UKC

In the process of watching this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0436rpk/hd/Vertigo_Roadtrip/


Here are people with supposedly extreme fear of heights...they can barely walk up stairs without bursting into tears...they are terrified of a cable car because "its an enclosed space and it's in motion"...yet the program glosses over the fact that to get to where they are they all had to board a PLANE(!!!) which is an enclosed space in motion...shouldn't that have been the most terrifying thing of all!!

One guy said "I can't go on a cable car...the thought of being that high up with nothing underneath me...I won't do it"....YOU'VE JUST BEEN ON A PLANE!!

Makes me think these people are faking just to get a free holiday!!

In reply to phja:

yes, but inside a plane the height isnt obvious and all around you...phobias are not that logical

In reply to pebbles:
I have a friend who is seriously claustrophobic to the extent he won't use the Tube unless he's had several pints first, and doesn't even like it when mainline trains go in tunnels. He doesn't have an issue with planes because he can see out, even small ones.

So as pebbles said, phobias tend not to be logical.

FWIW, though, I dislike heights at which I don't feel safe. So I'm happy in a plane (wasn't always, but that was a fear of crashing in a fireball, not a fear of height) and climbing with good anchors and a trusted belayer, but I don't like unroped exposure, e.g. I'm often the first to call for a rope on a scramble.

Neil