Three young YouTube stars have died at a waterfall in Canada.
Police said Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper were swimming at the top of Shannon Falls in British Columbia on Tuesday when they “slipped and fell into a pool 30 metres below”.
The 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.
The group has over 1 million Instagram followers and 500,000 YouTube subscribers. The other members on Friday posted a tribute video to Gamble, Lyakh and Scraper, holding back the tears as mourned “three of the warmest, kindest, most driven and outgoing people you could ever meet”.
They also read a mission statement that Gamble and Lyakh had written for the group, which included many nods to ideas of self-realisation: “Accept the fact that everything that makes up your world is there because you attracted it with your own thoughts. Realize that you can control your thoughts and emotions.”
According to the Vancouver Sun, Scraper slipped and fell into one of the lower pools, over 30 metres below. Lyakh and Gamble attempted to save her but were swept in the pool system below. It was unclear whether the trio were filming there.
High on Life has recorded a number of videos and daredevil activities in exotic and hard-to-reach locations such as waterfalls and cliffs in the past.
Last year Gamble, Lyakh and Justis Price Brown, another member of the collective, were banned from US federal land for five years after pleading guilty to walking on a sensitive hot spring in Yellowstone national park and other crimes at parks across the western US. Gamble and Lyakh served seven days in jail.
The number of deaths linked to YouTube daredevils has been rising. Last year Wu Yongning, who climbed dangerous skyscrapers, fell to his death filming a stunt. Pedro Ruiz, 26, was shot dead by his girlfriend in front of their three-year-old daughter. He was filming a stunt where he held a book in front of his chest, believing it would protect him against a bullet.
A number of deaths have also been linked to people attempting to take selfies to post on social media. In January, a 14-year-old boy was electrocuted in Croatia after he climbed on the roof of a train and attempted to take a selfie. One onlooker said his body “burned like a torch”. Last month, an Australian couple died after trying to pose for a selfie on a 30-metre wall in Portugal.
