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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!

 

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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.

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Click here once you have read the entire warning and have seriously pondered and thereby fully understood the grave risks that you run by proceeding further, instead simply pursuing less hazardous endeavors by sensibly backing out now and returning to safety of the home page by clicking either label just above or below here.  Click here to choose to ignore this warning and proceed despite the grave danger and risks that you face by doing so.

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