Incredible footage. The dude had nerves and calves of steel.

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Scott was my nephew and we started ice climbing together almost 30 years ago. Ive never seen this video before and it brought back so many memories. The wild thing is I know that's not the craziest thing he's done and got away with. This video took me back and brought back so many memories. I miss that kid. NWS! Thanks for putting this up!

Ive seen a lot of climbing footage at this point but this was truly nuts! What a legend!

God I mis Scott… one of a kind person. Didn’t know him personally, but one of my friends was close with him, and I remember starting out ice climbing he was such a huge inspiration to me.

Yikes!!! That is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. One Thing that could have made it a little safer would have been if Scott had put a friction hitch on the ropes going back down to the belayer and clipped that into his harness. That way if the tool failed the friction hitch could isolate out the slack an make the whipper onto the cams smaller. I would have probably just left the cams... they are way cheaper than hospital bills!

God Damn dude. I been ice climbing for almost 30 years. That is by far the sketchiest and balliest bail I've ever see. My hat is off to you my friend.

RIP to this badass, climb on in the sky. NWS 🤙🏼

Nice stuff. I'd love a go at Zion ice. The comments below regards better use of the double rope lowering off with backup line being taken in are valid. I've done it. However it is risky and deserves practice to smooth out the inevitable confusions and mishandlings. A better option for steep ice retreats is to carry either a Specter. Bulldog or even a Fiffi du Glace to do the lower off manouver on, and always clip in with a locker so you can flick it outward without fear of opening the gate, assuming you want to bother retrieving it. This also allows one to down climb with a top rope, and not load the anchor solely. I'm getting on now, and climb infrequently, so always assume I might have to back out of almost anything, thus I usually climb with a 3rd tool, a small hammer/pick to drive stuff home, spare 'disposable' rap-tat, and a few small maillons to link sketchy retreat anchors together. Also , and this is the most important point perhaps. A lower off is DOUBLE the load on the anchor. Abseiling off combined anchors or threads puts HALF the lower-off load on the things that are keeping you from falling. I've seen some of the other vids of Scott Adamson, and he is clearly a force of nature with guts, talent and very good technique. But... that knowing that 'today is not the day for this climb' is most definatly a sense/talent/skill to be carefully nurtured and trained. To be not afraid to back off is by far the most important survival skill in the climbing tool bag, and a big 'Well Done' to him for making the call. Hat's off also to all concerned, the belayer, the camerman, for keeping cool and collected, and thanks for posting the vid. A gem Mr Alstrin. (ps: Come to the UK and climb/film some Dry Ice... AKA chalk. You'd love it ) 😘

I’m not an expert on ice climbing but trying to climb up such a thin layer of ice without having possibilitys to place some solid gear is crazy

Americans don’t understand safe double rope use. Lowering off one while taking in the other would have been far less risky.

Holy smokes ... I'll need a whole bottle of CBD to calm my nerves down!! What an incredible climber, belayer and footage!! Raw footage gives a better sense of time, difficulty, mood ... I hope you'll post more of these!! Thank you so much!!

Really interesting: you as a filmer seem to be as committed as the climber. You both accepted the (probably fatal?) risk of the climb. You didn’t even talk to him, didn’t offer him help. You just held your camera at him, observing it with a 100% commitment. Neither did he want your help or your saving rope, he was going for it with full consequences. Crazy and beautiful video. Not saying that you did bad or good with your behavior it is simply just fascinating to observe.

bloody hell Chris, you kept your cool there filming. Great piece of history right there

You can keep all the bolted “dry tool” routes…this is REAL ice climbing! What a great display of both physical ability and mental strength!

Awesome footage.....great coolness from all involved......so ballsy 👍👍👍👍

God damn I was chalking up just sitting here... and my calfs were sooooooo pumped!! You da Man!!

best video on youtube right now

Incredible footage!!! - reminds me of the thin rime ice on the Canadian Rockies classic Alpine route "Slipstream" .

Now that was gripping!

One of the most intense videos I’ve seen

Can't stop watching....

Fabulous shot 🙌 And pretty nerve-wracking stuff 😅 Insane coolheaded dude

Few people mentioned here that he should have not clipped both ropes to the tool. That is correct but he should have also pulled out more slack on the rope clipped to the tool (so that it reaches the ledge), tie it off on a tool and abseil down himself while the belayer had him on a backup through the cams on a single rope. That way there is much less force on the tool itself, the angle of load on the tool is straight down, and the belayer has to deal with only one rope.

To qualify the ice.....is it safe or a gamble??? The eternal challenge of the climber !

THAT WAS HARD TO WATCH I did a fife rest on my tool once on a pillar and strongly did not like that. Lowering off a tool is definitely a strategy that would make me so nervous so I would also be saying "lower me the F down!" haha

absolutely gripping!

What a scary movie, impressive.

Oh NOW it’s sketchy

Sketchy and scary. God damn man. 🙌🏽

I tried climbing for three straight years. I loved it. I'm not really afraid of heights in general. But I could never get used to being very high up when climbing. I tried lol. Those heights we're just too much for my brain....

that was crazy, man take this 👍🏼

Pure mastery

I gave this a thumbs-up for being a phenomenal video documenting a fantastic ice climb and ice climber! Having said that And after 45 years of avid rock climbing myself Just how is this not foolhardy risk? Like ALL of it?

Why didn't the cameraman just lower him the static line???

Most fuking crazy ice climbing video ever. Holy

RIP Scott

Crazy climb. To see this thin ice without any protection and thinking it is climbable needs an real brave climber

Rest in Power

Literally on thin ice!

Good climber insane method

Great shoot. I think it missed out a little by doing only closeup while he was doing that crazy run out above the ledge, and then we got the situation after he put some pro in. Though I don't know about that pro. I wouldn't trust most stuff that looked like that.

Looking at all the ice screws racked on his harness, I'm thinking that's pretty optimistic. Ice is soooo thin.

Serious question: Why didn't he just anchor to the camera-man and lower off camera man anchor? Obviously the camera person was anchored. A safer, although not textbook solution, would be to go in direct to your ice tools, pull up a bite of slack and toss to camera person. Camera guy just hard points the rope to his anchor/belay loop/ really anything, and climber is lowered to safety. A hell of a lot safer than lowering off ice tools. Only problem I see with this proposed solution is that maybe camera man too far away using zoom lens, and there is no way to get a rope or leash to climber

I think I'd just bail off the videographers line at that point. Happy to see him clip that equalized piece. Ughhh, hairy!

That was pretty fucking insane. Amazing footage! Could you not have helped him bail? Without any other choice, it would have been better to rap using one of the ropes from the tool, while on belay on the other. I would definitly have left the cam and gone down using that when reaching it...

good lord.

That looks like a pretty hard route

Thick ice for Camden Me which sits a mile from the Atlantic.

RIP scott

dude i thought the comments were exaggerating but holy shit lolll rip

wow

Why not to rappel on just one rope to have way less slack in the case the ice tool fails?!? It's a little more complicated for the belayer but totally doable

Basically free soloing.

I've only been ice climbing once,but that looked way sketchy.

dude clip only one rope to the ice axe to lower. Then the friend will protect you if the ice axe rips while lowering. The way you do it clipping both ropes to it, you will for sure hit the deck if it rips... nice to have such steel nerves but it is even nicer to know what you are doing, specially when playing with fire (or thin ice in this case)

Solved the situation and had the courage to back down - that was good. But why didn't you see that there weren't enough backup options?

balls of steel

More or less suicidal.

this is psycho. what did i just watch

That was not the best move, it would have been lighter on the ax and a shorter fall if he somehow could have used a Munter Hitch. That is what I try to do, but maybe the ax was bomber. But, I would have never gone up there anyway unless I could down climb it or else get in a screw. Not the kind of thing to do unless it is the last pitch on the Egier I would like to think. Scary stuff.

Good thing its shitty sandstone and you can dig that ice pick about 2 inches into the sandstone on each pick! hahahahaha

Ever try editing ?

Was down climbing not possible? I think it would be much safer to carefully downclimb

man.,..there was a much safer way

if the axe falls the belay breaks for sure, and the two are dead! never do that

How did he get his 10,000 lb balls up there?

🤣🙈

There is so much about this that makes no sense to me ! The obvious, why did he clip both double ropes to the tool ? LAME ! Why was he climbing an unprotectable smear when he traversed right under a solid column ? I could go on and on...

Hi amazing . Can anyone explain to me the latest technique used to lower yourself? was there no other way?