Beggars Would Ride
Rise Of The Death Lemmings
In 1923, when asked what the allure of Mt Everest was, as he prepared to return for a third (and fatal) attempt at summiting the unclimbed mountain, George Mallory famously replied; “Because it’s there.” Interviewed in the New York Times that same year, he elaborated “Everest is the highest mountain in the world and no person has reached its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive, a part, I suppose, of humans' desire to conquer the universe."
Safe to say George was motivated by something a little more deeply rooted than the number of followers he had on Instagram.
For much of my life, I have referenced “Because it’s there” as my best guess at explaining the motivations of those bold people who seek out the rarified air that few of the rest of us are capable of breathing. Arctic explorers, deep sea divers, mountaineers, big wave surfers, land speed record chasers, to start the list. Keep it going on through parkour runners, wingsuit pilots, tightrope walkers, solo round the world sailors, whitewater kayakers, rodeo clowns and freeride mountain bikers. By extrapolation, include anyone who has ever stood on the edge of a cornice on a pair of skis and wondered “Will it go?” Put them alongside anyone who has ever straddled some sort of combination of internal combustion and wheels and asked “What’ll it do?”
Not a bad view from up there, I hear. But there might be a cost.
The Edge. The end of what we know. That place somewhere out far beyond what we consider safe and comfortable. For some, The Edge calls out a siren song that is irresistible. Leif Ericksen heard it, and may have followed it all the way to this continent centuries before any other European. So did Neil Armstrong, I’d wager, staring up into the star blanketed Ohio sky of his childhood and reaching toward the moon with all his will and all his wonder. Why? Because it is there. And because they can. What more needs to be said?
Being risk averse when it comes to how I move across most of the tactile surfaces of this planet (minor blind spots regarding dirt roads and sliding wheels notwithstanding), in addition to not really having the reflexes or the instinctual drive necessary for survival out on The Edge, I have always kept my aspirations in that regard to the purely spectatorial. Thanks to the exponentially advancing state of modern handheld recording technology along with the hyperbolic availability of social media, spectating, increasingly, is a very easy thing to do. Hell, I can watch people touch the void while spooning cereal into my mouth from the familiar, not at all threatening comfort of my own kitchen.
And this is where it gets weird.
During our weekly NSMBfolk check in the other day, the conversation eddied out around a very recent line that got ridden up around Squamish and then posted on the ‘gram. The line in question is a slab-to-ledge-to-gap-to-couple-guys-trying-to-catch-the-rider-to-stop-him-going-off-a-cliff kind of thing. The rider is a well enough known pro, had a solid run at DH racing a decade back, fast by regional standards but a rough go at the World Cup level, parlayed that into some decent Enduro results, and nowadays enjoys controversial sponsorship and a very healthy social media following. 295,000 or more pairs of eyeballs get to see what he’s doing on Instagram.
The line he rode, though, jeeeeezus. It’s a death trap.
Okay, okay, I get it. Today’s death trap is a walk in the park for the kids of tomorrow. “Shut up old man, and leave the speculation about big lines to the people who can actually ride the damn things.” This has been part of mountain biking for as long as there have been bikes and dirt. There’s always a rock on Portal Trail that can kill you. White Line in Sedona is a zero-sum test of nerves. Those old WW1 trails dug into the cliffs in the Dolomites make my sphincter clench just to look at. I’ve already burned enough words on how terrifying Red Bull Rampage looks to mortals like me. I get it, really. Adventure seekers gotta seek. The kind of people who like to slide their souls along the razor sharpness of The Edge, they are cut from a different cloth. The Edge calls them, just like it always has. Why? Because it is there.
For a very long time, I have had no qualms with this rationale. It’s not MY life that’s being laid down on God’s craps table. I believe in freedom of choice, and I admire those who choose to dance with the universe when their own mortality is hanging in the balance.
“You could slip in the bathtub and die tomorrow”
Okay, so Marat didn't exactly slip, but still, bathtub. Dangerous place.
Yes, yes I could. So could you. So could any of us. Heart attacks don’t usually send postcards ahead of their arrival. Each and every one of us statistically puts ourselves in grave danger whenever we get behind the wheel of a car and venture out into a city or onto a busy freeway. You could be a five time Olympic cyclist and still choke to death on your food. There Are No Guarantees. So, what’s the big deal if some of us choose to live extra close to The Edge? That life might be more brilliant and dazzling to experience as a result.
So, back to that line (and we are not specifically naming it because, well, a bunch of you have already seen it, it’s not that hard for you to figure out if you haven’t, and we’re getting to the whole point of this in a bit here anyway), and the way shit is getting weird out there. The line itself is not an absolute death trap, but any deviation from that line, from completing that move, is guaranteed to shuffle you off this mortal coil. As it was, dude in question had two riders attempting to catch him at the end and he still almost said goodbye to this chapter of his cosmic journey. As a result, I have questions. I feel, perhaps unfairly, like we are moving away from the “Because it’s there” purity of the O.G Edge seekers and into some other socio-evolutionary no-man’s-land.
Probably not the best example of doing it for the 'gram, but then again, were it not for the fact that a camera was rolling and this could become consumable content, would DannyMac have even thought this up in the first place? Getting kinda tangential here, and probably eroding whatever point it was that I was trying to make...
I wonder, most of all, if this talented athlete would have gone for that line if there wasn’t a camera rolling, and if there wasn’t a place to host that footage, a place with an absolutely bottomless appetite for content.
I wonder what would have happened if that guy had not caught those last few branches before counting out his remaining seconds of life in free-fall. I wonder about the repercussions within his family, his circle of friends, the emergency personnel who would have been called to the scene, the riding community of Squamish, the mountain bike community in general, and how we all would have felt upon hearing the gut punch news of his passing.
I wonder if I even have any business thinking that.
Mostly though, I wonder who else is going to want to try this now. Because face it, that is what we as people do. We emulate, we learn, we reshape, we modify, we add flourishes, and we progress from what was there before. But stir the massive monkey-see, monkey-do funhouse mirror of Instagram into the mix, and you turbocharge the results. That entire platform serves us a constant algorithm of copycatting. People lip-sync to popular songs, we are encouraged to time our reels to the songs that are being suggested so that we can all latch onto hopefully more likes, we post up our shitty boomerang videos and flail every hashtag imaginable onto our posts as we cast about for more eyeballs.
Doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to think that social media, in addition to being a petri dish for the incubation of widespread narcissism, is also showcasing The Edge and its myriad gleaming facets in more ways than anything that has come before. And by so doing, daring more and more of us to cross that sacred, dangerous threshold.
George Mallory died up in the thin air near the top of Mt Everest, on June 8th, 1924. He had Andrew Irvine for company on his journey from this world to whatever came next. Mallory was 37, had survived the horrors of World War 1, and had a wife and three children waiting back in England. Irving was 22.They had a camera between them, but there were no selfies. Nobody was watching.
Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999, and speculation continues to this day as to whether or not the duo made the summit. Irving’s body is still up there somewhere. Mallory’s son, John, said after his father’s body was discovered; “To me the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive; the job's half done if you don't get down again.”
It gets real murky trying to determine inspiration from madness at times. Courage from insanity. Calculated risk from reckless folly. It's not my place to make morality calls here. But... gah.
The Instagram effect has me re-interrogating my earlier stance on “Because it’s there.” I am not sure we, societally speaking, can really exist in that pure, almost naïve state anymore. Nowadays, everybody is watching. And a solid percentage of us are willing to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Saw it on the ‘gram. Must be doable. On one hand, we progress. Rising tide floats all boats. On the other hand, some of us die. And, damn, I dunno where to even go here with this, because ultimately all deaths are both absolutely meaningful and meaningless at the same time. And none of us really should have a say about any death but our own.
Call me old fashioned here. But supplant “Because it’s there” with “I did it for the 'gram”, and somehow that death seems a little more pointless.
Comments
Travis_Engel
1 week, 3 days ago
Funny timing that I'm reading this while writing a story about some of the women competing in this year's Rampage. I know Rampage is a very different thing than the 'gram, but two weeks of intense research and intense conversations have challenged what I thought I knew about that event. When I hear male athletes talk about Rampage, I can't help but run every word through the context of modern mountain biking's constant progression. What comes out the other end feels to me less like honest desire, and more like an obligation to keep pace with that progression. But hearing the female athletes talk about Rampage, and watching the years-long fight that got them there, I kinda get that very human, passionate, "because it's there" sort of vibe. Who knows, though. Maybe I shouldn't give meaning to an experience I haven't lived. Maybe I should have handed the job to Lacy...
Reply
Dave Smith
1 week, 3 days ago
I think you're onto an idea that I'd love to read.
Reply
David S
1 week, 3 days ago
I think you've hit on something I've felt like for a while. Having lived in a mountains in some capacity for a vast majority of my life, I feel like I've seen a shift in people approach to the mountains and the communities that inhabit them.
And granted, this might also be relegated to the small chunk of the world I live in, but it seems to me like there's a general indifference in people moving to mountain towns and investing in the people and the community. Instead, it seems like there is a growing trend of people coming to these towns to "get rad" and justify their decision making by their social media presence. I feel like some of this stems from not only the plague that is social media and the internet in general, but also the obscene cost of living in a lot of these places. It seems like its a matter of running as "rad" as you can before injury or bankruptcy cause you to leave; racking up as many internet points as you can before it all comes crashing down. This leads to some piss poor decision making and a general lack of respect for other people. The amount of people I've seen be dicks to each other due to things like strava or instagram is just heartbreaking. I am all for people challenging themselves for the self fulfillment that it can provide, but that seems to be less and less a motivating factor.
Reply
Rhys Archer
1 week, 3 days ago
Great read. NSMB is going in my bookmark spot, where pinkbike was. No shade on them, but this is the editorial, excellent writing, on the pulse content I want to read. Good work Mike.
Reply
Pete Roggeman
1 week, 2 days ago
Love to hear it, happy to have you reading and commenting, Rhys.
Reply
Grinder
1 week, 3 days ago
In defence of lemmings, the idea that they commit mass suicide is largely a myth promoted by the Disney film White Wilderness. To capture the now famous footage, the producers had to throw lemmings off a cliff. The scene was staged in Alberta where lemmings aren’t even native.
It was pretty much parallel to the “IG effect”. No camera, no stupidity (or in this case cruelty).
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56
Reply
Pete Roggeman
1 week, 3 days ago
Hollywood strikes again.
Reply
Lynx .
1 week, 3 days ago
Wow, mind blown. Who'd think that the oh so "nice" Disney Corporation would do something like that :-\
Reply
BC_Nuggets
1 week, 1 day ago
At least Walt was anti-semitic. He would be popular these days unfortunately.
Reply
hankthespacecowboy
1 week, 3 days ago
Is the growth of the Death Lemming drive a side effect of war / armed conquest becoming less appealing to the masses? In a very broad view of things, going to war used to be a young man's ticket to glory. Now that killing each other for our patria is no longer so widely endorsed, perhaps the innate, twined siren call of death & glory has found a more receptive audience in "adventure sports."
Reply
Mike Ferrentino
1 week, 3 days ago
Way to open a whole other can of worms, hankthespacecowboy! I've thought about this a lot, and while war and that whole "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" jive has been a solid motivator to get people to sign up for the mother of all meat grinders, I wonder if the extreme seeking is more a reaction to the overall existential comfort we enjoy. We generally do not have to hunt for our food or forage daily, we generally do not have to worry about freezing to death, the incidence of life threatening illness and injury mortality is many orders of magnitude less than it was a century ago, our kids are not as likely to die while infants, our partners are not as likely to die in childbirth, we are not as likely to be forced to dine on the remains of our fellow travelers while trapped in a blizzard attempting to cross the sierra. Life, in general, is safer by almost every measure than it was in centuries past.
War, on the other hand, spent most of the last century getting massively more lethal, especially for civilians. While we haven't had one of them global flag waving super high death toll collaborative efforts since 1945, i suspect the overall death toll from conflicts around the world is still pretty harrowing. But I'm just talking out my ass here, and don't have actual numbers to back any of this up.
Reply
Timer
1 week, 3 days ago
I’ve seen the numbers. Might be able to dig out the source if need be.
The main takeaway was that the risk of violent death has declined massively all throughout known history. Despite two world wars, the 20th century was, by far, the safest time period ever.
Reply
slimchances57
1 week ago
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker would be that source.
Reply
MTB_THETOWN
1 week, 1 day ago
A more peaceful society demands productive outputs for the destructive and adrenaline charged tendencies of young men
Reply
Timer
1 week ago
Possibly. I admit I’d rather some guys jump of cliffs on bicycles than them fighting wars of conquest or going to the colonies and get trampled trying to shoot Elephants.
But I’m not convinced that these tendencies are immutable. After all, we managed to dissuade young men from thinking they need to slay someone as a rite of passage.
Reply
Kenny
1 week, 3 days ago
I felt bad watching that clip, and I don't plan on watching any more from that guy. Not because I think he's wrong or bad or anything, maybe he is happy, sorta like Evel Knievel, some people are just wired differently, but those vids almost feel exploitative, like he's exploiting himself.
I can't quite describe it properly, but it's like this guy is backed into a corner in life where his only alternative to nearly killing himself for views is to become an anonymous McDonald's drive thru worker, which is an outcome he obviously could never face. So he's just sorta trapped. Maybe I have it wrong but that's just the vibe I get in this particular case, and it makes me feel sad, not entertained.
Reply
Jerry Willows
1 week, 3 days ago
yeah... I stopped watching him after his "cliff jump" into a bunch of rocks. I also find it disheartening that someone not from here is tying up the medical system for these antics. Doesn't he need a work visa or something as well?
Reply
Kenny
1 week, 2 days ago
Ugh. That one was also painful. When I saw that one, I just chalked it up to everyone makes a bad judgement call once in a while. But when I saw the squamish one...
Reply
Todd Hellinga
1 week, 2 days ago
this is a pretty good take, I only watched a bit of his stuff years ago, but quickly grew tired of his whingey approach to, well, everything. Agree that it *seems* like he thinks he has no choice to remain relevant, and even then, he only really gains it by avoiding dying. Doesn't seem like a great trade off to me.
I'm so sick of all the influewankers needing to do all the ubergnar things someone else has already blown out, it's a tiresome oneupmanship that I fear will end up killing someone one day, LB was almost that person and I hope he takes some time for honest self reflection...but I'm not holding my breathe as it seems to be a trait lacking in a lot of this types of individuals these days. I hate that line and I hate it more every time someone posts it, because to me it incerases the likelihood of someone who won't be able to pull it off trying it.
Reply
Morgan Heater
1 week, 3 days ago
I've been rock climbing/mountaineering at a reasonably high level for close to 30 years. It's not an exaggeration when I say that someone I know personally has died in the mountains every year. Free soloing has claimed a couple of close friends, rappelling mistakes several others, then rockfall, and avalanches. Except for a couple who were going through some rough shit, I'm 100% sure that every one of them would have rather lived to climb again another day, or spent more time with their loved ones. "Dying doing what you love" is the most over-used bullshit I hear. It's just a way to comfort ourselves into believing that perhaps it won't happen to us. "I could die driving to work" is another example. I strongly believe as a part of a community that regularly has to deal with "accidental" death, it's fundamentally cruel and amoral to add substantial unnecessary risk. Even easily avoidable severe injuries can have huge impacts on your friends and family.
The reality is that folks need to be smarter about risk assessment, in order to minimize the likelihood that their death will cause pain for the people that love them. As much as I hated watching Honnold's "Free Solo" (a beautifully shot cinematic masterpiece of a snuff film with a surprise ending), at least he approached the project with forethought and deliberately prepared to give himself a decent chance of survival.
That clip was a prime example of several levels of stupidity that could have been easily reduced with some fore-thought. Made me sick to watch it. That kind of content stinks of desperation. Super sad.
Reply
RStokes
1 week, 3 days ago
I couldn't help but compare this to Free Solo as well. Honold did all the right planning and prep before executing the solo, where as I don't think this rider in question did.
I watched the extended youtube of this line and he put a lot of thought into the jump over the exposed gap but didn't seem to give any heed to the run out. I am sure if that gap was 2ft off the ground many a biker would jump it as it looked fairly, in the grand scheme of things, simple. Even if he had come up a little short, it would have been very unlikely for him to fall right, off the drop. The run in was clear, solid ground and all the speed needed was there for the taking. The hazard was there, but the risk was minimal, and certainly controllable though skill and experience.
On the contrary the uncontrollable risk for the run out were not taken into account. Short stopping distance on roots and moss with a potential death fall hazard at the end of the runout? Why wasn't the runout prepped with moss peeled and roots removed? Why no practice with a net tied to trees to test the stopping distance? Remove it after some practice much like Honold removed his rope.
I think the rider needs to do some reading on risk vs hazard, his instagram reply's certainly suggest he should, anyway.
Reply
Morgan Heater
1 week, 3 days ago
At the very very least, his friends should have been roped up. I've climbed several routes in that exact zone, and a misstep would be fatal.
Reply
gman3000
1 week, 2 days ago
While I agree about the statement "dying doing what you love" as a way to comfort ourselves, I do not feel that the statement "I could die driving to work" is the same. In my experience the former is almost always applied post-mortem by other people, while the latter is spoken by individuals prior to participating in risky behaviour. It is my belief that "I could die driving to work" can be part of the overall risk assessment that is used by individuals in extreme sports in the right context.
I did a quick dig on literature. This paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10871082/) quotes a mortality rate of approx 2 per million riders (cited study is old so grain of salt) while driving in 2023 in Canada is 4.6 per 100,000 (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/canada-road-safety.pdf)..) Of course there are all types of severe injuries that run between death and no death in both activities. I do believe that preparing for the relative risk of both activities can help to make informed decisions and increase safety.
I need to acknowledge that I am emotionally invested in this topic. Having recently suffered a life-altering event from a latent condition, I have had a lot of time to reflect on relative risk of the activities I participate in. Mountain biking was so important as a motivator for me to get back to health. However, my condition and it's impact on loved ones should something happen has forced me to reconsider my ability to ride solo. This is even with employing risk reduction precautions such as backcountry safety gear. As a result, it is hard to ride some days, even with engaging new communities to meet people to ride with. I spend a lot of time at the pump track now. I get it, this is my own situation, but it's important to keep the sport's relative risk in perspective.
Taking the point further, what about our own responsibility to society as a whole? The first linked study above says the cost of injury and consideration of how these injuries affect retrieval and local health services is not evidenced in the literature. What if future studies were to show that the sport is burdensome to healthcare systems? Does that change an individual's risk assessment? Due to my event I was not allowed to drive for several months. My risk to society is feels higher driving (due to my ability to cause a crash) vs. mountain biking. So which activity has a higher severity/probability? To who?
With the right risk assessment (which was not portrayed in the video) I believe that everyone can participate in some capacity. That line will always be drawn by the individual, for better or worse.
Reply
Pete Roggeman
1 week, 2 days ago
You raise some very interesting dilemmas and themes, gman. Especially with respect to societal responsibility and managing individual risk. The flip side, of course, is that we can't eliminate risk from day to day life (especially in societies with so much reliance on cars) and we need to recreate as a part of staying healthy - even if some people's choice of recreation is riskier than others.
The other day I saw two kids riding around the neighbourhood (I love that my neighbourhood has kids playing on the streets, riding bikes and scooters, and walking themselves to school). One had a helmet but the other didn't Assuming their parents knew they weren't wearing a helmet, it's a similar question - that child is more exposed to injury and potentially life-altering injury. Of secondary importance, it's taxpayer resources that would need to cover those costs but the family also bears a lot of burden. I felt like chasing the kid down and asking if they'd wear a helmet if I gave them one...but no matter how good that intention might be, it's probably not wise (unless I knew the child/family). Anyway...risk, responsibility, forethought...
I'm sorry to hear about your recent troubles but happy you weren't entirely robbed of your ability to ride, even if it was seriously impeded.
Reply
Lynx .
1 week, 1 day ago
100% agree on the social responsibility of living in a "civilized" society, I too have often wondered if the people doing the dumb/crazy shit think about anything more than themselves and their own "reward" or "failure" and what it could cost others who are maybe tasked to rescue/retrieve them?
What gives you the right to make say maybe a father with family risk their lives to help you, when it was purely at you to make the decision to do the stupid shit, so only you should have to "live" with the consequences. I hear/read so many times of rescuers loosing their lives or being seriously injured, trying to rescue people who took, what to me is unnecessary risk, if you're going to do that sort of thing, leave a "do not rescue" order with family or something, don't put other innocent peoples lives and their families at risk because you want to feel powerful and bad ass or whatever else it is.
I know crap can happen to any of us, easily, as easily as flipping a coin, and looking back it can seem silly how or what we did to end up there, but when you "stack" the deck doing stuff that super dangerous, etc., then expect to live with whatever the outcome.
Reply
Pete Roggeman
1 week, 1 day ago
It's a very slippery slope, though. 'Dangerous or unnecessary' to one person may not be to another. Part of living in a free society is having access to those choices, and systems in place to have your back when something goes wrong. The more heavy-handed rules and laws you put in place, the more you're restricting people's right to make those choices. One person's 'mountain biking near cliffs is unnecessary and stupid' is another person's 'mountain biking itself is unnecessary and stupid'. All of a sudden you're a criminal. Oops, that didn't work as planned.
It's easy to sit back and pronounce someone else's choices as dumb or unnecessary but viewpoints are different and lawmakers have a much harder job than most of us give them credit for when you account for the big picture.
Reply
A.Ron Burgundy
1 week, 1 day ago
Using that line of reasoning, couldn't you say that first responders are putting themselves at unnecessary risk by working in that field? Isn't that a decision they made? Generally speaking, people don't need to be rescued from suburban backyards. Maybe adrenaline chasing is part of the attraction to that job just like people who huck themselves off cliffs.
Reply
dave_f
1 week, 3 days ago
Who was it that said "Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself for Instagram, and dies by chance"?
Reply
Lynx .
1 week, 3 days ago
Meah, so IG and the rest of social media helps to accelerate Darwin's theory of evolution in some degree, the world needs a lot more of that, medicine and medical professionals have swayed the line so too many who should move on, don't.
Sorry to say, while I have some respect for the skills a lot of the "pro" people have, seeing them do crap in public places, at break neck speeds, etc., while other users are using the same space, I feel no sympathy when they inevitably get injured trying to get their view count up doing stupid crap they wouldn't if, as you say, there wasn't a "camera" recording. And as for the argument, "well, they have to do it because it's their job", no, no they don't, they can do like the vast majority and get a normal job, but they don't want to, instead they want to do what they like/is fun and get paid and as such, take all that comes with that, or go dig ditches and lay blocks or some such.
Personally I think the sudden disappearance of all social media would be a very good thing, it is filled with "perfect" people, with "perfect" lives and heaven forbid anyone passes a not positive comment. There isn't really a "real" reality anymore, it's all BS and fake, life is supposed to only be roses and people aren't taught as children to deal with life and all the reality and disappointments sure to come, they're coddled and soft and stupid.
Reply
Skooks
1 week, 3 days ago
I'm not too concerned about the 'pros' getting injured. They know exactly what they are getting into and what the consequences might be. I am far more worried about the more 'average' riders who inevitably are attracted to these sorts of lines after seeing them posted on-line.
People are already starting to ride the line in question, and I predict it is only a matter of time before there is a fatality. I really hope I am wrong....
Reply
ShawMac
1 week, 3 days ago
Not only stupid, but they cut down a tree in a provincial park to make the gap available. If you watch Remy's original video, there is a large tree that he rides the ledge around. In the Lewis video you can see the stump. That's just an extra dick move in my opinion.
Reply
Lynx .
1 week, 2 days ago
That's more than a d1ck move, that's something that he should be made to pay for in some way, either monetarily or with a bit of time in a jail cell, it's no different from those lesser skilled riders removing or modifying regular type trail features so that they can ride it.
Reply
delusional
6 days, 3 hours ago
Are you sure they cut it out? If you're talking about the stump that he jumps right over in the video that doesn't look freshly cut at all to me. That's a pretty heavily used area for climbing, and is battered by the wind, so it's not unlikely that it was damaged and removed sometime between the two videos.
Reply
Andy Eunson
1 week, 2 days ago
In the 90s when I was racing xc a lot, quite a number of riders stopped xc racing saying "it was too competitive" so they went to freeriding. Thing is, freeriding was just as competitive but different. It was kind of hidden and the one up-man-ship was kind of dangerous as someone pointed out above. My wife and I support ski athletes. We had a few of the ski cross athletes live with us from time to time. A couple years ago I met one of the the young women at my house briefly. She was known as the one who would just go for it first run without scoping the jumps as others might. She was all keen apparently on riding some line in Squamish that no woman had ridden before. Crashed hard and died. I came home the next evening and there are three young women, her teammates, crying.
There will always be people who are risk takers who do what risk averse people like me would never consider. Others creep up to dangerous activities slowly until they are comfortable with the really dangerous things. But we all know people who are just stupid and jump off things and get hurt heal up and do it again. They thrive on thrill. It’s the idolatry of the risk takers that I find a bit hard to take. Because sometimes it seems like unless people don’t try to emulate that even in small ways those people are looked down on because their mountain biking is some how less legitimate. Some things like the red bull hardline massive jump seemed to cross from extreme sport to spectacle. Some call it progression, and maybe it is, but I’m not so sure. It’s kind of weird that we watch videos of athletes just doing tricks, or hoonigan videos, but not competing. As cool as these feats are, it’s different than an actual race or competition.
But it’s kind of like manufacturers pushing the most expensive bikes, and that’s fine. Most of us realize no one needs that fancy shit to have fun. Similarly we don’t need to do risky things to enjoy mountain biking. The extreme stuff gets the likes. Most people are smart enough not to attempt riding next to a cliff and risk death. The people that will attempt these are going to do these things anyway, or something else stupid. It’s their own fault if they get hurt or die.
There was something recently about censorship and Facebook. And yeah I think Facebook has a duty to filter out misinformation and self censor. So should mountainbike media censor out really stupid shit? Certainly videos of secret trails or that sort of thing should not be promoted. Maybe videos of people getting maimed shouldn’t be promoted. Wild riding? Sure. I get bored watching those, but that’s me.
Edit to add: I looked for the Squamish video from the guy with a different foreign accent. At a certain point theses things pass a line from extreme sport to spectacle. Like Evel Knievel. His jumps were pure spectacle and people watched to see him crash. That video which I didn’t fully watch, seems to be look at me not dying kind of spectacle. One step from being a statistic. Why.
Reply
Pete Roggeman
1 week, 1 day ago
Several days before Mike set to work on this column, we were talking about whether we should post the clip to NSMB's IG account. We didn't for more than one reason, but the most important one was that we didn't want to look back on our wall in the future and see that we had inadvertently 'helped' promote that line, exactly because we're all worried someone will die there. That choice was pretty easy, but the line greys out quickly, lest anyone think that's a high and mighty stance...it's a work in progress but that one definitely didn't feel 'right'.
Reply
Andeh
1 week, 3 days ago
I'm sure I'll get a few negs for this, but what annoyed me even more than the event Mike referenced was when a teenage follower of a certain one of those YouTube celebrities/influencers did get hurt trying to replicate the same stunts, the celeb had the gall to start a GoFundMe drive to cover the kid's medical bills and shake down his followers to cover it. That's not going to fix the kid, and certainly doesn't address the root problem of social media death lemmings.
Reply
Pete Roggeman
1 week, 1 day ago
I guess you could look at that a few different ways. There's no good outcome to that one, but would you be happier if the athlete did nothing and didn't try to help? That's a tough one to judge for me but I do see your point.
Reply
Adrian Bostock
1 week, 3 days ago
Into the Silence by Wade Davis is a fascinating look into the motivation behind the quest to conquer Everest. Malory, Irving and a host of character crossovers from the tail end of the Great Game. Coles notes, it’s about the death of the British Empire after the Great War. definitely worth a read.
We all have to come to grips with the denial of death and some how find meaning in life. I am not sure if the algorithm is filling that gap or simply helping push the limit of what is possible?
Reply
Andreas Macke
1 week, 3 days ago
Even before WWI, during the prime of the British Empire, young British men were coming up with ever more elaborate ways to put themselves into peril. You could call that the age of exploration, or you could call it a bunch of privileged young men posturing for social standing in their gentlemen's dinner clubs (and perhaps trying to attract mates with that plumage). And well before any of that, young men in societies all over the world, whether tribes in the wilds or peasants in the agricultural countryside, were doing roughly the same thing in all kinds of crazy stunts, whether informal tomfoolery or highly structured rites of process (think vision quests, ritual hunts, etc.). IG-induced stupidity is just a modernized version of what veteran ski patrollers still call Kodak courage (and which often intersects with Whiskey/Beer courage...).
Until we figure out how to make frontal lobes deliver fully formed executive functioning at earlier ages (especially in males - evolution favored the heedless risk takers), there will always be a huge portion of the population susceptible to dumb behavior (and, adjacent to that, full-on narcissistic assholery). And those folks will always be sitting ducks for mechanisms to exploit their vulnerability for commercial purposes. It's that part that's being turbo-charged by social media.
To me, the antidote to all of that is the hard, piecemeal, very laborious process of teaching young people about the joy that comes from chasing flow in ways that's built on a steady skills progression, solid judgment, and dedication to process. Not nearly as sexy (or IG marketable), not nearly as flashy on the instant gratification front, but the only proven way to turn a fascination with dabbling in potentially risky things into a long term, sustainable source of growth and joy and satisfaction rather than a short-cut to courting disaster.
Reply
Mammal
1 week, 3 days ago
I think it would be interesting to hear Steve Vanderhoek's opinion on this line, and Lewis' rendition here especially. He's probably got the most balanced set of conditions to create his view point (first responder, talented S2S freeride specialist, been on both sides of devistating injury, has a loving family, etc).
I fully agree with the point of the article, I'm not at all pleased with how society seems to be driven by a hunger for validation from others they'll probably never meet.
Reply
RStokes
1 week, 3 days ago
I would like to here Remy's honest view on this, as a rider specializing in this stuff but with a (as far as I can tell) very methodical, planned and mature outlook on his sends
Reply
Skooks
1 week, 3 days ago
That would be interesting to hear, especially since he was one of the first to post a video of this line.
Reply
fartymarty
1 week, 2 days ago
Remy is so calculated and meliculous with his prep and riding - not unlike Honnald. His comments would be good to hear.
Reply
Karl Fitzpatrick
1 week, 3 days ago
I won't try to absolve myself of absolutely all vanity but that clip was bloody horrifying.
Reply
BewaretheKragle
1 week, 3 days ago
Caleb Holonko released probably the hardest video of 2023 gapping the lilly pad and back flipping the train gap for Kona bikes youtube page.
Brage Vestavik Real X games clip was so insane it not only introduced him to the general MTB community but got him a redbull sponsorship.
Remy Metalier Whistler edit took him from a Whistler ripper to free ride star with countless sponsors.
I could go on and on with more examples but the point is these guys are employeed and used for marketing purposes specifically because of their skills and huge risk taking. Instead of collectivlely grasping our purses at the risks they take perhaps just admit that we are not the target audience.
Reply
Peter Leeds
1 week, 3 days ago
My issue is the system, and how it exploits these type of riders. They go big, it's cool, they get to ride for a living...the dream for sure. But if they screw up the consequences are going to be grim......maybe grim enough for the reaper, and there is very little ground in between. But there will be someone to fill their place when gone. Red Bull Rampage.....great viewing....I wonder how many got crippled or permanently injured trying to get to that level. All for a moment's thrill or notoriety? Your career is not going to be long but the consequences could last a lifetime. The sponsors don't care....someone new will come along....
I love riding and my days of going big are over, but I want to go home for another day or ride. Is it really worth the ultimate price? You can't ride or live if you're dead.
I can't help but thinking that this phenomenon is spurred on by social media, videos, posts, likes etc... that never existed 20/25 years ago. It was done by guys whom were on the edge and knew where their edge was...there was no validation to what they were doing. Today it seems the point.
Reply
Lynx .
1 week, 2 days ago
I don't have a problem with it, no one's holding a gun to their heads forcing them, they want to be paid to ride bikes, well you have to provide something in return and everyone's "one upping" everyone these days, so better do something gnarly, death defying etc., to get the views and warrant the sponsorship. If that's not for you, then as I've said before, go get a normal, boring job that doesn't put your life at risk, pretty simple IMHO.
Reply
BewaretheKragle
1 week, 2 days ago
You had me until you brought up social media. We are all part of a mountain biking ecosystem and as a result either directly or indirectly we support and benifit from riders risking life and limb for sponsors.
Case in point this article has 42 comments the last article that did better is from August 7th (43 comments) You bet this article born from an Instagram post is being used by NSMB for marketing analytics showing user engagement.
NSMB will make money indirectly from Lewis, and as a result we get to visit this site and feed the advertising machine.
The idea that if we didnt have social media, this wouldn't occur isn't true. Instead we would have NSMB posting a collection of YouTube videos of riders doing the exact same thing aka "Weekend Warmup".
Reply
Kenny
1 week, 2 days ago
To me, the videos you linked are pure, simple, straightforward, top-shelf examples of incredibly executed, incredibly skilled riding.
They stand alone as exhibitions of MTB skill in it's most evolved state and would do so in the absence of "clicks".
This video, the one where he jumps to a pile of rocks, and his YouTube videos with that "YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS NEW BIKE'S FATAL FLAW" type videos, are... something different.
But, I'm not saying every video needs to be like the ones you linked, or that Lewis can't or doesn't produce good content, or that good content can't take different forms, but personally, I don't get your comparison.
Reply
BewaretheKragle
1 week, 2 days ago
I like that you said personally (so I 100% agree with you) because if we showed any of those videos & Lewis's IG clip to anyone that doesn't MTB they would not be able to distinguish the danger/risk. And that's because the risk involved is the same when it comes to life and limb. Barge has been dealing with the consequences for sometime just that we the public didn't know.
The only reason you did/can say one is less risky than the other is because you have drawn an imaginary line in the sand reguarding acceptable risk. If we can accept your line in the sand has merit and works for you, we can agree that Lewis's line in the sand is a bit further along than either of us but isn't any less valid for him.
Now about liking his content meh, generally not for me either.
Reply
Mark
1 week, 2 days ago
@Kragle you've been making some decent points, but the line that anyone who doesn't mtb wouldn't see the risk, is way off the mark. Show them the full clip and people will be able to evaluate the risk.
You're right that the line in the sand is blurry because it's different for different people and it keeps getting pushed forward. I think it's easy to forget that people have been watching adrenaline porn for a long time, even before the age of screens. Social media just makes it way more easy to access.
Reply
fartymarty
1 week, 3 days ago
Mike - it's only a matter of time...
I guess the only thing we can do is stop watching the videos (i'm not a big fan of social media and wouldn't be adverse to it not being around).
Reply
Backd00r
1 week, 3 days ago
Completely agree. As we run out of things that haven't been done, there's bound to be some 'play stupid games, wins stupid prizes, scenarios.
What worries me is the less qualified copycats. Will the couple of riders that have nailed that line be thought of as responsible if someone ends up on the railway tracks below? Or do they fade into the ether because the instagram algorcycle has jumped onto the next suggested post
Reply
Flatted-again
1 week, 3 days ago
What really gets me about these guys is when they do these stunts in sensitive areas, like a couple of of them tried in the desert a year or two ago. Sailing off a cliff is a personal decision, but busting the crust hurts all of us.
Reply
Frorider
1 week, 3 days ago
Mike, you’re pretty hardcore if you think White Line is ‘zero consequence’ ;).
The debate you bring up has been coming up a lot in the last few years. Rampage always spurs it. Redbull Hardline river gap spurred it.
Long before social media, Crusty Demons of Dirt on VHS sorta did.
Reply
Mike Ferrentino
1 week, 3 days ago
Holy typo. Sorry about that. I think I initially had "zero margin for error" in there but it got mashed out of the way in one of my rolling edits. I'll fix it...
Reply
Chris
1 week, 3 days ago
Wade was sending that line on a tricycle when he was in diapers. The rest are just bumbling their way down
Reply
GB
1 week, 3 days ago
I have read a book or two on the thoughts and reasoning for reaching the peaks of mountains . When the mind and body are taxed to the extreme, the mind finds a level of serenity that is not felt by the average individual. The adverse environment forces the mind to construct a new perspective. A form of paradigm shift that enhances one's spirit and perspective of the meaning of life .
North Shore trails .
Before the North Shore revolution. Trails were conceived as pleasant single track . The idea of testing ones mental and physical attributes in mountain biking is the heart of the original North Shore trails .
Know fear . Was , is the mantra .
Believe it or not a sense of calm and well being are felt dropping in on a double black gnarly trail with a good dose of fear . It's an odd juxtaposition of perspectives. It feels beautiful.
IG porn . Well one needs an IG account to see that . But I love watching Rampage and Hardline . Mass respect for these athletes .
Reply
JT
1 week, 3 days ago
First and only time I dropped a 20+ footer on a snowboard was trepidation>focus>calm>elation. Nervous before turning into the run in, acuity once on it, calm while falling, and hootin' n hollerin' after riding out the landing. That was huge for me. I learned I can.
Reply
Andy Eunson
1 week, 1 day ago
I highly recommend "Touching The Void" and "This Game Of Ghosts" by Joe Simpson. In many ways Ghosts parallels Mountain biking and other extreme sports. It’s about people learning how to climb and learning from mistakes with some dying or getting maimed. I can remember going to watch a talk with photos by a famed climber. Back in the day that is how climbers and such promoted their activities and made money for their next adventure. Today we have social media which has made it really easy to do these things. So much of these short videos and photos are just lame.
It’s not that people do these risky things. I understand the thrill seeking and we all do it within our own envelopes of comfort. That envelope changes with improved skills and age. It’s the accolades some riders get for taking big risks who aren’t particularly skilled that gets me. Managing risks is a skill. Managing fear is a skill. But when I see some rider or skier taking unnecessary risks and bragging about not dying I cringe. Because unskilled people might see this and think that it’s OK to ski steep shit in high avalanche conditions and think because they have an avalung or air bag that it’s OK.
Reply
Mike Ferrentino
1 week, 1 day ago
Touching The Void was such a gnarly read.
Reply
Mike Moore
1 week, 2 days ago
A very good friend of mine is a former professional skateboarder who was sponsored by one of the big companies, his perspective on this is/was "we were disposable heroes used to sell toys to kids, the more gnar you are the more toys you sell". Social media has accelerated and spread this. It's all about the Benjamins.
Reply
Mike Ferrentino
1 week, 2 days ago
I feel like the movie "Macho Taildrop" should be required viewing for anyone considering the life of a pro athlete in the non-mainstream action sports world...
Reply
lookseasyfromhere
1 week, 3 days ago
Of course by not telling us what specific video I've gone down a rabbit hole of slab rides trying to find it, and have watched a dozen that I probably wouldn't have otherwise seen...
Reply
BewaretheKragle
1 week, 3 days ago
I'm not sure why everyone is dancing around it, specifically when the description of Lewis Buchanan does everything but say his name. And I belive the picture used is a uncredited screen shoot from his social feed. Kinda weird to be honest.
Clips on his Instagram account.
Reply
Lynx .
1 week, 3 days ago
Had no interest, well maybe the slightest to maybe go search see who it was, but this definitely kills any thought of searching or giving him a view. Seen his attitude online in forums, thinks that everyone should move out the way when he's "training", i.e. going bat out of hell, even if it's in a public place where others of a wide variety of skill levels are recreating, no thought for others.
Reply
Kos
1 week, 3 days ago
Agreed, but dammit Janet, I still kinda want to see the line. Luckily, I'm not an IG guy.
Reply
LWK
1 week, 2 days ago
but if you are a YouTube guy, you are in luck... lol
Based on the YT video, there were several practice run ins, they talked about speed, wind, where to land, etc. I didnt think it was Remy level calculated, but they didnt just wing it either. And while the exposure is what it is to the right, the line goes into the bush. He did crash and ended in the thicket of trees.
I'm not justifying anything and like most, thought it a bit pointless and tasteless. That said, the whole thing didnt strike me as being much different than Hardline or Rampage riding. A minor eff up in either of those places also renders one dead or in a wheel chair and that just kind of seems the accepted (expected?) level of riding these days.
Reply
Squint
1 week, 3 days ago
I accept that there are physical risks to this hobby, but when an error leads to certain death I draw the line.
We rode (walked) Portal for the first time earlier this year, I was surprised that in the land of many lawsuits and no Kinder Eggs it is still open.
Maybe I'm just lucky to have been young and foolish long before social media.
Reply
whotookit
1 week, 3 days ago
The anti-darwinian lives of the top tier athletes do a lot of work in this role. For the number of terrifying things that we see them do, the mortality rate is non-sensically low and thus makes their feats look a lot more achievable. In the olden days of high mountaineering (and most extreme sports for that matter) every other person didn't come back, whereas modern equipment and training have made top tier athletes basically superpeople. I'd wager the capability gap from the everyday mountain biker to the professional is the largest it's ever been, whereas extreme lines are only becoming more accessible for anyone to try.
Reply
JT
1 week, 3 days ago
Socials have done nothing more than speed up the release and diversity of available content. As a kid I would rip through BMX mags several times waiting for next month's issue to come out, and the same goes for as a young adult new to MTB reading MTB mags. I can't tell you how many times we watched Aggroman (or any of the other Eddie Roman vids), Roger's Garage, or Happy Days for the BMX sets or the number of times I've watched Seasons. Suffice, a helluvalot on all accounts. Now a browser serves as the letter carrier, and they're all ready to deliver. Fact is there rarely if ever is a solid 'edge'. There are our personal ones, and some have an edge that is miles away from ours. When I see what newer school riders are doing on bikes, I can't help but feel impressed but also that they're doing nothing more than growing on what was being done 30+ years ago. It's totally nutty in present tense, but it's just growth and trying to find where the boundaries are.
Reply
Mark
1 week, 3 days ago
Among consenting adults, all is fair in love and war.
There's an idea that humans are hardwired to need "the rush" as a result of our evolution and quest for survival. As our modern lives are quite sedate compared to the thousands of years where everyday was a fight for basic survival, it does not surprise that many people take risks, whether they be voluntary or involuntary (subcosciously). For example I've seen rather unthreatening people compelled to rage over somewhat benign things. So I believe we have an innate need to test ourselves, one way or another.
Reply
slyfink
1 week, 3 days ago
counterpoint: people do plenty of stupid things, even when there is no camera rolling. I broke my back trying to add some style to a jump. I was riding solo, no one could see it. but it feels good when you pull it off. same with doing big jumps, skinnies, steeps etc... it feels good when you ace something that was previously a challenge.
but, having two boys, I realize kids do it all the time, even before the age of social media. I think this still do. climbing trees, jumping off cliffs (into water) etc... any chance they get, kids to silly stuff. my boys are into nordic ski racing. anytime they get a chance, they're goofing off in the woods, building jumps, or sending cliffs. not a camera in sight (lots of broken skis though... but that's a story for another time grrr.) anyways, my point is just that maybe mountain bikers, more than being instagram addicts, are just kids at heart, eagerly testing the limits. of everything!
Reply
Skooks
1 week, 3 days ago
Just this week a 17 yr old kid fell off a 50 meter cliff after climbing over a fence, likely to take a photo. He had just moved to town to start university and was out exploring the area with friends. So very sad.
Reply
Alex D
1 week, 3 days ago
This comment has been removed.
slimchances57
1 week ago
Sigh, the problem with tempting fate is fate can rarely resist temptation.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see being a social media follower of these kind of souls being somehow complicit in their behavior? Face it, as a species we're a pretty voyeuristic bunch, As long as history has been kept, we've wanted to witness the latest and "greatest" spectacle, bonus points if it involves life, limb and perhaps, a gory finale. Mass communication and social media has supercharged our appetite for this kind of self annihilation. It's all attention seeking, with a bit better odds than that monk on a corner with a gas can and matches.
Reply
Please log in to leave a comment.