Tight Rope Walker

[icthys]

Took the kids out sledding last week and this guy was out in his backyard walking his rope. Not sure why he was doing it but he was very good at it. He'd run forward and backward.

[madsjim]

Looks like he is practicing 'slacklining'. They take webbing and ratchets and tighten the stuff up around a tree. It is a hobby practiced by a lot of people, mostly among the climbing crowd.

Some respected climbing magazines have written articles on it and profiled the participants, which has caused some controversy. It evolved from climbers wanting to do something while sitting in camp and has grown over the last 20 something years, especally in the last 5 or so.

Dean Potter (who climbed Delicate Arch ) made a slackline walk to the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite. It is several thousand feet of pure exposure and he did it without any safety lines connecting him to the webbing. Kind of crazy in my opinion but he did it because he saw it as another challenge and a way to 'inner peace'. The Alpinist issue a couple months back has a good article on it.