A video showing a man suffering a serious fall while trying to climb the historic Fairmont Hotel Vancouver has emerged online.
The video shows a free climber, known as Joseph, scaling a cable to get to the hotel’s roof. The climber is then overwhelmed by exhaustion and tries to rest on a narrow ledge.
He fails to hang on and slides 9 metres down the rubber wire to the concrete of a lower roof below.
Original YouTube video – WARNING: Strong language
The video was posted Thursday although it’s unclear when the incident took place.
The video appeared on the same YouTube channel as a similar video that prompted a warning from Vancouver Police last year.
READ MORE: Free climber speaks out after falling nearly 9 metres trying to scale Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
It showed two men leaping over the fence at the Trump International Hotel and Vancouver Tower construction site and climbing the building’s scaffolding under the cover of darkness.
“It shows an incredible lack of common sense and some poor decision-making capabilities to do something that appears quite dangerous,” VPD Cst. Brian Montague said at the time.
Following the 2015 incident, a man claiming to be Joseph contacted Global News and described a situation at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver similar to the one depicted in the video posted Thursday.
“After some hours of exploring the inside of the hotel, we found no alternative way to access the galvanized green roof so we went with the original plan to climb the electrical cord.
WATCH: Two men climb Vancouver’s Trump Tower
“The cord was 30 feet off of the platform and had a long climb up to reach the galvanized green roof. I was able to stand on a scaffold system adjacent to the cord and got hold of it, but barely.
“I was over 30 feet off the ground and the cord was unstable. My heart started to race and my mind played some possible horrendous scenarios. One of the symptoms I experience from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is orthostatic intolerance, meaning I have difficulty maintaining standing posture for long periods of time and to have my arms above my heart.
“I was more than halfway up the cord and my grip started to weaken rapidly. There was a ledge where I could take a break but I did not even have the strength to climb few more inches to rest my weight on it. I had jolts of heart pounding fear and it was a struggle.
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“I began to slide down the cord. Kalen got into position on the scaffold in hopes to easy my fall. At the bottom of the electrical cord, thirty feet above the ground, I tried to step onto the scaffold but my grip failed and I let go. I fell straight down onto my back.
“Kalen lifted me up to my feet and I was able to walk even though I felt sick and dizzy and my world was blurred. We went down to exit the hotel. Being able to walk away from such fall, I knew that I was very lucky. My mind was unclear and I thought that a nap would help so we took a cab ride to my home.
“After falling and going home I took a nap for about three hours and I woke up with severe pain all over my upper body so I went to a hospital. I had broken my right arm and left shoulder and damaged my spine. I was told to give two months for recovery by a doctor.
“This accident really made me reconsider about scaling buildings.”
– With files from Yuliya Talmazan
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