Photos of a man who climbed out onto an outcropping overlooking the raging Yellowstone Lower Falls puts into focus the heights — literally — some tourists will go to when breaking the rules to take photos of the national park’s spectacular scenery and wildlife.
Many of these are captured by others and shared on the Facebook group “Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of the Idiots,” which curates a constant stream of photos and videos, including those Wednesday of the man out above the falls.
Jeff Hahn used a long camera lens to capture the retreat of the man who descended to one of the most dangerous places imaginable in the national park: the brink of the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
One misstep or slip would be certain death.
Wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and what looked like Converse shoes, the bespeckled man was captured creeping across a small precipice of jagged slope back to wherever he descended from.
The white curtain of roaring water, which can send up to 60,000 gallons of per second plunging 308 feet down, seems only a few feet away.
No climbing is permitted in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but even for a tourism season already predicted to see more bad tourist behavior, the recklessness on display in Hahn’s photos is almost too much for even seasoned “touron” watchers.
And in this case, the indications are that this tourist was lucky to escape with his life, and he knew it.
Laughing At Stupidity
When Wesley Gooch, the author of “Rock Climbing Jackson Hole & Pinedale, Wyoming — A Day Climber's Guide,” saw the photos, his first reaction was laughter.
"I'm laughing at the stupidity," he told Cowboy State Daily. "That's stupid. I hate to laugh, but it's stupid."
Gooch didn't know how the climber got down there, but he felt confident making some assumptions based on his experiences. Everything he needed to know was in the man's body language.
"He's crawling, not walking," he said. "He got dizzy, and he's crawling away. People get dizzy when you get around a cliff like that, especially when there's moving water like that. It's easy to do."
Vertigo and dizziness can be induced by the rapid movement of water across a waterfall. It might be a temporary episode of disorientation, but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.
Gooch acknowledged that despite years of professional rock climbing, even he gets dizzy at great heights.
After years of experience summiting and scrambling across the heights of Wyoming, he knows when his body is telling him to stop and stay safe.
"I can stand on the edge of a cliff if I'm roped in and not feel dizzy," he said. "If I'm not roped in, I instantly get dizzy. It's a weird mental thing. And when you have motion in the background, it can amplify it."
Then there was the man's attire. Gooch assumed that "the city kid" in sneakers and shorts didn't realize the true danger he put himself in until after scrambling onto the jagged rock, which Gooch categorized as "garbage rock."
Call Of The Void
Gooch referenced "the call of the void," a recognized mental phenomenon people experience when faced with great heights.
Anyone who's ever gazed from a high place and felt the urge to jump has experienced "the call of the void."
Putting oneself in such a precarious position can usher in the call. Gooch believes it's a universal human feeling that everyone should heed before it's too late.
"Everyone's scared of heights," he said. "I don't care how tough somebody thinks they are, everyone is scared of heights. The reason isn't the heights. It's what's at the bottom of the heights, which is death. They're not scared of heights, they're scared of dying. And some people don't realize it until they get to the edge."
That's the only thing Gooch credited the reckless climber for. His actions were stupid, but at least his survival instincts kicked in once he got to the brink of the Lower Falls.
"Just look at his body language," he said. "They reach the edge, they get dizzy, and then they crawl away like that. It's your brain telling you, 'No.'"
Gooch cited a quote he's heard before: “The stronger the call of the void, the stronger the will to live.”
Fortunately, it seems the call was heard and heeded, but not before making it to the world of social media, which might have been the objective all along.
Sacrificial Selfies
Gooch admitted he was reluctant to discuss the photos, however amusing and insightful they might be.
His concern is that when it comes to discussing the foolish, impulsive decisions of tourists, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
"Even just talking about stuff in a negative way is kind of promoting it," he said. "You're almost daring people to try it by talking about it in any capacity."
That's why Gooch always highlights the repercussions of decisions like the one demonstrated by the man at the brink of the Lower Falls. Decisions don't have to be daring to be deadly.
In 2019, Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, and her husband Vishnu Viswanath, 29, fell 800 feet to their deaths in Yosemite National Park.
The couple was intoxicated at the time, but it's believed they were attempting to take a couples' selfie at the edge of Taft Point when they lost their balance and fell.
Gooch cited this incident as a tragic consequence of social media culture where people will go to absurd and dangerous lengths for "a better photo."
"They basically selfied themselves dying," he said. "And that's what this guy reminds me of. People do stupid stuff trying to get the photo."
Gooch believes photos probably inspired the man to descend to the relentless torrent of the Lower Falls.
That is the impetus for most of the moments captured and shared in the many Facebook groups chronicling Yellowstone's tourists.
"This could have been a dare, but I think they're just trying to get the photo for social media so they could brag to their friends about how cool they are,” he said. “It's the ‘look@me.com’ culture."
But there's also the adrenaline rush that would probably come from standing at the brink of the Lower Falls. That's another thing Gooch said experienced climbers recognize as a red flag.
"True climbers hate an adrenaline rush," he said. "If you get an adrenaline rush, that means something is very wrong. A master climber aspires for perfect calm and control"
Gooch adamantly stated that there was nothing masterful on display in the photos.
He didn't hold back in condeming the man's actions, even while laughing at his abysmal decision to get that close to the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.
"If you want to go climb a mountain, go do it," he said. "Climb a mountain of solid rock. But do it professionally, not like a dumbass trying to get a photo. That guy's an idiot, and that's the reason I'm laughing at the guy. Because he's been a dumbass. I'm laughing at his dumbassery."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
