for these risks that they choose, most willingly (though however
foolishly), to run, as well as accept the consequences that such indulgences
might bring.
© 2006 Chongo
All rights
reserved.