Boy Scout dies in fall at Gemini Bridges

[Iceaxe]

Boy Scout dies in fall at Gemini Bridges
By Erin alberty
The Salt Lake Tribune

A Wisconsin Boy Scout died Saturday after falling 100 feet from Grand County

[Iceaxe]

That gap is very inviting..... Jumping that gap is soooooo dang tempting.....

[denaliguide]

some much to lose, so little to gain.

[archbishop]

I'm an adventurer even impulsive, but hell no! on jumping that. It's sad though kid with his whole life ahead of him pays for a moment of stupidity.

[Sombeech]

Terribly sad. As much as I hope my boy will be involved in the outdoors when he's a scout, I hope I can have enough talks with him to discourage this type of stuff, even though I was never the good example. I'm sure the scout leader will face some harsh critics.

[DiscGo]

Both in and outside of scouting I think most everyone does stupid stuff at some point in their life. In the end this guy just drew the short stick. My heart goes out to him and his loved ones.

Shane- That is a sweet picture!

[Iceaxe]

Shane- That is a sweet picture!

It's not my picture... I saw it on rockclimbing.com a few years back. I don't know who took the pic or who did the jumping. I was at Gemini Bridges a couple month's ago and considered jumping the gap for giggles.... so I have a good idea of what the scout was thinking.... but in my case commonsense took over before I did something stupid.... the gap is actually a piece of cake to jump, but the penalty points for a slip or miscalculation are incredibly high. The gap is about 6' wide and the take-off is a couple feet higher then the landing.... the scout landed short and fell backwards through the gap.... I was actually more worried about over jumping the landing and taking flying lessons off the front side of the arch.... which leads me to guess the scout probably had the same concerns and put the brakes on the landing a little too hard...

[Don]

Tragic. Dumb. That 18 year old sense of immortality has cost so many 18 year old lives.

[denaliguide]

[Deathcricket]

That's what she said!

[erial]

Penalty was not nearly as harsh at the British Open where several golfers made the 6 foot leap over Swilken Burn:

[Scott Card]

My buddy who's group I helped through Zero G was at Gemeni last week. He told me this morning that one of his boys was begging to jump but he put stop on that request. He was just about sick talking about it having just been there with that same possibility so close to him.

Sad, sad deal.

[R]

I was there two years ago early one morning, and had the place to myself. I was never temped to leap.

I agree that 18 year olds have two much body for their brains. I think we all took crazy chances back then, be it driving like an idiot or riding on the top of elevator with people inside the car below. (Yes, I did that one several times.) There's no real way to get them to respect danger except show them, tell them, and hope they see it themselves soon.

[Cirrus2000]

Tragic. Dumb. That 18 year old sense of immortality has cost so many 18 year old lives.

And 20 year old lives, and 25 year old lives. When it starts costing 30 year old lives, we begin calling it stupidity.

I guess I've got gonads the size of pollen grains, cuz I just don't get the appeal.

[moab mark]

A Moab High School kid also fell to his death several years ago jumping that gap. Everyone of my kids have begged to jump it over the years. It just amazes me that they do not see the danger of it. I am suprised it doesn't happen more often. Sad.

But on a adventure note we have always wanted to park a jeep on it for an anchor and go over to the far side and swing thru it. I'll bet when you cleared the entrance and went swinging out 200' in the air that would get your attention.

[Iceaxe]

But on a adventure note we have always wanted to park a jeep on it for an anchor and go over to the far side and swing thru it. I'll bet when you cleared the entrance and went swinging out 200' in the air that would get your attention.

Yeah.... I'll bet your mother would never see a down side to that stunt.