With any adventure sport there’s always an element of risk, but sometimes, something happens which shakes even the most hardcore of adrenaline junkies.
When a group of students headed out on a school climbing trip to the west coast of Norway it should have be a time for fun and exploration. Instead one student came uncomfortably close to a brush with death.
As the student attempted to pull himself over the climbing wall, he accidentally dislodged an enormous rock, which tumbled away and missed him by a hair’s breadth.
Luckily, the climber was able to leap out of the way with mere seconds to spare; avoiding what could have been a very serious injury.
The extremely fortunate student said:
This footage is actually from a school trip where we went to a climbing area called ‘Sila’, approximately right in the middle of Norway on the west coast.
We were first shown a designated area, by our teacher, for bouldering routes, but me and a couple of friends wanted to explore and maybe even find boulders that nobody had tried yet.
We found some rock and decided to do some bouldering by ourselves. As the video shows, we found this approximately 3.5 meter, tall wall that we thought had potential.
He continued:
When it was my turn to climb, everything was going fine, until I was doing the last bits of pulling to get over the edge.
The pulling resulted to a rock weighing at least 200 kg falling out of the wall.
I immediately released my grip to the loose rock and fell straight down, without certainty that the rock was coming after me.
When I landed on the bouldering mat I jumped away from the wall a split second before the rock crashed on to the bouldering mat.
This impact made a hole straight through it. Luckily nobody got injured and I am very happy to be alive with all limbs still attached to my body.
Those who have seen the video have been shocked by this frighteningly close shave.
One person gasped:
That size of rock could easily crash your head and turn it into to mash potato.
Another said:
Thank goodness it didn’t land on him woaaa!
This footage could have had a much different ending indeed and just shows how you should always make sure to have your wits about you when trying out adventurous activities.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.