RT
October 8, 2014
In a stunning new video, a 28-year-old trials cyclist Danny MacAskill tackles the never-before-ridden Cuillin Ridge in his native Scotland, to and from the pinnacle. The death-defying ride features sheer cliffs, rugged peaks – and unbelievable stunts.
MacAskill’s adventure was captured in thrilling cinematic fashion by Stu Thomson and his team at Cut Media, supported by Five Ten and ENVE Composites. The bike rider also used a first-person view camera offering dramatic views of heights and chasms inches away from his chosen trail.
To make his trip extra cool, MacAskill chose to arrive to the foot of the cliffs by rowing boat – and conquered the sheer Inaccessible Pinnacle at its apex, never parting from his bike.
The resulting seven-minute video called ‘The Ridge’ was posted on video sharing site YouTube on Thursday and instantly went viral, with the counter showing more than 3,300,000 views as of Saturday evening.
Fascinated viewers took to social media to discuss the effortless way the stunt cyclist jumps over huge rocky gaps and makes flips in places that few men would dare to climb. The rugged traverse on the Isle of Skye is a challenge for pro-level climbers, let alone cyclists.
“It should not be your first ambition in the Cuillin unless you are a highly competent mountaineer,” Sky Guides, a climbing company that specializes in the Ridge Traverse, warns on its website. “Like many aspects of mountaineering, the Traverse is fundamentally dangerous.”
The notorious traverse includes 12 Cuillin Munros ‒ meaning a rocky mountain along the ridge with a height over 3,000ft (914.4m) ‒ “which are acknowledged as the hardest to attain,” Sky Guides says.