Extraordinary People

[grapevine]

Three mesmerising demonstrations of breath-taking ability to perform precise and fluid movement

Ana Luisa NEGRÃO, 314 – Prix de Lausanne 2023 Prize Winner – Contemporary

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rY9PDSfEjUk

(2:39)

Shemakhinskaya Bayaderka Festival / Yana Kremneva / 2016

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kLmepH3L7r8

(2:49)

2019] Ju Wenxin - Taijijian - 1st Place - 15th WWC @ Shanghai Wushu Worlds

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=R-QoTQ_ATVs

(4:42)

[norman]

hard as nails.

https://t.me/SGTnewsNetwork/68596

[grapevine]

Daniel Tammet was interviewed on BBC today, promoting his new book, Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum, which is available now from all leading booksellers.

What’s special about Daniel is that he has Aspberger’s and is on the autistic spectrum, a savant, with genius level abilities in maths, linguistics and memory. He also has synaesthesia. Yet unlike other savants Daniel is also able to communicate extremely well with “normal” people.

Here’s a short video posted 6 years ago but still relevant.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3Mecg8iuuE

.

[grapevine]

Am I capable of being loved? - Daniel Tammet

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GzpZb10P1WQ

And here's a rather poignant video of a presentation by Daniel which shows his vulnerability and his inner beauty.

[Eva2]

Just bumped into Rajacenna on youtube - extraordinery talent
'I used both FEET and HANDS to draw 6 realistic portraits upside down

I love to challenge myself so I thought why not try for the first time painting with my feet while drawing in a realsitic way + upside down and also one drawing in 3D. This time I made 6 portraits: Bella Poarch, Harry Potter, Billie Eilish, Wonder Woman, Shakira and Angelina Jolie.
It surprised me how much control I was able to have over my feet, something I never realized before. All that time I was drawing while I thought my feet were useless with art and now I discovered they can do way more than I thought! I think if I paint more often with my feet I can really improve. I'm of course way better with painting with hands but painting with feet was so much fun!'

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=enZbw1j8-ZE

'Rajacenna The Ambidextrous Artist Draws w/ Two Hands At Once

A leftie, a rightie, a Swiftie, and a baddie, Dutch ambidextrous artist Rajacenna creates her own world through her drawings – which she masterfully executes with both hands, simultaneously.'

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=05kSNmCF-YE

[rgray222]

Most Parents Are Extraordinary People

[grapevine]

Travis Doodles
Becoming best friends with a homeless person

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_33CldFD2c8

Acts of kindness like this are so uplifting and a reminder too that there but for the Grace of God . . .

[grapevine]

Jacob Collier Improvises the National Symphony Orchestra (Live from the Kennedy Center)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TURkB9zqxa0

(18:51)
A truly extraordinary talent.
Jacob Collier, aged 30, is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reharmonisations and close harmony.

[rgray222]

A three-minute video about an autistic child with special abilities.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=znNnFQYAM_w

[rgray222]

Children can be extraordinary.

This woman's mother has Alzheimer's. After years of care, she recognised her daughter, looks her in the eye and said she loved her.

[sunwings]

I did not get one. I doubt anyone else can. I truly extrodinary girl with Visual Intelligence beyond comprehension.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ywQOnfWy6zI

[Harmony]

Below is a wonderfully documented rescue. Geoff Gledhill is 80 years old and his remarkable rescue of Hyun Park in the rugged bushland of NSW Australia is really amazing along with the rescue team's action as well.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-...lair/105308660

Hyun Park dangled, unconscious, almost 200 metres above rugged bushland in western New South Wales, on the climbing ropes that had stopped her from plummeting to the ground.

Moments earlier, she had slipped while leading the fourth pitch of a 250-metre climb up Belougery Spire in the Warrumbungle National Park.

Unresponsive, with a broken rib, a ruptured lung, and a head injury, Ms Park's survival rested on her 80-year-old climbing partner, Geoff Gledhill.


Hyun Park and her climbing mentor, Geoff Gledhill.

Night was closing in and they were in treacherous terrain, completely exposed on the rockface of a cliff.

Neither was wearing warm clothing because they hadn't expected to be out overnight.
The rescue operation to save Ms Park would later be described by NSW Police aviation command PolAir as the most complex the crew on shift that night had ever encountered.

It would take at least 17 airborne emergency services experts and nearly 20 hours of extraordinary tactical gymnastics — much in the pitch black of night — to save Ms Park.

The fall

It was about 3:30pm on a clear afternoon in April when Ms Park, a 47-year-old cabinet-maker from Melbourne, hesitated at a rocky overhang.


Belougery Spire (left) towers over the Warrumbungles, with Crater Bluff in the background.

The experienced climber later recalled thinking that navigating the overhang shouldn't be too difficult, but she knew that if she lost her footing, it was "a long way down".
Moments later, she was plummeting.

"I don't remember panicking in that moment, I just let go,"

she said.

"What's the point? There's nothing I can do."

She almost immediately blacked out — a phenomenon that can be caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure, or by the brain as a protective mechanism when a person is faced with extreme trauma, such as intense fear.

She doesn't remember her head hitting the rock cliff, but her cracked helmet is evidence of the impact.


Ms Park's helmet bears the scars of her cliff fall.

Ms Park and Mr Gledhill, a retired mechanical engineer from Melbourne who has been climbing mountains for 59 years, were on the third day of a week-long climbing sojourn in the Warrumbungle National Park when disaster struck.

The remote park, more than 500 kilometres north-west of Sydney, is one of the nation's most popular destinations for rock climbers due to its towering cliffs.

The trip, over the Easter break, was meant to be a time of healing for Ms Park, who had been battling depression for two years after losing her greyhound companion of 12 years, Pocahontas.

"Pocahontas was the closest living thing to me. We shared so much. We supported each other," Ms Park said.


Ms Park and her greyhound rescue dog Pocahontas were close companions for 12 years.

"I feel like we were both broken in a similar way and helped each other out.

"I'm grieving that the person I was with her has gone as well."



When Ms Park felt she was ready to climb again, the first person she contacted was her mentor, Mr Gledhill.

He proposed they drive 11 hours north from Melbourne across the border to the Warrumbungles.

"I totally trust him," Ms Park said. "When he says it's going to be good, it's going to be good."


Ms Park began climbing after she turned 40, saying it was "liberating".

On Easter Monday, they were tackling the majestic Belougery Spire in multi-pitch stages, alternating as climbing leader with two 80-metre ropes connecting them.

They were about 200m up the cliff when Ms Park moved out of sight before slipping.
Mr Gledhill heard a sharp shout and then silence as she swung into view, dangling motionless.

"I called out a few times, 'Are you OK?', and there was no response," he said.

"She was more or less horizontal and slightly head down, which isn't a good situation."

Belougery Spire as seen from PolAir on the morning Ms Park and Mr Gledhill were rescued.

The veteran climber said he remained calm, but kept calling out to Ms Park trying to rouse her, as he assessed the situation and worked out what to do.

After about 15 minutes, Ms Park regained consciousness and finally answered him.

Ms Park recalls feeling confused about where she was and what was happening. As she took in her surroundings, she felt intense pain in her upper back.

Mr Gledhill spotted a tiny, sloping ledge jutting out of the cliff several metres below her.
It was no bigger than about one square metre, too small to even lie down on, but Mr Gledhill knew lowering Ms Park onto it was their best option.

"I lowered her about a metre and then … I couldn't get any more movement out of the rope,"

he said.

The ropes preventing Ms Park from falling had become tangled, requiring Mr Gledhill to first climb up to untangle them and then return to his original position before he was able to lower Ms Park onto the ledge.


Mr Gledhill with the ropes and gear he was carrying on the Belougery Spire climb.

By the time he joined her on the ledge, more than an hour had passed, and dusk was encroaching.

Precariously perched on the small outcrop, he anchored them both to the exposed cliff.
They were almost 200 metres highand about 80 metres below the pinnacle.

There was only enough room on the ledge for Mr Gledhill to stand, while Ms Park sat, taking shallow breaths through the pain.

With the sun setting and her injuries ruling out rappelling down, Ms Park activated her personal locator beacon (PLB) about 5pm.


The personal locator beacon Ms Park activated after her fall in the Warrumbungles.

"I had it in a box, brand new, for a couple of years. But I always hiked or climbed with people who knew the area very well or who had a beacon with them," she said.

"This trip, I don't know why I remembered it. I [registered] it just the day before we left."

That decision likely saved her life.

The rescue

Realising he had a mobile signal because of his elevation, Mr Gledhill called triple-0 and was put through to NSW Ambulance.

"I told the operator it will definitely be a helicopter rescue,"

he said.

But as night fell, Mr Gledhill knew any hope of them being evacuated from the remote rock formation in the dark was slim.

"It was freezing. I wasn't wearing anything to keep me warm," Ms Park said.

She recalls she could not stop her teeth from chattering for hours after she was rescued.


Ms Park and Mr Gledhill were stranded on Belougery Spire as the sun set.

Now in total darkness, the pair waited as the cold night enveloped them.

Ms Park was able to move slightly so Mr Gledhill was able to sit next to her for extra warmth.

They heard the hopeful sound of helicopters arrive and then retreat as emergency services performed reconnaissance flights to locate the climbers and determine how best to rescue them.

The first call to NSW Police Rescue came from NSW Ambulance about 7:30pm, after the crew on an ambulance reconnaissance flight assessed a search-and-rescue team would be needed.

Other agencies were also consulted, including the local Coonabarabran Volunteer Rescue Association, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Western Region Police Rescue squad.

With a climb from the base of Belougery Spire deemed unfeasible, the police aviation command was notified.

PolAir commander Superintendent Chris Nicholson said his unit was contacted about 8pm — three hours after the alarm had been raised.


Superintendent Chris Nicholson is urging all remote hikers and climbers to carry personal locator beacons.

With Ms Park's critical injuries in mind, Superintendent Nicholson knew Ms Park needed to be extracted as soon as possible.

He said the Blue Mountains Police Rescue unit was tapped for its high-altitude expertise in complex rescue missions.

As the retrieval plan was being devised, a PolAir helicopterleft Sydney at 10:28pm and flew to Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains to pick up Sergeant Dallas Atkinson, the leader of the specialist mountain rescue unit.

At this point, Sergeant Atkinson was in phone contact with Mr Gledhill, discussing Ms Park's condition and assuring the climbers that a plan to rescue them was underway.


PolAir crews worked through the night as the highly complex rescue mission in the Warrumbungles unfolded.

With Sergeant Atkinson aboard, the helicopter then flew to Dubbo, the nearest baseto the Warrumbungles, to refuel before flying directly to Belougery Spire.

Meanwhile, a small PolAir plane had left Sydney at 10:33pm to fly to Dubbo via Bathurst, where it collected more heavy gear required for the rescue and Senior Constable Dan Skinner, who works alongside Sergeant Atkinson in the mountain rescue unit.

Once the pair met in Dubbo, the PolAir helicopter flew with Sergeant Atkinson to Belougery Spire, arriving around 1:25am on the Tuesday to complete a rescue assessment.

Infrared night-vision goggles enabled the PolAir crew to safely navigate the dangerous terrain.

It was the first time the crew on this night shift had used their infrared-vision training to attempt a rescue.


The PolAir unit on duty relied on its night-vision training to complete the rescue.

Sergeant Atkinson was winched onto the narrow peak at 2am with his survival bag and some basic gear to start preparations for a descent to reach the stranded climbers.

The PolAir helicopter returned to Dubbo to pick up Senior Constable Skinner and 100 kilograms of equipment, including 400 metres of rope and a battery-powered winch.

At 3:20am, he joined Sergeant Atkinson on the top of the spire and together they finished building anchors around boulders on the top of the peak to support the winch.

Shortly after 4:30am, Sergeant Atkinson began to make his way down the spire.

First contact

At 5am on Tuesday, 12 hours after Ms Park activated her PLB and Mr Gledhill made his triple-0 call, Sergeant Atkinson reached the climbers.


Police infrared vision of Ms Park and Mr Gledhill on the tiny ledge on Belougery Spire.

With no room on the ledge, Sergeant Atkinson remained on his ropes, throwing a sleeping bag over Ms Parkas he and Mr Gledhill huddled around her, trying to provide some warmth as they waited for paramedics to arrive.

"With any trauma patient, keeping their core body temperature as stable as possible is really important," Sergeant Atkinson said.

"Once hypothermia kicks in, it's a very slippery slope to try and turn that around.

"We waited it out until the paramedics could get winched in at first light."


A Toll NSW Ambulance helicopter carrying critical care paramedics flew Ms Park to the Dubbo Hospital.

The Toll NSW Ambulance helicopter arrived at 6:22am, and two critical care paramedics were lowered onto the peak.

Critical care paramedic Nicholas Carney was then winched down to the ledge around 7:30am, but also remained suspended on ropes as he assessed Ms Park's condition.

With so many bodies crowded into such a small space, there was little room for Mr Carney to treat Ms Park.

"That is when the decision was made to winch Geoff to the top of the spire first so that no time was wasted providing care to [Ms Park]," Sergeant Atkinson said.



The cliff rescue of a Melbourne woman in NSW bushland was PolAir's most complex mission yet.

He and Mr Gledhill were then winched up to the peak, making it to the top just before 8am.

Still in great pain, Ms Park was given painkillers so she could be evacuated.

She was strapped into a patient seat harness by Mr Carney and they were winched carefully to the top of the spire. By the time she was reassessed and winched into the ambulance helicopter, it was around 12:30pm.

Ms Park was flown directly to Dubbo Hospital, where the extent of her injuries was revealed.

PolAir then moved in and winched Senior Constable Rachel Chetwertak onto the spire at 12:50pm to collect Mr Gledhill. Despite his ordeal, the veteran climber did not require any medical treatment.


Sergeant Dallas Atkinson (left) and Senior Constable Dan Skinner with Mr Gledhill on Belougery Spire.

With both climbers safe, PolAir returned and winched out Sergeant Atkinson and Senior Constable Skinner at 1:27pm, along with all the rescue equipment.

At least 20 emergency services personnel, including pilots, were directly involved in the safe retrieval of Ms Park and Mr Gledhill over the 20-hour rescue operation.

"Any complex, remote area job like this — and they don't get much more complex — you're not sitting there twiddling your thumbs. That's how long these things take," Sergeant Atkinson said.

A rescue like no other

Superintendent Nicholson said rescuers faced unprecedented challenges during the operation.

"For all of the crew involved in the mission that night, that was the first time they had undertaken a mission of that complexity,"

he said.

Challenges included the unfamiliar mountainous terrain, winching rescuers with 100 kilograms of equipment onto a narrow peak, abseiling to a narrow ledge, all in the dark.

And there was no room for error with "the unforgiving nature of that cliff".

"We were 60 miles [almost 100km] north of anywhere remotely civilised … There was literally no one coming if we got that wrong," he said.


A NSW PolAir helicopter flies over the Warrumbungles during the rescue of Ms Park.

Superintendent Nicholson said infrared night-vision goggles, which require extensive training to use, enabled PolAir to safely navigate the terrain.

"If we weren't using those goggles, we would not have been permitted to undertake that mission," he said.

Although Sergeant Atkinson has been involved in numerous complex rescues in the Blue Mountains, he said the Warrumbungles operation was a "unique experience".

"I've been winched into lots of different places over the years, but being winched in, at night, onto the top of this prominent spire, this enormous feature, that was definitely something that made this job a bit different,"

he said.


Sergeant Atkinson and Senior Constable Skinner were winched onto the top of Belougery Spire with 100 kilograms of equipment.

Superintendent Nicholson praised Ms Park for carrying a PLB, which meant the rescue team knew exactly where she was.

He said PLBs were more reliable than mobile phones in poor coverage areas and could send precise coordinates via GPS long after a mobile phone battery might have gone flat.

Climb lifts cloud of depression

Ms Park describes the 15 hours she spent on the unprotected cliff overnight as worse than the injuries from her fall.

"I feel terrible that I caused so much trouble," she said. "I really appreciate the people who rescued me late at night.

"It was a terrible suffering, and cold, but these people all sacrificed their night as well."

Ms Park took up painting during her recovery.

Ms Park spent eight days in hospital in Dubbo, and then a further five days convalescing before doctors deemed her well enough to return to Melbourne.

She plans to return to the Warrumbungles, and says her depression has lifted following her harrowing ordeal.

"This is weird, this is really weird … But I'm actually now in better spirits,"

she said.


Mr Gledhill walks with Ms Park in Dubbo after she was discharged from hospital.

As for Mr Gledhill, he stayed overnight at a National Parks and Wildlife base then drove to Dubbo the next morning to visit Ms Park in hospital, before embarking on the 11-hour drive back to Melbourne.

He returned to the Warrumbungles almost two weeks later with a friend and climbed Belougery Spire again to collect the gear and ropes he and Ms Park had left, because he didn't want to leave any "rubbish" behind.

He then drove Ms Park home to Melbourne.


The Warrumbungles attract rock climbers from around the world.