EdgeWalk

There's a certain daredevil demographic that will engage in pursuits that most people conceive of as flirting with death. Most of us don't instinctively shrink from activities that are onerous or dangerous because we feel death lurks around the corner, ready to pounce, but we do exercise more than an ounce of caution when embarking on a venture that could threaten our safety and security.

Others actively seek out engagements with an element of danger that appears to present them as alluring.

Added to that, many people like to have photographs of themselves in unusual situations or places, as though the photo itself is the reason for becoming a tourist. One comes away with a memento of the unusual with oneself placed squarely within the landscape.

It's often been commented on that there is no human condition as mind-numbing as boredom, and to dispel that feeling of being bored people seek out opportunities to indulge in extreme activities.

If someone has the disposable income and the requisite defiance-of-danger attitude and is in reasonably good physical shape they can sign onto a mountain-climbing expedition in the Himalaya, get those fabulous photos of themselves suited up against the elements, plodding and pulling themselves up glaciers, oxygen tank at the ready to compensate for the height and thin air.

The adventure is not one they contrive on their own, expert climbers and Sherpas encourage, service and literally haul them up.

And here's another offering closer to home for those who live in Toronto where the CN Tower beckons for a new extreme-adventure opportunity to experience the otherworldly thrill of a far, wide view, one more safely obtained seated in a helicopter, but lacking the thrill of circling a platform 1.5 metres wide, 356 metres from ground level.

True, there's a special suit to be worn, a 'jumpsuit', although that's not to be taken literally either, and true there's a harness, and true there's an experienced guide.

But that's a long, l-o-n-g way up, to be walking tentatively along a steel-grate flooring encircling the CN Tower, one of the tallest structures in the world. For people who fear heights this is not recommended. A vertigo-inducing, mind-over-terror experience for the young and the presumably foolish.

A half-hour experience with four other curious people willing to spend the $176 fee to achieve the thrill of a lifetime. If hang-gliding, parachute-leaping and bungee-jumping aren't thrill enough, this one is also on offer.

And the guide will entice those who take the plunge - not the literal plunge, but the decision to disport themselves at such a high altitude over the city, to be able to look down over Lake Ontario on one side, or the wide and generous expanse of the city and its environs on the other - to experiment a little, have trust in the harness to secure them from an actual plunge.

To lean forward off the grate, as though prepared to fling themselves into the ether, a prospect that would fill most people with horror and terror, but those who trust, with the thrill of the pretense, their faith in the security of the harness intact.

And when it's all done, there are those photographs to cherish, of themselves performing the seemingly impossible at the top of the CN Tower, grinning, or something approximating a grin, while emulating Spiderman.

Point? Overcoming natural fears of challenging nature? Or enjoying a source of spine-chilling challenges to one's aptitude to facing danger ... at the very least the perception of danger.

Something could always go wrong, after all.