A video of climbers sleeping in tents suspended on the slope of one of the three peaks reaching a height of about 2,500 meters (8,200 ft) above sea level in the Torres del Paine National Park has gone viral on Instagram (the social network is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).
The video was shot in early February by Sibe Vanhee (@siebevanhee), a 32-year-old professional mountaineer from Belgium, in the Chilean part of Patagonia, a region in South America covering mainly the southern part of mainland Argentina and part of Chile. The video has garnered more than 101,000 likes since it was posted on February 25.
In the video, Wanhi sits inside one of two tents, known as portaledges, suspended from ropes anchored around the rocky surface of the peak. The caption reads: “Our 5-star hotel in Patagonia!”
Vanhee told me Newsweek that he and other climbers “ridiculed” the “incredibly strong wind shaking us” in the latest video. The footage, captured by a GoPro 360 camera using a selfie stick, shows dizzying views from the mountainside and the howling sound of the wind beating against tents.
Vanhy and three other professional climbers, including Drew Smith from the United States, who is also a climbing photographer, and Sean Villanueva and Nicolas Favresse, both from Belgium, completed the first ever free ascent of the “Riders on the Storm” climbing route on the eastern slope of Torres Central, the middle tower of the granite peaks of Torres- Del Payne.
Free climbing refers to free climbing, a type of rock climbing that involves using only one’s own strength to move upward, while climbing equipment is used only for protection, not for climbing a wall.
The latest footage horrified users, which is not surprising, because although climbing accidents are rare, about 10 percent of all mountain accidents are related to climbing, according to a study published in January 2020 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Rock climbing, which originated in the 1960s, is becoming an increasingly popular sport. Along with the growing popularity, “climbing accidents and emergency department consultations have reportedly increased due to climbing-related injuries,” the study said.
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