Sisyphusian Snowmobile
May 6, 2011 11:06 PM   Subscribe

 
I have obviously watched too many Road Runner cartoons, because I was waiting for the snowmobile to hit him.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:25 PM on May 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Where was this recorded?
posted by WalkingAround at 11:29 PM on May 6, 2011


this is fantastic footage, do you know the context?
IANAF - I am not a francophone.
posted by aloiv2 at 11:32 PM on May 6, 2011


That was possibly one of the best docu-drama short films I've seen in quite some time, albeit inadvertently, huh?

Setup, excitement, thrill, disaster, fear for life, climax, resolution of safety, THEN sudden new adversity, chase scene, frustration and apparent futility, resolution of problem without protagonist, denouement.

Life as art, to say the least.
posted by gcbv at 11:33 PM on May 6, 2011 [14 favorites]


Apparently it's in Greenland. This site has a bit more context, with two other videos shot from the top.
It's amazing to watch these guys just launch themselves into the couloir after him. You really don't get a sense from the rider's camera alone quite how steep that chute is.
posted by Flashman at 11:42 PM on May 6, 2011 [6 favorites]


Actually, now that I watched the original vid again: once he falls off at the top, then you realize how damn steep is this thing that he's just, almost, climbed up. Damn, if he'd just kept it a little more straight for like the last 5 metres...
I know these guys are the bane of backcountry skiing purists in the Rockies, but that does look like fun.
posted by Flashman at 11:53 PM on May 6, 2011


Good link, Flashman. He was the first person to climb to hill (if he made it).
posted by stbalbach at 11:54 PM on May 6, 2011


Via the Facebook page of a well-known film critic, who is either a MeFite or a MeFi reader, because he posted a link to this soon after it went up here:

"Herzog's narration is all that's missing. Man's struggle against the elements, the futility of existence, the fleeting nature of happiness, and the failure of technology all summed up in a single helmet-mounted-camera video."
posted by alexoscar at 1:38 AM on May 7, 2011 [4 favorites]


That could have ended so much worse in so many ways. Gawd. He's lucky that (apparently) the most painful part of the experience was embarrassment.
posted by Decani at 2:21 AM on May 7, 2011


Où est la motoneige?

La motoneige est au sommet de la montagne

La motoneige est en baisse à la montagne

La motoneige est au bas de la montagne
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:40 AM on May 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


That. Was.... Awesome!!!
posted by XhaustedProphet at 3:08 AM on May 7, 2011


Watching the additional clips posted by flashman put it in context.. the original is a bit surreal and hard to make sense of.

I still can't quite figure out why those guys thought that putting themselves into the mix with a tumbling snowmobile was a good idea..hell, just get out of the way!

This reminds me of hill climbing on a motorcycle when I was a kid. You know going in that, if you didn't make the top, the trip back down was gonna suck.
posted by tomswift at 3:10 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


scissors cut paper
paper blows away
stone smashes scissors
and so it goes another day
but it's all downhill from here
at least that's what sisyphus said
ah you're fucked six ways from sunday
with the blues wrapped round your head
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:53 AM on May 7, 2011


I'm going to watch that over and over again until I get the message...
posted by evil_esto at 4:14 AM on May 7, 2011


I know these guys are the bane of backcountry skiing purists in the Rockies, but that does look like fun.

and everywhere else. snowmobiles in the winter and ATVs in the summer, with their buzzing, polluting two-stroke engines and yahoo drivers. but Darwin has a plan, yes he does.
posted by ennui.bz at 4:43 AM on May 7, 2011


WhyTF did he just stand there when a snowmobile is tumbling out of control right towards him? And DoubleWhyTF did he then slide to get ahead of it on the hill? Idiots.

Also, his complete silence until the very end was unnatural enough to make me wonder if this is fake.
posted by DU at 6:00 AM on May 7, 2011


DU... not like there was anyone to talk to as he slid down that hill.
posted by tomswift at 6:08 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also, his complete silence until the very end was unnatural enough to make me wonder if this is fake.

Hey, Wile E. Coyote is always completely silent while all that awful shit is happening to him. You telling me that's fake?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:11 AM on May 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


This site has a bit more context...

In my personal opinion the best part of that last video is at about 3:15 when that bird just wheels idly by on the breeze, I like to think laughing its ass off.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 6:42 AM on May 7, 2011


(Please note: despite watching 3 times that bird is actually a piece of debris sliding off hopelessly further into the abyss to the right, which frankly, is still pretty amusing to me)
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 6:45 AM on May 7, 2011


Well my cartoon watching experience indicates he and the snowmobile should've come down together in a 7 meter snowball
posted by Redhush at 6:45 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


That could have ended so much worse in so many ways. Gawd. He's lucky that (apparently) the most painful part of the experience was embarrassment.

Indeed, my brother tried and failed at something similar (though not as grand) during one Minnesota winter. After the snowmobile rolled over him, his snowsuit got caught and they tumbled together for a while longer.

He fractured his left leg in 9 places, broke 5 ribs, his collarbone, his left arm in 5 places, and got a concussion. He was born with a pretty severe pectus excavatum which the surgeon at the ER had never seen nor heard of. In fact, the surgeon said to my mom "we think we know what all the injuries are, but we can't figure out how he got that dimple in his chest or how we're going to fix it."
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:01 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Disposable income, indeed.
posted by vitabellosi at 7:26 AM on May 7, 2011


I think it's 2084.

Uh, based on your link it's 1390 in the Persian calendar.


Why, thank you delmoi. It was just a wild guess, and, yeah, anyway I suck at math. My spelling, however, is really very good.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:43 AM on May 7, 2011


Eponysterical.
posted by Gator at 7:47 AM on May 7, 2011


Sans succès
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:57 AM on May 7, 2011


You favorite snowmobiler succès.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:22 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDDDWWWWWWAAAAAWWWWW[shift]WWWWWWW
[space][space][space][space][shift]SSSSSSSSSSSSS[space]SSSSSSS[space][space]
SSSSSSSSS[space][space][space][space]SSSDSDDSDAAASDDSSSSS[space]DDDAAA
[ctrl]
Y "RRAAAAAAAaAAAAAAAARRRGH!!!"
Y "YAAAAARRNOOAAAAOOWWWW!!!"
posted by herrdoktor at 8:29 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Until he fell off, I didn't realize his camera was on his helmet, and I thought he was riding some kind of xenomorph-like snowmobile with black housing and orange skis.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:55 AM on May 7, 2011


DU: WhyTF did he just stand there when a snowmobile is tumbling out of control right towards him?

I'd imagine because he wanted to judge which way it was going to go, so that he could dodge it. However, the fact that he then dived after it again and almost got himself mangled makes me question whether he was really judging anything at all.
posted by Acey at 9:37 AM on May 7, 2011


Until he fell off, I didn't realize his camera was on his helmet, and I thought he was riding some kind of xenomorph-like snowmobile with black housing and orange skis.

Haha! Me too!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:15 PM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


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