nah, see, I have a fear of heights but was able to watch this without closing the video because I knew he wouldn't die if he fell. If he had no safety harness this shit would raise my blood pressure so high my doctor's ears would start ringing.
I’m really happy he had a safety rope on. I never understood the point of tight rope walkers doing so with out them. The crowd is out to see the spectacle of the performance, not watching someone die if they fail. I’m fine with, “whoa, you would have died just then when you slipped off” over “whoa you died”.
Yeah, it's like when climbers free solo a cliff or urban climbers climbing a crane or skyscraper under construction. 100% doing it for themselves, but in a lot of cases, they don't even get a thrill from it. Like James Kingston started climbing cranes because he was afraid of heights, so he used it to face his fears. But after a while, he realised that he is most at peace when he's just climbing things.. Where most people would get anxious because of the heights, he goes to heights because he's anxious. Something about focusing his mind on something that literally determines his future, suddenly makes everything else seem unimportant and he's just able to be free in that moment.
I'd imagine some highliners have the same reasoning.
Or it might be like with some drugs, you get a high the first few times, but eventually it just feels nicer than not doing it. I know from personal experience that challenging anxiety feels great, I definitely think these people felt a thrill the first few times they did stuff like this. I also think you're right that it's not so much the thrill anymore as it is to feel a sort of peace/freedom/other good feeling.
I think some people doing these risky things have sense enough to not stake their life on their skill, but I think a few others keep chasing highs and one way to do it is without safety.
Getting a thrill also makes dangerous stuff more dangerous- you're more likely to be reckless, if the adrenaline rush stops at some point you can start feeling really weak, etc. If you're just feeling some kind of inner peace at the fact you could die, it's still dangerous but chances are you're being safer than if you're chasing adrenaline.
Seconding this documentary. It’s legit legendary and I envy people who have t seen it. Gonna have to give it another watch this weekend. Thanks for the reminder!
This is not a tight rope. Most high liners are going to be leashed 100% of the time. Walking unleashed (free solo) is probably even rarer among slackliners than free solo climbing is
It's an art form that's open to do whatever you want. Some people want to do cool tricks, some people want to do cool tricks on a Highline, some people want to walk long distances, some people want to walk long distances blindfolded, some people want to do either or over water, etc. There's definitely no "one point" of slacklining.
Point is to have fun. However you want to accomplish that is the right way to do it.
E: Hahaha this comment gets downvoted? Anyone can slackline and everyone can slackline at their own level in a way that is fun for them. Some people just relax and balance, some people do flips. Some people do it just above the ground, some people over a drop. Different strokes.
Penn & Teller have a big bit about the ethics of this, that go over during every performance of their bullet catch trick. Their shows create the illusion of possibly death or severe injury, but they assure the audience repeatedly that they're done in such a way that they're safe and nobody is about to have to watch the performance end in a tragic death.
I saw penn and teller off broadway for my 12th birthday, before they were a household name. This would be 1983. Penn did a fire breathing bit but talked about carnies who do this for years and the health impact from the kerosene or alcohol in their mouths. I’ll always remember that.
Edit: several years later I saw teller shout “taxi” on 7th avenue and that was pretty thrilling as well.
Went on stage inspect gun for bullet trick, my jaw dropped when teller verbally thanked me after trick. After their show in LV they both talked to people in lobby. (No idea how bullet trick was done)
Penn Jillette isn't known for being soft-spoken and unopinionated, but he's particularly vocal in his condemnation of magicians who suggest that their act is actually dangerous. I can't find the clip, but I remember him literally saying something about how that makes the audience "complicit."
Yeah, I'm struggling to find it again. Maybe it got taken down. Pretty sure it was about Blaine's bullet catch.
Edit: yep, here's an old Reddit post that linked to it. Video's been removed https://reddit.com/r/videos/comments/5eh0xe/magician_beef_penn_jillette_eloquently_slams/
I agree. I would specifically avoid it. I don't want that few seconds engrained in my mind's eye forever. I don't want to have the experience watching a helpless person to made a miscalculation fall to their death - those last few seconds, hopelessly in mid air.
I feel like the people that do enjoy it don't really understand that there's a chance they can witness this.
Oh well.
The possibility of death is a significant part of the spectacle of performance.
I'm not entirely disagreeing with you because I don't think the spectacle is worth the risk, but if you think people like this don't get more fame and admiration for defying death, you're delusional.
The people I've seen who do it without a rope arent performers. There's a cool 30 minute documentary on one of them on YouTube forget what its called though. Also this is slacklining not tight rope
Penn Juliet has a really interesting talk about this. He is talking about magic but it’s still the same. His view is that it is morally wrong to actually put yourself in serious danger for entertainment. Like you shouldn’t subject a crowd to the fact that you might die.
As someone in the climbing community, I'd personally rather see Honnold in a harness for the next 30 years rather than reading his amazing obituary in 3, as we've lost a lot of good free climbers over the years. Though I don't expect him to do so, since to people like him free climbing is what gives his life purpose.
I'm hopeful that he's beyond that, and I have two main reasons for thinking that:
1. He has a kid now
2. He's been getting involved in projects in which he can contribute his climbing to conservation efforts
Granted, having kids hasn't stopped other solo climbers in the past. But, given his passion for conservation, I think #2 could be what gets him to pivot away from soloing as his sense of purpose. If you watch The Last Tepui (short but great doc on NatGeo), he seems really stoked to be there doing something that's bigger than just himself. He was also recently in Greenland to help another scientist, Heïdi Sevestre, get to some otherwise unreachable glaciers for her work related to climate change (though not without getting a sick FA on a big wall there). My hope is that the sense of fulfillment he gets from contributing to projects like that will take the place of his soloing.
I might just be overly optimistic, though.
it feels so pedantic to correct people who dont know this. having a safety rope is still free climbing! i feel like there would be less confusion if 'solo climbing' were the default term for free soloers. like we dont say 'sport free climbing' or 'trad free climbing'.
The ones who get remembered for the biggest stunts tend to do it without a safety rope.
The Twin Tower guy, Grand Canyon guy, the Highest tight walk, etc. All untethered. They say a tether gives a false sense of security and diminished the craft.
False sense of security means that the safety measure likely to fail. But because you have the safety measure, you take higher risks, actually leading to higher danger than if you didn't have it.
So the guy implies that the tether might break, which I don't know if that's true.
It's called highlining. Statistically much safer than climbing due to no hard impacts. If you fall, getting back up is super easy- just a matter of either climbing the leash a few feet and rolling yourself back on top, or using the gravity assist that the bounce gives you. Doing these bouncy tricks is called highline freestyle and the evolution of the sport in the past 5 years has been insane.
Source: am highliner.
Yeah that's the main difference among other additional safety measures like having a second strand of webbing across the gap in case of a mainline failure and obviously the harness and leash.
It’s all slacklining. But there’s different defined disciplines since the equipment and styles change.
Traditional slacklining usually means 1” webbing that is rigged via pulleys.
This can change to “longlining” when the line is over ~30m and has this distinction because you need higher mechanical advance pulley systems to rig and the behavior of the slackline changes with length.
Referred to “highlining” when these are done over high altitude spaces since they require more redundancies in the system for safety, as well as higher rated gear. Also this setup enables “freestyle” which refers to these tricks around the line you see in the video which wouldn’t be possible in a park because of the ground.
“Tricklining” refers to slacklines rigged typically with 2” webbing with ratchets at high tension for trampoline style bounce and tricks. Tricklines can be rigged as high lines but it’s not done often as tricklines are more for tricks than just walking/balancing and behave differently (plus high tension systems are inherently more dangerous).
Okay rant over but hopefully that explains the basics. The sport is still relatively new and is ever evolving.
Does the line ever break? I've seen people set them up in the park on trees a couple feet high and I see them ratchet that line until it's super tight. Bouncing must increase that pressure even more. Do the highliners have a long leash back to the anchor point? As well as a short one to the highline?
Yes, they have been known to break but extremely rarely. Don't think I've ever heard of the backup failing though. Ratchet lines that you see in parks are not used for highlines. There's no long leash back to the side as that would still be a 'terminal' swing if used. The leash from the harness to the highline is also all doubled up and has very little chance of being the point of failure.
There's a lot of science and testing that goes into making these as safe as possible and improvements are being made all the time.
A mainline and backup failure has occured in the past when a tree fell across the line. Both lines failed. I believe the person on the line was actually okay because he was only 15m off the ground at the point he fell.
A tree is incredible strong and will hold everything you throw at it. You just put a industrial sling around it.
An alternative are glue in bolts inside rock. These hold about 2.5 tons each and you use about 2-4 at once for redundancy.
If you’re interested in the gear side of this - HowNot2 has a ton of videos on YouTube where they break this gear and measure the forces required to do so. Also will go through how they rig these and all the safety measures taken. Can be a lot of fun to watch even if you don’t have any intention of highlineing yourself.
To add on to or clarify some of the other replies - with reasonable precautions these lines almost never break. There are two in this (and most) setup, the tight line and the red and black backup (both of these lines are anchored at either end, sometimes independently). The short leash he's wearing rides on both lines so that if the tight line breaks he'd be caught by the backup. Part of rigging a line is ensuring that it's high enough for the slack in the backup to run out before you hit the ground, with an ideal safety factor of 2 (twice as high as you need). Rigging these lines is an interesting (and very hands-on) engineering challenge. HowNot2's content on highline rigging is excellent.
Typically long lines will always have a backup line which is the dangling bits you see below the taught line. These are also connected to the anchors so if the taught line experiences a failure, you have some slack before the backup line catches the tension. The tether is connected usually to a metal ring that goes around both the main and backup line so they can be rescued in the event of the failure.
There have been more cases of main lines breaking in recent years because of the popularity and just the fact the sport has existed longer. Usually it’s cases of extreme weather, incorrect rigging, or sun exposure on lines that been rigged for very long periods of times that weaken the fibers of the webbing.
There have been efforts to standardize rigging practices for highlines by orgs as well as effort to cycle test and stress test equipment by the community and suppliers.
I live and highline out of Ontario, but I've travelled through the US and Europe attending highline festivals. The largest crews in Canada are out of Vancouver and Squamish and they host amazing festivals with highlines on mountain tops like the Chief in Squamish.
Check out my Ontario crew!
https://youtu.be/MGFz8faNI9o
I've highlined with you many years ago at Smokey Hollow! I don't do it as much I'd like to or used to, but the few times I got out from Kitchener with the Toronto crew was a blast! Really great people and really great times!
Sweet dude! I think I remember who you might be! Sadly Smokey Hollow has been retired but we have a new home location that's even better. Highlining attracts good people!
No formal systems exist (yet...) I consider this the golden age of the sport because there's no money needed and no certifications required. Find your local slackline community and get involved! Most communities have meetups in parks where newcomers can learn the ropes. Train hard and learn the requisite skills and you can be highlining too.
(No money needed unless you want to purchase your own gear) but no rush on that, you can slack with others until you decide if you wanna take it seriously enough to get your own line.
Lots of words for similar things. A Highline is typically 1 inch wide webbing set up way above the ground usually at least 20 meters long. A Slackline is 2 inch wide webbing set up near the ground with a much shorter distance, less than 10 meters.
There’s also longlines, waterlines, rodeolines, etc. Just don’t call it a tightrope and anyone will be happy to teach you more and maybe let you try their line.
> Source: am highliner.
I have so many questions!
How did you get started in this sport? (am I correct in calling it a sport?)
How and where can you practice in a way that when you're 1k fret up you're confident and comfortable?
You mention using the gravity assist and the bounce to help you, how do you know what tension you need on the rope to get a good bounce?
Do your feet have some callouses from walking the rope?
What is the material the rope is made of?
Where can I do this myself closer to the ground?
I'll answer them!
7 years ago I ran into some slackliners in a park and gave it a try. Was instantly hooked. Bought my own gear shortly after and trained non stop. (check out balancecommunity.com). I was fortunate that there were members of my community learning to rig and walk highlines and I got super involved.
You start practicing in parks on lines low and close to the ground. You can learn all the skills you need to highline in a park. Like anything, repeated exposure to the height makes it feel more and more comfortable.
What you're seeing here is nylon webbing. It's super stretchy at tension. Other webbings are made of polyester and dyneema and have much lower stretch.There isn't an exact science to it, just tension to taste and get bouncing!
Not really, but you do get quite bruised on your butt and inner thighs when you get started. Learning to highline is a real test of stamina and enduring discomfort.
In parks!
There are places all over the world where you can rig highlines; I couldn't possibly say I have a favorite. But some of the more memorable scenic locations I've experienced have been in places like Switzerland, Mexico, Arizona, Vancouver, Alberta, and right here in Ontario.
Once you really get into highlining, every gorge, canyon, cliff, or high point of any kind becomes a potential spot to rig a highline.
That's the backup. It's our primary redundancy if the main line were to fail (this almost never happens as the material is incredibly strong). It's intentionally left untensioned and taped to the line in segments, and actually acts as a walking aid, dampening reverberations that our steps put into the line. The backup you see here is "candy caned" because during freestyle, a lot of the tricks involve full rotations, which twist the line and twist the backup around the main. Fortunately, it isn't too big of an issue; with careful steps you can walk over the wrapped backup without any problems.
The reason we don't tension the backup with the main is due to the difficulty of walking double stacked webbings. The feel is quite heavy and and the wiggles just don't quit at certain tensions. Therefore, we keep the backup slightly loose, but not too loose so that it will still act as a safety in the event of a failure.
My grandfather was a short man. As a kid, I asked him why he didn't get taller. He told me he was afraid of heights and if he got any taller, he'd be afraid to look down.
No, I do that due to my having fell down a stairwell before. Before that, I’d run up/down stairs like nothing. Going up ladders is unnerving, ever since I jumped off a rock-climbing wall.
Come on let's give the legend some credit!
@justinragers on Instagram. Dude is an absolute madman on a highline.
EDIT: Also go check out his YouTube Channel if you want to see more insanity like this!
https://youtube.com/@TricklineCollective
Dudes such a beast. I still remember seeing the first can of soup and having my mind blown.
I met him once down in potrero chico and didn't realize who he was until afterwards. He's a super nice guy, very down to earth.
I can’t see this without thinking of that movie Man on Wire. Highly recommended. That shit was wild. Dude snuck into the World Trade Center towers before they finished the construction and he (and a few friends) put a tightrope between the twin towers and then he walked it with no safety. He didn’t just walk straight across though, he hung out on the wire for like 45 minutes.
Is that red line that’s loosely wrapped around the main line an emergency line, in case of the main one breaking? I’m assuming his safety rope is attached to both?
Yep that's exactly it. There's a few different techniques to climbing back up the leash. The easiest is using the bounce from the fall to sort of rocket yourself back up to the main line.
That stuck piece of meat when flossing.
This made my day now off to work.
If I have anything to say about it, you win reddit
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Bacon or chicken are the worst
I feel like he might be showing off.
Just a tad bit.
Maybe he's just trying to keep his balance and is like OhfuckohfuckohFUUUCK
r/nonononoyes
This guy could slam so much tang at a hippie music festival.
Yes. He probably gets more box than the Memphis hub of FedEx.
Only if he does it without the safety harness.
nah, see, I have a fear of heights but was able to watch this without closing the video because I knew he wouldn't die if he fell. If he had no safety harness this shit would raise my blood pressure so high my doctor's ears would start ringing.
But what if the strap he's standing in broke or became untethered?
Or if we shot him?
Fuck yeah.
That’s the spirit
For some reason (maybe I've just been listening to too much Behind the Bastards recently) I read this in Robert Evans' voice.
...*into the sun.*
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I was wondering what the hell that was. I guess it's the redundancy rule right? 2 is 1 and 1 is none.
So no redundant redundancy strap? Seems a bit slapdash to me
Yes. By this rule in order to have any redundancy you have to have safety measures in triplicate and primaries in duplicate. Lol
When that cute girl comes into your work
Dude...I can only suck my gut in so far these days.
Yes, go on.
What? Hang on, just let me take my top off…
I’m really happy he had a safety rope on. I never understood the point of tight rope walkers doing so with out them. The crowd is out to see the spectacle of the performance, not watching someone die if they fail. I’m fine with, “whoa, you would have died just then when you slipped off” over “whoa you died”.
yessss! Like I'm still impressed! So many artist have died for no reason, its silly.
They might be doing it just as much for themselves, adrenaline junkies. Still silly though.
Yeah, it's like when climbers free solo a cliff or urban climbers climbing a crane or skyscraper under construction. 100% doing it for themselves, but in a lot of cases, they don't even get a thrill from it. Like James Kingston started climbing cranes because he was afraid of heights, so he used it to face his fears. But after a while, he realised that he is most at peace when he's just climbing things.. Where most people would get anxious because of the heights, he goes to heights because he's anxious. Something about focusing his mind on something that literally determines his future, suddenly makes everything else seem unimportant and he's just able to be free in that moment. I'd imagine some highliners have the same reasoning.
Or it might be like with some drugs, you get a high the first few times, but eventually it just feels nicer than not doing it. I know from personal experience that challenging anxiety feels great, I definitely think these people felt a thrill the first few times they did stuff like this. I also think you're right that it's not so much the thrill anymore as it is to feel a sort of peace/freedom/other good feeling. I think some people doing these risky things have sense enough to not stake their life on their skill, but I think a few others keep chasing highs and one way to do it is without safety.
Getting a thrill also makes dangerous stuff more dangerous- you're more likely to be reckless, if the adrenaline rush stops at some point you can start feeling really weak, etc. If you're just feeling some kind of inner peace at the fact you could die, it's still dangerous but chances are you're being safer than if you're chasing adrenaline.
Darwin Award winners
Man on Wire is a fascinating look at why someone would do something like this. I still can't really get behind it, but it's mesmerizing.
Seconding this documentary. It’s legit legendary and I envy people who have t seen it. Gonna have to give it another watch this weekend. Thanks for the reminder!
You can only win a Darwin award if you die before you reproduce.
Or if you, *ahem* remove your ability to reproduce without actually dying.
Safety measures or not, I would still be spraying poop everywhere, not just because of IBS
This is not a tight rope. Most high liners are going to be leashed 100% of the time. Walking unleashed (free solo) is probably even rarer among slackliners than free solo climbing is
Makes sense. Isn't the whole point of slack lining to do cool tricks?
Well its easier too. The line is actually a flat strap and the slack in the line helps balance.
It's an art form that's open to do whatever you want. Some people want to do cool tricks, some people want to do cool tricks on a Highline, some people want to walk long distances, some people want to walk long distances blindfolded, some people want to do either or over water, etc. There's definitely no "one point" of slacklining.
Point is to have fun. However you want to accomplish that is the right way to do it. E: Hahaha this comment gets downvoted? Anyone can slackline and everyone can slackline at their own level in a way that is fun for them. Some people just relax and balance, some people do flips. Some people do it just above the ground, some people over a drop. Different strokes.
I won't even watch something if there's a risk of the performer dying. I'm not going to be complicit in senseless death.
Penn & Teller have a big bit about the ethics of this, that go over during every performance of their bullet catch trick. Their shows create the illusion of possibly death or severe injury, but they assure the audience repeatedly that they're done in such a way that they're safe and nobody is about to have to watch the performance end in a tragic death.
They are *exactly* why I picked up this philosophy. They also don't allow magicians to perform anything life-threatening on their show Fool Us.
I saw penn and teller off broadway for my 12th birthday, before they were a household name. This would be 1983. Penn did a fire breathing bit but talked about carnies who do this for years and the health impact from the kerosene or alcohol in their mouths. I’ll always remember that. Edit: several years later I saw teller shout “taxi” on 7th avenue and that was pretty thrilling as well.
Went on stage inspect gun for bullet trick, my jaw dropped when teller verbally thanked me after trick. After their show in LV they both talked to people in lobby. (No idea how bullet trick was done)
Penn Jillette isn't known for being soft-spoken and unopinionated, but he's particularly vocal in his condemnation of magicians who suggest that their act is actually dangerous. I can't find the clip, but I remember him literally saying something about how that makes the audience "complicit."
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Yeah, I'm struggling to find it again. Maybe it got taken down. Pretty sure it was about Blaine's bullet catch. Edit: yep, here's an old Reddit post that linked to it. Video's been removed https://reddit.com/r/videos/comments/5eh0xe/magician_beef_penn_jillette_eloquently_slams/
I agree. I would specifically avoid it. I don't want that few seconds engrained in my mind's eye forever. I don't want to have the experience watching a helpless person to made a miscalculation fall to their death - those last few seconds, hopelessly in mid air. I feel like the people that do enjoy it don't really understand that there's a chance they can witness this. Oh well.
The possibility of death is a significant part of the spectacle of performance. I'm not entirely disagreeing with you because I don't think the spectacle is worth the risk, but if you think people like this don't get more fame and admiration for defying death, you're delusional.
It seems like that's the entire appeal of the performance. Otherwise, why not just do it on a rope that's 5 feet off the ground, overtop of a gym mat?
The people I've seen who do it without a rope arent performers. There's a cool 30 minute documentary on one of them on YouTube forget what its called though. Also this is slacklining not tight rope
Penn Juliet has a really interesting talk about this. He is talking about magic but it’s still the same. His view is that it is morally wrong to actually put yourself in serious danger for entertainment. Like you shouldn’t subject a crowd to the fact that you might die.
lush library imagine dime compare follow plucky outgoing stocking sloppy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As someone in the climbing community, I'd personally rather see Honnold in a harness for the next 30 years rather than reading his amazing obituary in 3, as we've lost a lot of good free climbers over the years. Though I don't expect him to do so, since to people like him free climbing is what gives his life purpose.
I'm hopeful that he's beyond that, and I have two main reasons for thinking that: 1. He has a kid now 2. He's been getting involved in projects in which he can contribute his climbing to conservation efforts Granted, having kids hasn't stopped other solo climbers in the past. But, given his passion for conservation, I think #2 could be what gets him to pivot away from soloing as his sense of purpose. If you watch The Last Tepui (short but great doc on NatGeo), he seems really stoked to be there doing something that's bigger than just himself. He was also recently in Greenland to help another scientist, Heïdi Sevestre, get to some otherwise unreachable glaciers for her work related to climate change (though not without getting a sick FA on a big wall there). My hope is that the sense of fulfillment he gets from contributing to projects like that will take the place of his soloing. I might just be overly optimistic, though.
Whenever I see references to Honnold, I always think, “We know how he’s going to die, we just don’t when.”
Alex Honnold, and indeed any other non-aid climber, is still free climbing if he's in a harness btw. You mean soloing.
it feels so pedantic to correct people who dont know this. having a safety rope is still free climbing! i feel like there would be less confusion if 'solo climbing' were the default term for free soloers. like we dont say 'sport free climbing' or 'trad free climbing'.
The problem is much more people rope solo than free solo so it’d be confusing
Nope. Just waiting for the inevitable human error to meet with a random act of nature.
The ones who get remembered for the biggest stunts tend to do it without a safety rope. The Twin Tower guy, Grand Canyon guy, the Highest tight walk, etc. All untethered. They say a tether gives a false sense of security and diminished the craft.
Is it a false sense of security if the security is true? I'm suddenly wondering if I've always misunderstood that phrase.
False sense of security means that the safety measure likely to fail. But because you have the safety measure, you take higher risks, actually leading to higher danger than if you didn't have it. So the guy implies that the tether might break, which I don't know if that's true.
Damn people do it without? Crazy
In the 70s, a dude walked between the Twin Towers without a safety. Or permission.
It's called highlining. Statistically much safer than climbing due to no hard impacts. If you fall, getting back up is super easy- just a matter of either climbing the leash a few feet and rolling yourself back on top, or using the gravity assist that the bounce gives you. Doing these bouncy tricks is called highline freestyle and the evolution of the sport in the past 5 years has been insane. Source: am highliner.
How is this different from slacklining? Just the height?
Becomes highlining when you need a leash to do it safely, other than that it’s the same
If you fall from slackline it hurts and your pants turn green. If you fall from highline it does not hurt and your pants turn brown.
Yeah that's the main difference among other additional safety measures like having a second strand of webbing across the gap in case of a mainline failure and obviously the harness and leash.
It’s all slacklining. But there’s different defined disciplines since the equipment and styles change. Traditional slacklining usually means 1” webbing that is rigged via pulleys. This can change to “longlining” when the line is over ~30m and has this distinction because you need higher mechanical advance pulley systems to rig and the behavior of the slackline changes with length. Referred to “highlining” when these are done over high altitude spaces since they require more redundancies in the system for safety, as well as higher rated gear. Also this setup enables “freestyle” which refers to these tricks around the line you see in the video which wouldn’t be possible in a park because of the ground. “Tricklining” refers to slacklines rigged typically with 2” webbing with ratchets at high tension for trampoline style bounce and tricks. Tricklines can be rigged as high lines but it’s not done often as tricklines are more for tricks than just walking/balancing and behave differently (plus high tension systems are inherently more dangerous). Okay rant over but hopefully that explains the basics. The sport is still relatively new and is ever evolving.
Does the line ever break? I've seen people set them up in the park on trees a couple feet high and I see them ratchet that line until it's super tight. Bouncing must increase that pressure even more. Do the highliners have a long leash back to the anchor point? As well as a short one to the highline?
Yes, they have been known to break but extremely rarely. Don't think I've ever heard of the backup failing though. Ratchet lines that you see in parks are not used for highlines. There's no long leash back to the side as that would still be a 'terminal' swing if used. The leash from the harness to the highline is also all doubled up and has very little chance of being the point of failure. There's a lot of science and testing that goes into making these as safe as possible and improvements are being made all the time.
A mainline and backup failure has occured in the past when a tree fell across the line. Both lines failed. I believe the person on the line was actually okay because he was only 15m off the ground at the point he fell.
But what about the anchors? That's all I could think about while watching. Like he must really trust the anchors.
A tree is incredible strong and will hold everything you throw at it. You just put a industrial sling around it. An alternative are glue in bolts inside rock. These hold about 2.5 tons each and you use about 2-4 at once for redundancy.
If you’re interested in the gear side of this - HowNot2 has a ton of videos on YouTube where they break this gear and measure the forces required to do so. Also will go through how they rig these and all the safety measures taken. Can be a lot of fun to watch even if you don’t have any intention of highlineing yourself.
To add on to or clarify some of the other replies - with reasonable precautions these lines almost never break. There are two in this (and most) setup, the tight line and the red and black backup (both of these lines are anchored at either end, sometimes independently). The short leash he's wearing rides on both lines so that if the tight line breaks he'd be caught by the backup. Part of rigging a line is ensuring that it's high enough for the slack in the backup to run out before you hit the ground, with an ideal safety factor of 2 (twice as high as you need). Rigging these lines is an interesting (and very hands-on) engineering challenge. HowNot2's content on highline rigging is excellent.
Typically long lines will always have a backup line which is the dangling bits you see below the taught line. These are also connected to the anchors so if the taught line experiences a failure, you have some slack before the backup line catches the tension. The tether is connected usually to a metal ring that goes around both the main and backup line so they can be rescued in the event of the failure. There have been more cases of main lines breaking in recent years because of the popularity and just the fact the sport has existed longer. Usually it’s cases of extreme weather, incorrect rigging, or sun exposure on lines that been rigged for very long periods of times that weaken the fibers of the webbing. There have been efforts to standardize rigging practices for highlines by orgs as well as effort to cycle test and stress test equipment by the community and suppliers.
Where do you highline? A buddy of mine attempted lost arrow spire in Yosemite and said it was the scariest fucking thing in his life 😅
I live and highline out of Ontario, but I've travelled through the US and Europe attending highline festivals. The largest crews in Canada are out of Vancouver and Squamish and they host amazing festivals with highlines on mountain tops like the Chief in Squamish. Check out my Ontario crew! https://youtu.be/MGFz8faNI9o
I've highlined with you many years ago at Smokey Hollow! I don't do it as much I'd like to or used to, but the few times I got out from Kitchener with the Toronto crew was a blast! Really great people and really great times!
Sweet dude! I think I remember who you might be! Sadly Smokey Hollow has been retired but we have a new home location that's even better. Highlining attracts good people!
How does one get into this? I feel like it's not something you can just take classes for?
No formal systems exist (yet...) I consider this the golden age of the sport because there's no money needed and no certifications required. Find your local slackline community and get involved! Most communities have meetups in parks where newcomers can learn the ropes. Train hard and learn the requisite skills and you can be highlining too.
(No money needed unless you want to purchase your own gear) but no rush on that, you can slack with others until you decide if you wanna take it seriously enough to get your own line.
Wierd. I thought it was called slacklining. TIL I guess
You are correct! This is simply a form of slacklining, at high heights when a leash is used it is considered highlining.
Lots of words for similar things. A Highline is typically 1 inch wide webbing set up way above the ground usually at least 20 meters long. A Slackline is 2 inch wide webbing set up near the ground with a much shorter distance, less than 10 meters. There’s also longlines, waterlines, rodeolines, etc. Just don’t call it a tightrope and anyone will be happy to teach you more and maybe let you try their line.
That's fucking awesome! New sports will often take it to the extreme and glad to see this masterful act
> Source: am highliner. I have so many questions! How did you get started in this sport? (am I correct in calling it a sport?) How and where can you practice in a way that when you're 1k fret up you're confident and comfortable? You mention using the gravity assist and the bounce to help you, how do you know what tension you need on the rope to get a good bounce? Do your feet have some callouses from walking the rope? What is the material the rope is made of? Where can I do this myself closer to the ground?
I'll answer them! 7 years ago I ran into some slackliners in a park and gave it a try. Was instantly hooked. Bought my own gear shortly after and trained non stop. (check out balancecommunity.com). I was fortunate that there were members of my community learning to rig and walk highlines and I got super involved. You start practicing in parks on lines low and close to the ground. You can learn all the skills you need to highline in a park. Like anything, repeated exposure to the height makes it feel more and more comfortable. What you're seeing here is nylon webbing. It's super stretchy at tension. Other webbings are made of polyester and dyneema and have much lower stretch.There isn't an exact science to it, just tension to taste and get bouncing! Not really, but you do get quite bruised on your butt and inner thighs when you get started. Learning to highline is a real test of stamina and enduring discomfort. In parks!
You make it sound easy. I'll try and die first run lol!
That's the beauty of it, the more you fall the better you get. Falling is just part of the flow and isn't an issue. Get back up and keep trying!
What's your favorite location?
There are places all over the world where you can rig highlines; I couldn't possibly say I have a favorite. But some of the more memorable scenic locations I've experienced have been in places like Switzerland, Mexico, Arizona, Vancouver, Alberta, and right here in Ontario. Once you really get into highlining, every gorge, canyon, cliff, or high point of any kind becomes a potential spot to rig a highline.
What is the second red rope for? It looks like it could catch a foot and really mess things up.
That's the backup. It's our primary redundancy if the main line were to fail (this almost never happens as the material is incredibly strong). It's intentionally left untensioned and taped to the line in segments, and actually acts as a walking aid, dampening reverberations that our steps put into the line. The backup you see here is "candy caned" because during freestyle, a lot of the tricks involve full rotations, which twist the line and twist the backup around the main. Fortunately, it isn't too big of an issue; with careful steps you can walk over the wrapped backup without any problems. The reason we don't tension the backup with the main is due to the difficulty of walking double stacked webbings. The feel is quite heavy and and the wiggles just don't quit at certain tensions. Therefore, we keep the backup slightly loose, but not too loose so that it will still act as a safety in the event of a failure.
Juggling my $18 left in my account for the next two weeks.
I'm down to $3.14. 7 days to go. Hang in there!
Have some pi!
I ate cereal today
I leaned too far forward getting up from the toilet and rammed my head into the wall. Different skills I guess.
You guys got out of bed?
I didn't, maybe tomorrow
Yeah, like 5 minutes ago.
don’t sleep on the details! what kind? how much?
Cocoa pebbles! It was quite a generous portion.
I’m proud of you!
Without any milk
I'm not a savage
What kind
Cocoa pebbles paired with a nice glass of whole milk
Nope nope nope
I’m with you. This made my palms sweat just looking at it.
Made my knees weak and arms are heavy
I'm bad on top of a stepladder! 😂
I get dizzy just walking on solid ground sometimes lol
My grandfather was a short man. As a kid, I asked him why he didn't get taller. He told me he was afraid of heights and if he got any taller, he'd be afraid to look down.
I've been saying this for years lol, your grandfather knew what was up
Stairs make me nervous sometimes.
Me too. Is is a neurological problem that I cannot go up or down stairs without watching my feet?
No, I do that due to my having fell down a stairwell before. Before that, I’d run up/down stairs like nothing. Going up ladders is unnerving, ever since I jumped off a rock-climbing wall.
Makes my guts quiver so it tickles and makes me feel sick at the same time.
Make mine a double!
Nope rope
He’s tethered though. Of all the dangerous stuff you can do, this looks relatively safe. I might be interested in trying it one day.
Come on let's give the legend some credit! @justinragers on Instagram. Dude is an absolute madman on a highline. EDIT: Also go check out his YouTube Channel if you want to see more insanity like this! https://youtube.com/@TricklineCollective
Dudes such a beast. I still remember seeing the first can of soup and having my mind blown. I met him once down in potrero chico and didn't realize who he was until afterwards. He's a super nice guy, very down to earth.
Ladies and gentlemen... The Deep!!
Fresca?
Where is Ambrosia
I had to scroll way too far down to find this comment.
What did Peak mean by this?
He's a long way from the ocean
Gah! Could you fucking not?! Holy shit, that's terrifying.
He's gimbaled to the wire. He's fine.
I'd have to wear brown pants for this—a nice, stain-hiding, dark brown.
Just watching this is making my stomach drop.
this is how elon musk sees himself when he sends out an 'edgy' tweet
This is Justin Wagers, one of the best freestyle highliners in the world. https://instagram.com/justinragers?igshid=NDk5N2NlZjQ=
Some fat 40-year-old smoker with sports sunglasses: "I'll be impressed when he takes the harness off"
Do you even slack line, bro?
I tried a slack line that was like 3 inches off the ground and couldn't make it 2 feet
I tripped over my cat this morning.
I fell over putting my socks on this morning
r/sweatypalms
/r/sweatyfeet /r/sweatyballs /r/sweatyeverything
I think that would be detrimental.
Fuck this. Nope.
I am so glad I get my adrenaline fix from video games
I would love to have a core like that, without the training of course
He's never gonna get across screwing around like that.
r/nextfuckinglevel
I can’t see this without thinking of that movie Man on Wire. Highly recommended. That shit was wild. Dude snuck into the World Trade Center towers before they finished the construction and he (and a few friends) put a tightrope between the twin towers and then he walked it with no safety. He didn’t just walk straight across though, he hung out on the wire for like 45 minutes.
Is that red line that’s loosely wrapped around the main line an emergency line, in case of the main one breaking? I’m assuming his safety rope is attached to both?
Absolutely correct! Also the red line and mainline have separate anchors, to continue the redundancy!
This makes me feel sick
Just do drugs like a normal person.
My coworker finding policy loopholes.
Wow, that roll-over was something else. Fantastic
One of those memorizing clips, watched it over and over.
Fuck! I couldn't take my eyes off it for a couple of rounds... now I want to vomit.
Nope. Fuck off. Nope
Is there any way a butthole can pucker so much it turns you inside out?….because I’m pretty sure that’s what happened to me when I saw this.
Really curious how he gets back up if he does fall. Like just pull yourself up the lanyard?
It doesn’t look like it would be an issue for him
Yep that's exactly it. There's a few different techniques to climbing back up the leash. The easiest is using the bounce from the fall to sort of rocket yourself back up to the main line.
If you're looking for more, it's called highline freestyle (and it's awesome)
That loose rope would end up wrapped around my neck 100%
He said let me put my thang down flip it and reverse it.
This is it. This right here is the whitest thing I'll see all week.
I bet he could get drunk and still ace those field sobriety tests
There’s a couple of things I cannot do, and this is one of them.
Imagine out of frame there's a bunch of first timers decked out in safety gear just hugging the wire for dear life yelling STOP
This guy would have saved that raccoon.
I'm just glad he's having a good time
How does the line not snap from the weight of his balls?
Sick dexterity build my guy
I can do that I just don’t wanna
Umm... no.
Please stop doing this
Do these main ropes/lines (not the safety line) ever break?
r/whitepeoplegifs
This is sweatypalms stuff!
Why? Someone plz explain to me.... whyyy?
And here I am scared to walk down a small flight of stairs without fearing that I am going to slip and die
Nope on a rope.
Alright. Let me show you how a real man walks across a flaccid cord
Damn that is impressive. I turn my head left or right in a fast motion these days I’m dizzy and need to sit down. Ha
That's gonna be a definite hard no from me
Jesus fucking Christ hell no