The "Thank God Ledge" in Yosemite National Park, California

One fart and I'm dead

Its called that because you have a new appreciation for your life after coming back from that alive... "Thank God I didn't drop to my death!"

"Because it's there" is not sufficiant reason for climbing a mountain.

Please mark this NSFL.

Hard pass

Nah not for me chief

Is it really as steep as shown in the picture? The trees seem to lean a little bit to the left.
Either way. Hell no.
- It's the sheer face of half dome. It may not be exactly 90° upright but it basically is.
- Oh you're right. If I tilt my laptop so that the horizon is flat, it's not as steep. (but still.. too steep for me.)

WHY

On a scale of "1 to NOPE" I rate this an "absolutely the fuck not, what is wrong with you?"

That is one dedicated Shel Silverstein fan.

The good thing about this is that you don't have to do this

Just by looking at this I have a panic attack. Fuck this shit.
- Same. Yikes.

When I say I'm not afraid of heights; what I really mean is that I'm not abnormally afraid of heights.
*bonus edit: the legendary Dan Osmond. Died not long after, when a rope snapped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCByLWtM7y4
- The fatal jump
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6YsM5Rh0Y
- Misread:
  The legendary Dan Osmond who died not long after his rope snapped.
  
  Two meanings. Sharing a goal...

Reminds me of the Via Ferrata in Switzerland. It really gets the blood pumping and gives you a massive adrenaline rush, as your feet are walking on tiny metal bolts driven into a sheer cliff. You can see all the way down to the valley floor from between your toes :3
- It looks like you get clipped in so it's probably safe
  
  It is! It's mostly just psychological, but it's a fun traverse.
- Yeah, nope. That sounds utterly terrifying.
- There's more than one via ferrata.
  
  They are all super cool :)

I can imagine myself on that ledge and being the one person where after thousands of years of being perfectly fine, the ledge finally decided to give way and separate from the cliff.
- As a Pyr of science you should test your hypothesis and publish your findings

Imagine sneezing

Fun fact, Alex said in an interview that this is a picture of him having a panic attack. Just shaking and desperately trying to keep calm as adrenaline pours through his system.
- Is it this picture or this ledge? I believe his half dome assent was scary because he wasn’t fully prepared. However this specific picture was taken afterwards.
- Oh, this guy.
  Dude needs to keep his death wish to himself and maybe use some safety gear when he's on camera.
  Like, he's good; really good. But being good and being sensible are not exclusive.
  Unpopular opinion, I get it. I never understood free climbers, especially when I was playing outside (I was raised gymbo with no wish to be mangled and no illusions about my normie skill, and one of those things makes me need to see a safety line on that kid). Downvote away because apparently that's cool.
  
  I’ve got a hard time glorifying potentially deadly sports. Hang on, I know the next comment is gonna be about something like F1 racing or something, but even F1 goes to great lengths to protect the drivers as much as reasonably possible. It’d be like going back to car racing in open air, no crashworthiness, no helmet, no HALO, etc. to compare to free climbing like this. This guy dies and people will idolize someone playing with suicide. Don’t particularly care if he dies doing it for himself, but the attention he gets could be done without.
- Didn't know that he was able to have panic attacks at all. Something to do with his amygdala or something. Good to know that he's only human, I was deeply moved after watching him in Free Solo.

That's a nope for me, dawg.
- He’s got a harness on but it doesn’t look like it’s connected to anything.
  
  This is a well known picture of Alex Honnold free-soloing the route. Free-soloing means he is climbing without a rope. He has a chalk bag on a belt, but no harness or rope. There is a documentary that features this called “Free Solo”, if you could imagine. It’s worth a watch if you don’t have anything pressing going on.
  
  I don't think that's a harness I think it's a chalk bag. You can see the bag just behind his hand.

Just looking at this picture makes my hands sweaty
- It makes my feet tingly.

What a nice place to relax and have a cool refreshing glass of NOPE.

It’s Alex Honhold. He’s wired differently than most people. Definitely not tethered.
http://www.alexhonnold.com/
- Wired very differently. Free-climbing El Capitan is certified bonkers.
  
  It’s amazing to me that he’s still alive, and lives in Las Vegas with a wife and kids. Like somehow he has a “normal” life on top of his climbing insanity.

Why? Why would you do this?
And to quote Gwen on Galaxy Quest:
Well fuck that!
- I have a fear of heights, so this is terrifying to me. I also wonder why people do this.
  
  I have a fear of heights.
  I broke my ankle in a life altering way falling down two stairs unto a sidewalk. That, to me, justified my already reasonable fear of heights.
  I don't understand why this is the "Thank God" ledge rather than the "Oh My God!" or similar ledge.
  
  I'm very far from doing something like this, but I do have quite a bit of experience hiking/climbing in exposed terrain, so I can do my best: People usually start off enjoying relatively light hikes in the mountains, because it feels good to be hiking in cool terrain with awesome views. As you get more experience, what seemed scary a couple years ago doesn't look scary anymore. You like hiking, so you go for the hike, without thinking much about the fact that you thought it looked scary and dangerous a couple years ago.
  Keep repeating this cycle, and you might suddenly find yourself tied into a rope, with crampons, an ice pick, and skis on your back, on the top of some frozen mountain that looked insurmountable some years ago. It doesn't even feel scary, just really awesome.
  Add some brain damage (slight joke, but Alex Honnold does have a smaller "fear center" than most people), and you end up in situations like the one in the photo.
  My point is that it isn't really about adrenaline seeing like a lot of people think. It's about going for awesome hikes, and your limits for what you feel safe doing shifting over time as you gain experience.
- "Well ~~fuck~~ screw that!"
  
  Is my memory failing me and she actually did say "fuck that" and they dubbed it over with "screw that"?
- Never give up, never surrender!

Imagine standing there and then suddenly that slab under your feet shifts.

Remember kids, it's not the fall that kills you...it's the sudden stop at the end.
- Just completely miss the ground and you'll be fine, duh
  
  Today I fell off a ledge into orbit.
  
  True, good luck breathing

/c/majorlyterrifying

"Thank God Ledge" is an iconic feature on the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. This narrow granite ledge, approximately 35 feet long, varies in width from about 5 to 12 inches and is situated roughly 1,800 feet above the valley floor.