Arthur Birtwistle, who has died aged 95, was the last survivor of a group of pioneering 1930s British cliff climbers.
Specialized jumpers may choose to stay close to steep slopes and rugged terrain and thus avoid areas frequented by species that run and jump, while cliff climbers may exploit gradients and altitudes closed to others.
And riding them, with fiendish glee, is a new generation of children -- born into a thrill-seeking society of cliff climbers, bungee jumpers and off-road bikers -- who are quickly transforming neighborhood sledding into the latest extreme sport.
There are bungee jumpers and skydivers, solitary cliff climbers (they look like ants when you when you see them scaling rock faces from the distance) elite mountaineers, free divers (who don't use tanks), long distance swimmers (who have to worry about sharks), triathaletes and stock car racers.
Pointing my eyes ahead, inhaling the presence of perfume, feeling like a cliff-climber whose companion has panicked on the sheerest part of the face, I accommodated my arm to her grip and, thus secured, we carefully descended the remainder of the museum.
Henry Seebohm's History of British Birds paid tribute in 1885 to characters such as George Owd Lownyy" Londesbrough, the "Methuselah of cliff-climbers", and a Lancastrian who discovered a great rarity still known as the Bury Butcher's Egg.
Cliff rescue climber Robin Blandford – who also happens to be a former executive with Reuters' new media operation – created DFH after volunteering on rescue operations with the Irish Coast Guard.
Cameras were carried up the granite cliff by climbers including Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell earlier this year.
Soule, for instance, is a cliff diver, rock climber and stuntman.
Writer wonders whether as the swimmer drowns he loves the sea, or the zebra the lion which devours it, or the mountain climber the cliff from which he falls.
By Arturo Vivante The New Yorker, July 1 , 1961P. 22 Writer wonders whether as the swimmer drowns he loves the sea, or the zebra the lion which devours it, or the mountain climber the cliff from which he falls.
