Waterfall tragedy: YouTube daredevils who filmed dangerous stunts for clicks pay ultimate price
Trio belonged to High on Life, an extreme travel channel. They posted videos from remote locations and preached a philosophy of living in the moment
Megan Scraper was standing at the edge of the scenic but treacherous Shannon Falls when she slipped into a swift-moving current, authorities in British Columbia said.
Her companions, Ryker Gamble and Alexey Lyakh, dove in to save her, but none of them were a match for the power of the rapids. Moments later, all three were sucked beneath the water’s surface, then plummeted over a 30-metre (100-foot) waterfall.
Their deaths on July 3 are a tragedy, but one that has been shrouded in controversy, because the three were associated with High on Life.
Members of the group travel to exotic locales and, at times, vault guardrails and ignore warning signs as they dive from cliffs and swing through canyons – always with cameras recording for YouTube and Instagram followers.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Sascha Banks told Associated Press that Scraper, Gamble and Lyakh had been swimming in a pool system at the top of the falls, “and then walking along the ledge shortly thereafter” they fell.
The local medical examiner was trying to determine whether they were filming just before going into the water.
High on Life’s Instagram page has more than 1.1 million followers. And its YouTube channel includes videos that make no secret of the dangers members court in the name of adventure: “World’s SCARIEST Rope Swing!!” and “Epic Cliff Jumping and Waterfall Slide (EXTREME DANGER).”