January 22, 2007
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Photographer Photographs Photographer
The following photographs were taken by photographer Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The descriptions are his own. The identity of the photographer in the photos is unknown.
I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock in the Grand Canyon. The canyon’s depth is 900 meters here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe.
Watching this guy in his thong sandals, with a camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:
1. How did he climb that rock?
2. Why is he not taking that sunset picture on that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?
3. How will he get back?
This is the point of no return.
After the sun set behind the canyon’s horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available) and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes. At that point he had the full attention of the crowd.
After that, he jumped…
The canyon’s depth is 900 meters here.
Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.
That’s it! Look carefully at the photographer. He has a camera, a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand. Only his right hand was available to grab the rock and the weight of his load must be heavy.
He lands low on this flip flops both his right hand and right foot slips away…
At that moment the photo is taken.
He pushes his body against the rock. He waits a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs up and walks away.I was impressed by this too, until I looked it up on Snopes, and found this:
Though still impressive, and dangerous, the drop was not 900 meters. One should always question what they find on the Internet or receive in their email.
