Really TRUE odd factoids

[neil_merseyside]

Me also.
I have never been scared of heights but when you you get to the edge and look down the butterflies start fluttering.

Not butterflies fluttering it's the angels waiting for a soul to save, that ridge is not the place to be on a windy day in a one-size poncho but everytime I'm there I see at least one - luckily the angels whisper to tuck it in, or remove and it seems most heed the warning (well turn back usually).

 

[Dave7]

Ma y years ago I took my SiL and his young brother there.
Because of the physical effect on his errhh 'bits' he named it No Widge Ridge

 

[matticus]

I don’t think it’s quite 10% but it is high.
The pictures of the queues make it look like an awful experience.
The actual rate is 1%. To put that in perspective it would be one death every 5 F1 races or 4 dead drivers every year.

Yes, even 1% is scary when you put it like that!

Spoiler: More climbing waffle

Dunno where I got 10% from, but there are certainly high mountains with death rates higher than that. This is a good article about the 14 "8 thousanders" (on NASA's site, bizarrely). Annapurna has a heck of a story:
Annapurna is the only 8,000 meter-peak to be conquered on the first try—and Herzog and Lachenal did it without bottled oxygen. However, the feat came with a high price. Since they wore only thin, leather boots up to the summit, the expedition’s doctor had to amputate all of Herzog and Lachenal’s toes after extreme frostbite and then gangrene set in during the descent. Herzog lost all of his fingers as well. Lachenal had asked Herzog during the summit climb: “Do you think it is worth it?”

Only 191 people had successfully ascended Annapurna as of 2012, fewer than any other eight-thousanders. With a fatality rate of 32 percent, no other eight-thousander is deadlier.
https://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/8000MeterPeaks/page6.php

 

[Beebo]

Lachenal had asked Herzog during the summit climb: “Do you think it is worth it?”

I mean really is anything worth it.
The folly of these expeditions is breathtaking, especially when you think that some have wives and children.

But human ingenuity is built on the backs of these sorts of people. Like men and women who go into small sailing boats and sailed off over the horizon.

 

[Blue Hills]

Jeremy Beadle booked the Grateful Dead for a set which has variously been recalled as 4 or 5 hours*.

Bickershaw Festival near Wigan, 1972.

An inspiration to many it seems, including Joe Strummer and Elvis Costello.

Became a bit of a mudfest (it was in the North West) - not helped by the fact that the water tank from the high dive act (!?) was apparently emptied in front of the stage.


* Senses of time may have been disturbed by them reportedly chucking acid into the crowd.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Men who have children before the age of 22 are 73% more likely to die by middle age.

 

[rikki]

Men who have children before the age of 22 are 73% more likely to die by middle age.

Do you have a source for that?
It's a great example of correlation versus causation.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Men who have children before the age of 22 are 73% more likely to die by middle age.

I think that shows men really aren't cut out for being pregnant.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Do you have a source for that?
It's a great example of correlation versus causation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-fatherhood-young-idUSKCN0Q91KS20150804

 

[Chris S]

The compere on the opening night of Manchester's legendary Hacienda nightclub was Bernard Manning.

 

[Profpointy]

As well as liking queues, and having a fat wallet, you also need to accept quite a high risk of death. (I'm sure it's safer now on average, but wasn't 10% the going rate for deaths-per-summit?)
People do more ludicrous things with their money, so I leave the Everesters to it. I got scared on Crib Goch in the rain!

Crib Goch in the rain, luxury !
I recall a "memorable" trip when we did it covered in 3 inches of melting slush. I'd taken a workmate who wanted to do something a bit more adventurous than the Cotswold rambles he'd been doing with a local group. I mentioned it was a bit "airy" but he said he'd give it a go. We lent him an ice axe and explained its use - totally useless on the slush, but hey ho, and off we went. I'd rather forgotten how exposed it was and we should have bailed out when we found it was slush not good snow, but on we went. Anyhow, after a worrying traverse with me by then realising I'd totally misjudged the decision to take a novice, or do it at all in those conditions, eventually got to the end of the exposed bit and let my mate know it was OK from then on. He'd done rather well to be fair, but he looked me in the eye and said "That's the worst thing I've done in my entire life and I never ever want to so anything like that ever again"

 

[classic33]

Crib Goch in the rain, luxury !
I recall a "memorable" trip when we did it covered in 3 inches of melting slush. I'd taken a workmate who wanted to do something a bit more adventurous than the Cotswold rambles he'd been doing with a local group. I mentioned it was a bit "airy" but he said he'd give it a go. We lent him an ice axe and explained its use - totally useless on the slush, but hey ho, and off we went. I'd rather forgotten how exposed it was and we should have bailed out when we found it was slush not good snow, but on we went. Anyhow, after a worrying traverse with me by then realising I'd totally misjudged the decision to take a novice, or do it at all in those conditions, eventually got to the end of the exposed bit and let my mate know it was OK from then on. He'd done rather well to be fair, but he looked me in the eye and said "That's the worst thing I've done in my entire life and I never ever want to so anything like that ever again"

Eight fatalities a year on there.

 

[Profpointy]

Eight fatalities a year on there.

Ooo, that's quite a lot. That said it can get very busy. We did it in the summer on another occasion and it was basically a procession. Inevitably you ended up having to stop just as you got onto a tricky bit !

 

[classic33]

Ooo, that's quite a lot. That said it can get very busy. We did it in the summer on another occasion and it was basically a procession. Inevitably you ended up having to stop just as you got onto a tricky bit !

Did it in early 96 in snow. We passed an RAF squad doing the same "walk" in shorts and T-shirts. No winter equipment at all, not even a rope.

A "leap of faith" through a cornice, ice axe in hands, was the only way down.

 

[Big John]

My mate talked me into doing it many years ago. I had no idea what I'd be facing. I'd been up Snowdon via various paths but never even heard of Crib Goch. We camped in a field opposite the Vaynol Arms where we'd got hammered the night before so when we set off we'd both got thumping heads. I'd never experienced anything like it and will never do it again. I'm not keen on heights at all. I remember looking over to the left and thinking "Fall that side and if you're lucky you might just be crippled for life" and then I looked to the right which was absolute certain death. I told my mate I wanted to turn back. Then he pointed to the queue of people behind. We couldn't turn back even if we wanted to. It was one way traffic. We had no choice but to carry on till the bitter end. We came back down via one of the wide, popular paths. It still gives me the shudders just thinking about it 😬