Climbing Influencer Dies During Livestream After Fall from Yosemites El Capitan

DarkSighted · #11 ● 10-04-2025, 10:57 AM

I'd venture that he realized his mistake almost immediately. But as it isn't a 100% straight-down fall from there, I imagine he may have caught at least one or two sufficiently large slim outcroppings/outjuttings within just a couple of seconds to likely cause crushing unconsciousness or a savage broken cartwheel, again leading to fairly swift unconsciousness. When I first heard he was 'livestreaming' during this, I thought he might've had a go pro on, somehow.

Caduceus · #12 ● 10-04-2025, 08:39 PM

He tried to grab the bag/rope on his way down during the fall. Definitely knew he screwed up.

SoCal Rich · #13 ● 10-04-2025, 09:37 PM

JaMoin · #14 ● 10-05-2025, 05:20 AM

Originally Posted by IvorySmith ↗

I was wondering what went through his mind when he fell, but then figured that he probably hit the ground before he realized his mistake.
BUT...
According to chatgpt it would take about 13 fucking seconds to hit the ground from a 900m fall. 13 entire seconds to realize what's about to happen.

Poor kid.

That can't be right. 13 seconds seems way too long. But I don't smoke math.

13 seconds is right, but only if he was free falling. If he was tumbling, it took longer but he might have been knocked out before hitting the buttom

SoCal Rich · #15 ● 10-05-2025, 11:47 AM

You can zoom in and see where he fell at this link.

El Capitan Gigapixel Climbing Routes
https://www.xrez.com/blog/el-capitan...imbing-routes/

He was on the route "Sea of Dreams" right at the top.

MoonBloom · #16 ● 10-05-2025, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by SoCal Rich ↗

Please archive off site videos so that they can still be viewed when they inevitably get taken down like this.

Learn how to use yt-dlp, then you can archive using mega.nz, google drive, etc. if they are too big to upload to the forums here.

You can also use https://preservetube.com/ which isn't as good because it does not preserve the best available quality (honestly it atill amazes me how many people think some 360p version of an original 1080p video or a vertical phone recording of the video playing on a computer monitor is acceptable as an archive).

Here are my recommended command lines for downloading with yt-dlp, preserving the original thumbnail, subtitles, and metadata:

H.264/M4a:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --cookies cookies.txt --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(avc|h264)']+ba[acodec~='^(mp4a|aac)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

VP9/OPUS:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --cookies cookies.txt --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(vp9)']+ba[acodec~='^(opus)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

The above use the "cookies" method:

Open a new private browsing/incognito window and log into YouTube
In same window and same tab from step 1, navigate to https://www.youtube.com/robots.txt (this should be the only private/incognito browsing tab open)
Export youtube.com cookies from the browser, then close the private browsing/incognito window so that the session is never opened in the browser again.

Cookies.txt exporters:
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...n/cookies-txt/
Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/de...flpdbgdldlbecc

If you don't want to bother with cookies.txt, you could try this instead, but it's worth it to use the above cookies.txt method if you have YouTube Premium, since it will download the premium bitrate streams if they are available for the video, and will also download videos that are available for premium users only (but not anything encrypted such as YouTube Movies).

H.264/M4a:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,tv_simply" --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(avc|h264)']+ba[acodec~='^(mp4a|aac)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

VP9/OPUS:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,tv_simply" --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(vp9)']+ba[acodec~='^(opus)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

You should also install ffmpeg and mkvtoolnix; you can put the .exe files in the same directory as yt-dlp or in any folder that is in one of your system paths.

SoCal Rich · #17 ● 10-06-2025, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by MoonBloom ↗

Please archive off site videos so that they can still be viewed when they inevitably get taken down like this.

Learn how to use yt-dlp, then you can archive using mega.nz, google drive, etc. if they are too big to upload to the forums here.

You can also use https://preservetube.com/ which isn't as good because it does not preserve the best available quality (honestly it atill amazes me how many people think some 360p version of an original 1080p video or a vertical phone recording of the video playing on a computer monitor is acceptable as an archive).

Here are my recommended command lines for downloading with yt-dlp, preserving the original thumbnail, subtitles, and metadata:

H.264/M4a:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --cookies cookies.txt --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(avc|h264)']+ba[acodec~='^(mp4a|aac)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

VP9/OPUS:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --cookies cookies.txt --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(vp9)']+ba[acodec~='^(opus)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

The above use the "cookies" method:

Open a new private browsing/incognito window and log into YouTube
In same window and same tab from step 1, navigate to https://www.youtube.com/robots.txt (this should be the only private/incognito browsing tab open)
Export youtube.com cookies from the browser, then close the private browsing/incognito window so that the session is never opened in the browser again.

Cookies.txt exporters:
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...n/cookies-txt/
Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/de...flpdbgdldlbecc

If you don't want to bother with cookies.txt, you could try this instead, but it's worth it to use the above cookies.txt method if you have YouTube Premium, since it will download the premium bitrate streams if they are available for the video, and will also download videos that are available for premium users only (but not anything encrypted such as YouTube Movies).

H.264/M4a:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,tv_simply" --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(avc|h264)']+ba[acodec~='^(mp4a|aac)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

VP9/OPUS:

Code:

yt-dlp.exe --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,tv_simply" --sub-langs all,-live_chat --write-subs --sub-format srt/best --embed-subs -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^(vp9)']+ba[acodec~='^(opus)']) / (bv*+ba/b)" --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv --embed-chapters --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails png --embed-metadata "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZTnKjOz90"

You should also install ffmpeg and mkvtoolnix; you can put the .exe files in the same directory as yt-dlp or in any folder that is in one of your system paths.

Thanks for all the info. I will see if I can figure it out.