All of that is true but not to scrounge/borrow a bottle for water, a small backpack to put it in, some gloves, headgear and proper footwear? It’s the water I am amazed at, and the fact she had three days to go look for it. I’d excuse this all if it had been in the moment, but her planning sucks and could have killed her and endangered others looking for her. Definitely the dumb end of the tourist spectrum.
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2:59 in you can see footwear, not sure they are climbing shoes though. But if she were a climber, she’d understand the rock she was dealing with.
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Funny, I think I would pay $1500 to not climb that rock.
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You’re right about the risk to her life and anyone that might have to come rescue her. But that’s a $20 repair on that gopro. It’s just the glass. Also iphones have been rated for water resistance since 7 and were pretty close to it since 6s. They just didn’t really advertise the 6s as such.
The drone, on the other hand, is going to need some work.
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That’s like the worst geocaching experience ever!
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Agreed.
If you’re doing sport climbing at an indoor climbing gym or outdoors on smooth rocks, then it’s definitely a tactile thing, so you don’t wear gloves, and you chalk your hands frequently to stop perspiration reducing your friction. But that’s because you’re trying to maintain a grip on tiny holds that you wouldn’t even feel through gloves. But the rock in this video had heaps of large holds you can wrap your fingers right around, and which are sharp enough to slice through skin. So leather gardening gloves would be good. With a few spare pairs since this rock will probably even slice through leather eventually.
Agreed. They’re running shoes, not climbing boots. Runners have about 1cm of compression material between the occupant’s heels and the ground. Climbing boots would have a single thin layer of rubber. Having said that, it wouldn’t take long to rip a hole in a pair of climbing boots if you took them on sharp volcanic rocks like those in this clip. If you had to try to climb that sort of terrain, you’d be better off with tough hiking boots that cover your ankles, not runners than leave your ankles exposed.
But I think most climbers wouldn’t bother with that sort of terrain, regarding it as not fun. The fun comes from figuring out how to balance all the forces to progress yourself up the climb, not in spending most of your brain power on ensuring you don’t slice yourself open on sharp edges.
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She had a fairly good bearing from the video the drone shot as it crashed why would she not trust that rather than the gps?
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It’s limestone karst all around there. Not sharp, and I’m not a climber, but it’s probably the easiest climbing landscape you could try. There are holds, ledges, and large cracks everywhere. Bigger issue would be that if you tried to hammer shit into it the rocks would crumble.
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I think I’d have climbed up carrying a rope so I could lower myself (and/or equipment) down later. A friend of mine who’s been to Thailand said many spiders and snakes there are lethal, so I also don’t think I’d jam my unprotected hands into crevices. While it may have been tough for a snek to get on that island, it’s easy for spiders on the wind.
However, a couple hundred bucks extra gets you the free replacement plan from DJI, which is easier than three hours of free climbing, angry hornets, skin removal, spiders, or bushwhacking.
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CSB
Back in my 20s I went on a climbing hike through a lava tube in Iceland. Lava rocks are sharp as heck. The guide only had 3 headlamps (him, my wife, and myself) but mine kept running out of batteries. The last half of the hike I was basically just feeling around to find the next rock that would get me the heck out of there.
I inquired if that was normal after we got out and his response was “Well, D batteries don’t last forever”.
He was still an awesome tour guide for the rest of our honeymoon, and he was kind of right about the batteries; next time I try to pull something like that (never) I’ll have an LED headlamp.
/CSB
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Back in my caving days, the rule was that each individual should have three independent sources of light. I doubt that has changed, except that the primary source is probably no longer a carbide light. 
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More idiocy: if she finds a hornet nest while climbing the steeper part, she can fall and tumble on that jagged rock, shredding her body and dislocating joints. Plus, downclimbing is no trivial issue, and has same danger. Has she planned out exactly where she’d going to jump into (ie, scouted it for submerged rocks, coral)?
Her tossing out that “free solo” line, and the free solo itself, just seemed way “too casual.”
"I Lost My DJI Drone on a Remote, Sunny Thai Isle - You Won’t Believe How I Got It Back!" seems like a great candidate submission for White Peoples Problems website.
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Carbide is still quite popular. Unlike even LED lights, you can simply refill an empty carbide lamp; it’s not so easy, however, to recharge electronics in a cave ^^’. For similar reasons, I highly prefer the old “white gas” Coleman lanterns, over their newer LED brethren.
The main difference now, is that a carbide lamp is more likely to be the backup to an LED lamp, instead of the primary lighting system.
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Thanks when I saw her feet in the kayak I was like - I do hope she isn’t crazy to climb that barefoot?! I did watch most of the video but skipped forward in parts…it was too cringey.
I used to climb on seaside cliffs and rocks like that before I could walk, as a child upto teenager, before I knew ‘free climbing’ was a thing. Stopped when I realised how dangerous it was cos I fell on a beach on my back about 1-2 feet away from some sharp protuding rocks. If I’d hit those it’d been serious.
Also it was the beach, where I wasn’t going to get trapped or away from people!
After reading the headline, I was expecting this to be announcing a new Pixar movie.
Sort of a Wall-E meets Castaway type thing.
After reading the article, I has a sad…
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