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In 1989, while attempting a new route on a difficult overhanging rock face, climber Dan Osman fell. Again and again, protected by the rope, he fell. He decided then that it would not be in climbing but in falling that he would embrace his fear—bathe in it, as he says, and move beyond it.
A captivating exploration of the daredevil world of rock climbing, as well as a thoughtful meditation on the role of risk and fear in the author's own life.
In the tradition of the wildly popular man-versus-nature genre that has launched several bestsellers, Andrew Todhunter follows the lives of world-class climber Dan Osman and his coterie of friends as he explores the extremes of risk on the unyielding surface of the rock.
Climbing sheer rock faces of hundreds or thousands of feet is more a religion than a sport, demanding dedication, patience, mental and physical strength, grace, and a kind of obsession with detail that is crucial just to survive. Its artists are modern-day ascetics who often sacrifice nine-to-five jobs, material goods, and the safety of everyday life to pit themselves and their moral resoluteness against an utterly unforgiving opponent.
In the course of the two years chronicled in Fall of the Phantom Lord, the author also undertakes a journey of his own as he begins to weigh the relative value of extreme sports and the risk of sudden death. By the end of the book, as he ponders joining Osman on a dangerous fall from a high bridge to feel what Osman experiences, Todhunter comes to a new understanding of risk taking and the role it has in his life, and in the lives of these climbers.
Beautifully written, Fall of the Phantom Lord offers a fascinating look at a world few people know. It will surely take its place alongside Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm as a classic of adventure literature.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Ken Lee
reviewed Fall of the Phantom Lord: Climbing and the Face of Fear on March 27, 2016
Fall of the Phantom Lord
Dan Osman was an enigma. A speed-climber without equal, a free-soloist maverick who climbed without ropes, and enjoyed a life on the impossible crags and cliffs of Yosemite.
His final months were spent developing the new sport of 'rope jumping': stringing a taut high-line across a ravine, and then hanging a swing from the centre of the high line, with a launch point hundreds of feet up, on a cliff. In Yosemite, the cliffs are so high you can build thousand foot free-fall swings, with the most extreme arc at the full stretch of the rope.
But Yosemite National Park has prohibited BASE jumping and other extreme sports including rope-jumping, and practitioners are today involved in a cat and mouse game, to stay away from rangers, while keeping possession of their expensive equipment from law-enforcement. This has unfortunate knock-on effects, and sometimes results in avoidable tragedies.
After setting up his final, record-breaking rope-jump, Osman was pulled over for an expired ticket, and spent a short while in jail. On release, Dan returned to the site of the rope-jump to take down the swing and collect his equipment. Deciding to take one last swing for luck, Dan put his harness on and clipped in. But his gear had been exposed to the elements during his incarceration, and was fatally damaged. That was Dan's final jump.
Todhunter's book gives the impression of Dan Osman as an innate outlaw. Dan comes across as a fugitive, from the law, from life, and sometimes from the author. Perhaps this is because of the criminalisation of climbers, slackliners and BASE jumpers, but maybe there's something more.
Maybe Dan was never an insider, so he had to live on the edge.
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Add Fall of the Phantom Lord: Climbing and the Face of Fear, In 1989, while attempting a new route on a difficult overhanging rock face, climber Dan Osman fell. Again and again, protected by the rope, he fell. He decided then that it would not be in climbing but in falling that he would embrace his fear—bathe in it, Fall of the Phantom Lord: Climbing and the Face of Fear to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Fall of the Phantom Lord: Climbing and the Face of Fear, In 1989, while attempting a new route on a difficult overhanging rock face, climber Dan Osman fell. Again and again, protected by the rope, he fell. He decided then that it would not be in climbing but in falling that he would embrace his fear—bathe in it, Fall of the Phantom Lord: Climbing and the Face of Fear to your collection on WonderClub |
