The Shard: Free-climber spotted scaling London landmark

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48907277

Idiots like this need locking up in my opinion. Not just 'spoken to' by the police if that was correct. Where's the deterrent in that? Climbing prison cell walls for a few months might provide a thought provoking experience.
Anyway not only did it tie up resources that might have been better utilised in attending to proper crime scenes, but if he/she had actually fallen and landed on someone the consequences are unthinkable, even without closing down a busy part of London for hours whilst evidence was gathered and yet more public services are deployed.
 
I saw that just now on the BBC news site, a spokesman said "we will be assisting the police with their investigation" so could this lead to him being prosecuted later?


"The person was safely apprehended and detained by police. Some areas around the base of The Shard that were closed to the public as a safety precaution have now been partially re-opened.

"Public safety and the security of the people who live, work and visit The Shard and the surrounding area is of paramount importance to us.

"Fortunately no-one was hurt by this dangerous activity and we will be assisting the police with their investigation."
 
I can see the shard from the pavement outside my flat. They often light the top part with different colours. When its red, it looks like mount doom in mordor :laugh8:
 
I can see the shard from the pavement outside my flat. They often light the top part with different colours. When its red, it looks like mount doom in mordor :laugh8:

Did the climber look anything like this?
bunny suicides.jpg
 
I hope that I'm not alone in wishing that these idiots would just fall and remove themselves from the gene pool.

Now now Dutto, they're people too and have family and friends that will miss them.

They can't help it they haven't got a really exciting hobby like homebrewing! :laugh8:
 
What makes the guy an idiot?!

Just because he has done something that you guys couldn’t doesn’t make him an idiot.

My climbing days are a few years passed, but I’ve soloed (ie climbed without a rope) plenty of routes that would have been certain death had I fallen off. I don’t think any of the routes I soloed were idiotic, in fact, many of the routes I have done while tied into a rope felt considerably riskier than those solos.

The reason - I would never solo anything that wasn’t both on sound rock, and well within my ability.

There was a common saying that went something like “there are 2 sorts of mountaineers, prudent ones and dead ones”, the fact this guy even tried to do this probably means it was so far below his ultimate ability level that it would have been a fairly arbitrary exercise.

If the police and press want to get excited then that’s their prerogative, but they probably understand as little about the situation as everyone who is calling him an idiot.
 
What makes the guy an idiot?!

Did you read the OP in full, if you didn't i will save you going back to post 1 -

Anyway not only did it tie up resources that might have been better utilised in attending to proper crime scenes, but if he/she had actually fallen and landed on someone the consequences are unthinkable, even without closing down a busy part of London for hours whilst evidence was gathered and yet more public services are deployed.
 
What makes the guy an idiot?!

Just because he has done something that you guys couldn’t doesn’t make him an idiot..
If you think this person is anything but an idiot you are clearly missing the point.
There was danger of injuring a member of the public or worse, apart from the secondary risk to himself (or herself) due to loss of their own life . However small those risks might actually be. And that's apart from tying up essential services, whose time would be better spent dealing with other issues. And if something had occurred there would have been lockdown for some time causing inconvenience to literally hundreds of people. And for what, adoration by a few other like minded individuals?? How's about an ambulance being tied up which could otherwise have been deployed elsewhere saving someones life?
And whether or not I or anyone else are envious or otherwise of this persons technical ability is absolutely nothing to do with it.
It was a selfish reckless act undertaken without any regard for the potential consequences, and that makes the perpetrator an idiot in my book.
Just like an idiot driving down a busy motorway at 150mph without regard for their or anyone else's safety. Thing is, in those circumstances, same idiot is likely to be jailed.
 
Yes I did read the whole thread - hence why I said “if the police want to get excited then that’s their prerogative”

Completely agree that someone driving on a public road at 150 deserves to be locked up.

By contrast if you are a limits handling driver on a closed track / proving ground, then driving at 150+ is just another day at work.

It all depends on the driver and the circumstance.

Similarly was “this idiot” really putting himself / others into more danger than “some idiot who pulled the heating elements out of a couple of kettles and decided to wire them into a bucket of water to make their own alcohol”?

Most people would probably think anyone doing that is a needless risk to themselves and others - but if you don’t understand the context then you can’t really judge.
 
Similarly was “this idiot” really putting himself / others into more danger than “some idiot who pulled the heating elements out of a couple of kettles ..................

The easy answer is yes for all the reasons you that have been posted in this thread.
 
The easy answer is yes for all the reasons you that have been posted in this thread.

How can you be so sure without knowing both the level of climbing ability of this guy and the level of wiring ability of the home brewer?

Say someone in a block of flats does a botched job of wiring in his kettle elements. They then pull the earth out because “it keeps tripping”. The whole thing the starts a fire.
How great a potential for loss of life is this? I’m pretty sure it’s significantly greater than one guy scaling a building.
Despite this I don’t remember anyone getting vitriolic about people wanting to build their own RIMS / HERMS set ups.
 
Say someone in a block of flats does a botched job of wiring in his kettle elements. They then pull the earth out because “it keeps tripping”. The whole thing the starts a fire.

If your made up home brewer did this he would be an idiot but as he is made up he is not a danger to others in real life unlike the climber who did climb a building which was not designed to be climbed and therefore he had no knowledge of the risk involved to himself or others, the dodgy electrician is a figment of your imagination the real idiot actually climbed a building!
 
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@pottsworth
The technical ability of the climber is not the issue, and any reference to it is a diversion.
What the issue is, is his/her irresponsible action which was completely avoidable. I'm sure there are similar challenges out there which don't carry major consequences should things go wrong. What this individual appears to have done is selected something which attracted the attention of a wider audience which no doubt increased the thrill, but in so doing increased their culpability.
Finally, if the description of this person being called an idiot offends, does the description 'stupidly irresponsible' sit more comfortably? Either way a few months in prison might focus their attention as I said in the OP.
 
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