"Your Crazy!" - Community ? of the week #6

[mscriv]

The title says it all. Share with us the wildest thing you've ever done. You know what I'm talking about, that experience that makes people say, "What! your out of your mind!" when they hear about it. Maybe it was dangerous, maybe it was impulsive, or maybe it was an accident. Regardless, the point is, it's the craziest thing you've ever done and you're still here to post about it. So please do.
________________________________________________________________

I've got quite a few to choose from, but for the purpose of this thread I'll go with skydiving. My sister bought me a jump for Christmas about 10 years ago. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. It's truly crazy when the plane door opens, the cold air rushes in, and you step up to the edge. Butterflies in the stomach doesn't come anywhere close to describing it. The most amazing thing is when you pull the chute at 6000 feet, everything goes silent and you can actually hear people on the ground yelling up at you. Totally awesome.
________________________________________________________________

Let me just say a quick thanks to everyone who's participating and making these weekly posts so much fun. It's great to get to know you all better. Keep in mind that if you've missed a previous question you can always go back and answer it. And, if you have an idea for a good question then send me a PM.

 

[echeck]

This one definitely classifies as "Stupid".

Climbing up a sheer canyon wall without any climbing gear. You can see where my buddies and I climbed up in the background of this image. Look past the bridge in the background and that's the area we climbed up.

At one point, about 3/4 of the way up there was an outcropping that we had to pull ourselves up on. As I grabbed a hold on the rock outcropping I lost my feet and I was hanging on this rock, roughly 150 feet above a rocky bottom. There is no way I would have lived had I lost my grip above me.

Thankfully, after I peed myself (not literally, but I was close!), I was able to collect my wits and pull myself up high enough with my arms to get my right leg up on a slight ledge to the right and pulled myself up.

I sat there on that tiny ledge for probably 20 minutes as I gained the courage to finish the climb. There was no going back down, so the only way out was up.

Once I was up it was an incredible feeling as the adrenaline was pumping through me. But thinking back I can't believe how absolutely idiotic that was to climb up right there.

*shakes head*

 

[0098386]

Probably the daftest thing I did was going hiking on the moors, getting hit by the old hayfever and taking an anti-histamine that causes drowsiness. I tried taking a power nap on a rock to sleep it off but it didn't work. So I had to descend 800 feet or so down a carved out river (with cliffs to climb) and a scree slope. Almost slipped a couple of times.

Or the more sane one-

Attempting to sail down a river. Only it was too shallow so we had to all hop along the bed. We travelled less than a mile in the space of 6 hours but we did manage to bump into Cherie Blair giving a talk in some field. Had to climb a tree to even see her though.

 

[Capt Crunch]

Racing another car through some backroads. Took a turn very quickly and I experienced squealing of tires and massive understeer for the first time.

Turned out ok, but I pulled over and mopped up 2 gallons of cold sweat.

Keep it on the track kiddos!

 

[mscriv]

This one definitely classifies as "Stupid". *shakes head*

Your right. That's totally nuts! I love rock climbing and rappelling and used to do it a lot. However, I've never climbed anything major without safety gear. Awesome story though and I'm sure the "rush" was immense.

Keep it on the track kiddos!

As a teenager I once raced with my parent's Cadillac and did a similar thing. Made a hard right turn not realizing there was one of those concrete sidewalk turning things to divide the traffic going straight from the traffic turning right. Yep, I launched right over it. Almost cleared the first lane of traffic before landing half sideways with a shower of sparks. Needless to say, my dad was not pleased with the resulting bent left front rim. I tried to minimize/lie my way out of it. He went to the intersection in question and took pictures of the skid marks. "Now son, explain to me exactly how you bumped the curb..." It's hard to pull one over on my father.