to climb the Shanghai Tower
February 12, 2014 9:16 PM   Subscribe

Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov climb the 632 meter Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa. The video of their climb, Shanghai Tower (650 meters), is riveting.
posted by gen (39 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Serious question: what is it about Russian kids these days that makes them completely unafraid of death? I've seen so many videos and photos of Russian kids climbing giant structures without protection, hanging off of cranes, etc. What's going on over there?
posted by archagon at 9:24 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


So fucking scary.
posted by ph00dz at 9:34 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Is this going to make my palms sweat?
posted by zardoz at 9:36 PM on February 12, 2014 [3 favorites]


zardoz, this is going to make your pants wet.
posted by NorthernLite at 9:37 PM on February 12, 2014 [5 favorites]


This is going to make your everything sweat. Probably the most intense video I've ever seen, even more so than that antenna climbing video going around a while back.
posted by archagon at 9:37 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


So much nope.
posted by lalochezia at 9:42 PM on February 12, 2014 [6 favorites]


By the way, you can find culprits' blogs here and here. Absolutely stunning photos of dangerous climbs from all around the world. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.
posted by archagon at 9:48 PM on February 12, 2014


It seemed like the trick was just to jump the fence and take the stars...until I got to 2:40. Holy fuck.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 9:57 PM on February 12, 2014


Yea, the climb didnt start until they were already 600m in the air. I was actually fine, there's a metal grate, lots of hand holds, it's not a difficult climb at all...until he stood up on top of what I guess is the aircraft lighting at the very top of the crane. Nope and Nope.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:02 PM on February 12, 2014


You mean that flimsily-attached and possibly non-load-bearing metal grate at a nearly-vertical incline?
posted by archagon at 10:04 PM on February 12, 2014 [6 favorites]


>even more so than that antenna climbing video going around a while back.

That was definitely intense, but that damn antenna climbing video still makes me clutch my chair when I watch it. The one with the young-ish Russians doing pullups from the high crane also gets to me, as they were doing it without any sort of safety line at all.
posted by mosk at 10:21 PM on February 12, 2014


In response to the question I posted earlier in this thread: it seems that most of these crazy activities are, in fact, perpetrated by Raskalov and his friends; that this activity is called "roofing"; and that there aren't a lot of them left, though I haven't read any reports of them dying. If you read Russian, this is a pretty good interview with him.
posted by archagon at 10:30 PM on February 12, 2014


No way in hell do I trust that grating (and the bracing they lean against rest) to not detach and send me down down down.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:44 PM on February 12, 2014


According to Raskalov's Twitter, they're still in China, the police are looking for them, and all the tower's security has been fired.
posted by archagon at 10:45 PM on February 12, 2014 [4 favorites]


why do i watch these why do i watch these why do i watch these
posted by davidjmcgee at 11:03 PM on February 12, 2014


I found the eeriest thing about it to be how the entire tower appeared bereft of humans, as if they were climbing the post-civilization remains of an ancient artifact. It reminded me of a scene out of the recent Deus Ex game, or perhaps the citadel at the end of Halflife 2. It's fantastic to hear there's an aftermath.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 11:04 PM on February 12, 2014




Those guys have balls the size of watermelons as far as I am concerned. Never in a grazillion trillion years could I do that. Respect.
posted by vac2003 at 12:12 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


That high-five at the end. In the split second after their hands slapped together I expected to see one or both of them had miscalculated the force of impact and go tumbling backwards into the void.
posted by theory at 12:23 AM on February 13, 2014




No. No no no no no.




No.
posted by xqwzts at 2:15 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


According to Raskalov's Twitter, they're still in China, the police are looking for them, and all the tower's security has been fired.

They released the video while still in China? They may find themselves cooling their heels in a Chinese jail for a spell.
posted by zardoz at 2:52 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Another guy named Kiril
posted by growabrain at 2:57 AM on February 13, 2014


Seous question: what is it about Russian kids these days that makes them completely unafraid of death?

It's not a "these days" thing. Russia has always been a make-your-own fun place and climbing shit is a popular and encouraged means of fun. I wasn't a particularly brave child, and I remember having to be rescued (or at least talked down) from structures I climbed up but couldn't get down from. There was a park I went to as a kid that had a giant tree with little kids (5-7 years old) climbing it like squirrels. I even once met a kid who had a fake upper palate (it was gross and awesome) who claimed it was because he jumped off a roof. This was in 1988.

For better or worse, Russia has always had their own ideas of what constitutes appropriate fun for kids, and this stuff is an extension of that. It's just that these kids have cameras and YouTube now.

I can easily imagine stuff like this being popular in the rust belt, but, again, attitudes toward kids doing dangerous things are different here.
posted by griphus at 4:27 AM on February 13, 2014


According to Raskalov's Twitter, they're still in China, the police are looking for them, and all the tower's security has been fired.

Climbing the crane sounds like fun to me (though I wouldn't have stood unsupported at the very top -- that's one wind gust away from disaster), but releasing the video while still there is the stupid and dangerous part.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:19 AM on February 13, 2014


At 4:33, the guy says "Mom's going to be shocked!"
posted by geneva uswazi at 5:36 AM on February 13, 2014


VertiGoPro
posted by stinkfoot at 6:49 AM on February 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


My play-by-play:

- Don't they look suspicious walking around the street in face masks?
- Huh, okay, so it's kind of standard urban exploration
- Lotta stairs
- Ooh, nice view
- wait what don't go up there
- no
- o christ no
- no don't stand on it
- [nothing but whimpers]
posted by echo target at 8:14 AM on February 13, 2014 [4 favorites]


They don't look suspicious because the air is poisonous.
posted by Brocktoon at 8:52 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


What would probably be more impressive would be to watch the guys build the stuff they're climbing on.
posted by PHINC at 9:01 AM on February 13, 2014


Great video! These nutca guys will never be more alive. Also great because I can just save this video and skip morning coffee from here on out - just watch this!
posted by Twang at 9:06 AM on February 13, 2014


What would probably be more impressive would be to watch the guys build the stuff they're climbing on.

Here's a short National Geographic video about the construction of the WFC (the bottle-opener-looking building poking through the clouds in the first link).
posted by bradf at 9:11 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


And here's a longer video of the WFC under construction.
posted by bradf at 9:14 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Meanwhile, Alex Honold calmly dispatches something far more dangerous: a 2,500 foot rock face in Mexico, ropeless and smiling.
posted by that's candlepin at 10:03 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]




the second tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa.

Speaking of which: Lightning strikes world's tallest building
posted by homunculus at 7:08 PM on February 13, 2014


The age 25 thing is so actuarially supported that it applies to major car insurance discounts and should also apply to marriage access, the end of free public education, home ownership, and making long lists like this that get increasingly nope
posted by lordaych at 8:10 PM on February 13, 2014


Sweet mother of shit. Normally these videos don't really faze me, but at the end I had the pause the video a few times and reassure myself that if one of them had fallen they probably wouldn't have posted the video.
posted by Rhomboid at 1:47 PM on February 14, 2014




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