We’ll preface this by saying that everyone in this rock-climb-goes-wrong video is now safe. But yikes, it did looked sketchy. Sasha Galitzki and her climbing partner Marcus knew there was a chance of rain when they set out for a day of climbing in Alberta’s Jasper National Park. However, they didn’t expect to be at the third pitch of Rabbit Ears when the rock face turned into a vertical water slide.
According to an interview with local news outlet Jasper Fitzhugh, the pair had already changed their plan because of the weather (the original plan was to tackle Meissner’s Ridge). And they’d put in a lot of work to get to where they were on Rabbit Ears when the rain became a problem—a big problem.
“There was not a huge amount of water, but because of the shape of that mountain you’re climbing up this corner, all of the water on the entire face above us was funneled into this corner we were climbing, which created very quickly quite a lot of water coming through that corner under our feet,” Galitzki told Jasper Fitzhugh.
The viral video is short and sweet. It shows Galitzki wedged in the corner as a deluge of water funnels past her. Marcus says some choice words about their situation.
Later, Galitzki posted the video on social media with the caption: “Nice day for some rock climbing, eh?”
Watch a rock climb go wrong (this video contains explicit language):