How Romantic vs. How Stupid

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Man falls off cliff during wedding ring search
Updated Sun. Apr. 9 2006 11:45 AM ET

Kristen Brown, CTV.ca News Staff

A Quebec man who fell down a North Vancouver creek valley's cliff while trying to retrieve his fallen wedding ring managed to survive with only a few bumps and bruises.

The Sunday misadventure had Victor Penman, assistant chief for the North Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, offering the following advice: "If something has gone down or someone has gone down that needs to be retrieved, you leave it to the professionals."

Montreal iron worker Francois Valotaire watched in shock as his wedding ring fell off his finger and over the suspension bridge that hangs 50 metres above Lynn Creek.

"It's not really that tight (on his finger) and he doesn't wear it often," explained his friend Francois St. Laurent to CTV Vancouver, emphasizing with a shrug. "And it fell down."

Not wanting to return home without the ring, the Quebec ironworker decided to climb down the steep slippery terrain to look for it -- despite signs and fences warning of the dangers of doing so.

"We didn't know if it was on the rock or in the water. So we tried to look around for a place to go down that wasn't too dangerous, too much of a cliff and we found a spot that looked okay," St. Laurent said.

But Valotaire lost his footing and fell about 30 metres to the canyon's floor.

"He just started slipping, bouncing, hitting everywhere. It was a good two minutes unconscious on the ground," Valotaire's other friend, Brock Levesque, told CTV.

When Valotaire didn't reply after his friends yelled to see if he was okay, they called 9-1-1.

"There was that big waterfall, so maybe he wasn't hearing us or anything," St. Laurent said.

Firefighters were able to rescue Valotaire with a series of pulleys, ropes and manpower, sending someone down in the canyon to help him up.

"Coincidentally the crews were actually in the midst of doing high-angle scenario training at our training and maintenance centre this morning when the call came in," Penman said.

The firefighters stressed that people visiting Lynn Canyon must obey the signs and if they do drop something they shouldn't go after it themselves. One sign even has the words "Warning: Extreme danger."

Valotaire, who will have to return to his wife without his wedding ring, is lucky to have only suffered a few bumps and bruises. He told firefighters he was fine.

Lynn Canyon's sheer rock cliffs and white water rapids, though beautiful, are particularly dangerous for hikers who go beyond the safety fences keeping people from the canyon's walls.

According to the North Shore News newspaper, at least 17 deaths have been recorded at Lynn Canyon between 1976 and 2000.
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Source

So...you're away from your wife, on a business trip with some friends. You lose your wedding ring. So...you try and climb down a cliff to get it and fall off.

Romantic?
Stupid?

*At least he's got a solid excuse for coming ome without it, eh?
 
Stupid! I'd rather have my husband come back home to be alive without his wedding ring than in a body bag.
 
Inkara1 said:
Why was his ring off in the first place?
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It slipped off his finger cause it was a little big...you need to work on your retention.
 
Crux of the story...

"It's not really that tight (on his finger) and he doesn't wear it often," explained his friend Francois St. Laurent to CTV Vancouver, emphasizing with a shrug.
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Now...if he lost some weight, I'd sympathize with the lost ring. Since he doesn't wear it often, then he deserved to lose it anyway.
 
Gato_Solo said:
Crux of the story...



Now...if he lost some weight, I'd sympathize with the lost ring. Since he doesn't wear it often, then he deserved to lose it anyway.
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Maybe he's not allowed to wear it at work. It says he's an iron worker...my dad wasn't allowed to wear his wedding ring to work...he was a mechanic. He'd wear it when he was on holidays or if they were going out somewhere but other than that didn't...if he put it on for the weekends he'd forget to take it off and come Monday when he got to work he'd have to find somewhere to put it and it was just easier to not wear it unless he was off work for more than 2 days (or like I said him and my mom were going out somewhere).
 
Nixy said:
Maybe he's not allowed to wear it at work. It says he's an iron worker...my dad wasn't allowed to wear his wedding ring to work...he was a mechanic. He'd wear it when he was on holidays or if they were going out somewhere but other than that didn't...if he put it on for the weekends he'd forget to take it off and come Monday when he got to work he'd have to find somewhere to put it and it was just easier to not wear it unless he was off work for more than 2 days (or like I said him and my mom were going out somewhere).
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I'm not supposed to wear my ring when I'm on the flightline doing actual work. That means I wear my ring 60% of my workday. I never take it off at home, and...guess what...I made sure it fit from the first day. Sorry. I'm not buying that. It's a rather piss-poor excuse. ;)
 
Nixy said:
Oh for climbing down...yes. But the losing of the ring may have been an honest mistake.
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It's a RING!!!

It's not like if he didn't get the ring to mt. doom the whole planet would suffer or something.
 
paul_valaru said:
It's a RING!!!

It's not like if he didn't get the ring to mt. doom the whole planet would suffer or something.
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Oh, he was COMPLETELY retarded for trying to climb down to retrieve it.

But Gato is arguing that he shouldn't have lost the ring in the first place...and I'm saying that losing the ring may have been an honest mistake...
 
paul_valaru said:
It's a RING!!!

It's not like if he didn't get the ring to mt. doom the whole planet would suffer or something.
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Evidently you don't know my wife... :D ...seriously, though. I take my vows very seriously, and, to me, it's not just a ring.
 
Gato_Solo said:
Evidently you don't know my wife... :D ...seriously, though. I take my vows very seriously, and, to me, it's not just a ring.
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I understand it is a symbol of something, but it is replacable, it is not worth risking your life for.
 
Nixy said:
Oh, he was COMPLETELY retarded for trying to climb down to retrieve it.

But Gato is arguing that he shouldn't have lost the ring in the first place...and I'm saying that losing the ring may have been an honest mistake...
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ahh that is a question that will not be answered, could be he went on slim-fast, could be a hot blond walked by.

I am saying he is a dumbass for ignoring all the warning signs
 
Gato_Solo said:
Which is why I rarely remove it...;)
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when I had one I never removed it, unless I was working on something where it could get damaged (having learnt my lesson by breaking my first one 10 days after the wedding) but we will never know why this guys ring fell off.
 
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