Friday, July 6, 2018

YouTube Stars Die Chasing Waterfall


Three YouTube stars who chronicled their daring travel exploits across the globe fell to their deaths over a waterfall in Canada, according to new reports.
The trio — Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper, of Vancouver — part of the channel High on Life, were swimming at the top of Shannon Falls in British Columbia on Tuesday when they slipped and plummeted into a pool 98 feet below, police told the BBC.
Gamble, 30, and Lyakh may have died trying to save Scraper — who was the first to fall, the Vancouver Courier reported. All three then got swept up by the strong current and were pulled over the pool’s ledge, according to the report.
A fourth friend who witnessed the accident then ran down the mountain to call for help.
Underwater dive teams recovered their bodies the next day in one of the lower pools, the outlet reported.
Gamble and Lyakh formed the YouTube channel High On Life — which boasts more than 500,000 subscribers — with high school friend Parker Heuser to chronicle their adventures around the world.
They have also attracted a massive fan base on social media — 1.1 million followers on Instagram, more than 126,000 likes on their Facebook page, and more than half a million subscribers to their channel.
“We travel around the world for a living and make fun and adventurous videos!” the group wrote on their Facebook page. “We also have a clothing company.”
The social media stars had traveled around Canada, the US, Europe, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
They are known for posting death-defying videos on their page — including one titled,“Epic Cliff Jumping and Waterfall Slide (EXTREME DANGER).”
Last year, Gamble, Lyakh and another High on Life member, Justis Price Brown, pleaded guilty to walking on a sensitive hot spring in Yellowstone National Park and other crimes at parks in the western US, the Courier reported. As a result, the trio was banned from US federal land for five years.
In a new video posted Friday morning, seven members of the group faced the camera as one of them delivered an emotional tribute to their friends. (Via NYP)