Hammocks at altitude or how to defeat your mountaintop demons

Gabriel Dan Chiriac. 51 years old, manager in tourism, passionate about skydiving, climbing and diving. A business card in just a few words of the one who managed to convince hundreds of tourists to pay to overcome their fears. His recipe is simple: learn to relax in a hammock nearly 200 meters up. 

The "Hammock at Height" experience takes place in Gorj county, in Baia de Fier. Each person pays 50 lei, a cost that includes the rental of the necessary equipment (a harness with two safety carabiners and a protective helmet), the assisted mountain hike to the hammocks and, of course, an hour and a half of relaxation in the facility built in a landscape of dream.

"Everyone has to discover themselves, sooner or later"

I asked the organizer of this experience to tell me why he chose to invest in such a place, especially since there are many tourists who might refuse to pay for a ticket precisely because of fear. “It’s part of the game of life ! A game in which everyone has to discover themselves, sooner or later. Those who practice extreme sports are involved in this game every day. However, high-altitude hammocks constitute a defining threshold for ordinary people. A place where you are brought face to face with yourself and where everyone decides whether they are ready to move to a higher level of evolution ,” says Gabriela Dan Chiriac.

Theoretically, anyone over the age of 4 and weighing up to 100 kg can participate in the hammock workshop. They just have to be willing to defeat their demons, the organizer says. "Evolution has always meant risk and sacrifice. And those who don't risk – don't win! It takes a mix of a little technique + a little physical condition + a lot of determination. All safety systems are oversized so that the experience is a positive one. During the workshop, participants are constantly double or triple insured to prevent any unpleasant event. As long as the coordinators' instructions are followed exactly, no one suffers."

"Once grouped high on rock, the heart begins to beat"

Tudor Vultureanu is one of those who chose to overcome their fears and lived the experience proposed by Gabriel Dan Chiriac. "I still don't know exactly what convinced me to participate, maybe my wife who really wanted it, maybe the desire to overcome my fear of heights. The fact is that after reading an interview given by Mr. Dan, the organizer of the project, I learned that fear of heights is indeed treated this way and all participants, after a short period of being suspended, become relaxed and overcome their fear ," says Tudor.

Tudor admits that the safety measures and procedures that must be followed are draconian. "Initially, I thought Mr. Dan worked somewhere in the army, as he supervised our route or coordinated the female climbers who coordinated us. Later, I found out that he is a climbing and parachuting instructor, with countless trophies obtained in his career. The safety equipment was also premium, practically the entire activity I could say was safer than walking freely through the park. We were constantly secured at two points on two different ropes. From what I read, the hammocks are for such conditions, everything is prepared and monitored down to the smallest detail, practically the chances of something happening to you are non-existent."

Regarding the experience , Tudor claims that it all started as a game. He started from the premise that he could come down if he didn't feel ready and that, anyway, nothing forced him to stay suspended in a hammock. “I climb the mountain weekly, so the dilemma remained whether I would step into the hammock or not. The route to the top is relatively easy for anyone. I can say that the climb is minimal and also the risk of falling off balance to the top is zero. Once we are grouped up on the rock, my heart starts to beat. I try to console myself and analyze whether to continue or not. In the meantime, I find out that in the event of an abandonment, I will have to go down the classic path located behind the rock opposite. To get there, I need to cross with my feet a suspended rope that crosses the canyon. At the top, two other ropes that I hold on to with my hands and that I secure my equipment to. My luck was that I passed among the last and I had young people in front of me, some under 18 years old who crossed without emotions and whom I later found out were parachutists 🙂 “

Tudor admits that the crossing was easy, with eyes open, but set to be in the fog without looking down. “Once we reached the “boarding” place, I was suspended with a third roller carabiner and lowered down on a parallel rope towards the line of hammocks where I was going to stay. Only Mr. Dan was in charge of coordinating the movements that had to be made to get into the hammock. More precisely, once you got to it, you had to open it, climb your right leg, then your left and then your whole body. Later, you had to put one of the two belays on the rope holding the hammocks. The other one remained on the transport rope. Also, at the end you had to release the roller carabiner that Dan was pulling towards the edge to send another participant. At the end, everything was done in reverse. Up there, the first minute is hard, until you accept to look down too, which is what you came for anyway :)”

Tudor's conclusion is that anyone can try this experience because nothing can happen to you. "It's up to you to overcome your emotions until you get into the hammock, after which everything becomes a game that you don't want to leave."