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.
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.