Millau

What a crazy adventure the last two weeks have been! I got to attend the Vibram Natural Games in Millau, France for the first week of my trip, then the second half was spent in the unworldly Gorges du Verdon. I will try and recap the entire trip into this blog post, but I am unsure if I can describe the amount of fun that was had.

The trip begun with an epic 52 hours straight of traveling. One of my planes had a lightbulb out in the cockpit, which caused the plane to be 3 hours delayed because the mechanic could not locate a replacement bulb. Once he found it, it took him 23 seconds to install it. This delay caused me to miss my flight into Europe, so I was forced to stay the night in the airport and wait until 6pm the following day to get another flight into Europe. It seems as if flying to Europe without any troubles is not possible for me as I missed my flight the last time I tried.

Once I arrived in Europe, I met up with local slackliner Eric, that was willing to drive me from the airport to Millau for the Natural Games. This was a 6 hour drive across the middle of France. So...many...highlines! I wanted to stop every 2 km to scope the place for big lines, but I kept remembering that I was on my way to a mecca for highlines.

When we arrived in Millau, I met up with Damian and Charles from Slack.fr. They were really cool guys that were totally stoked on slacklining and the event that was going to take place for the next few days. We all headed over to where we would be staying for the next week to get setup and relax a bit as they had just done some serious traveling as well. At the camping we met up with more local French slackliners and a few of the pros! Julien Millot and Valentin Welsch came down from the crags where they had been establishing a few new lines for the festival. They informed me that there was going to be a 10m, 20m, 35m, 42m, 62m, ~70m, 95m, and a big line that they had no clue what the length was. This made extremely excited; what I have been training for the past 4 months for is finally here!

The following day we all decided to head up to the cliffs to start rigging some lines. We had about 25 people in our group with a TON of gear to carry. Not one person had a light pack. This hike was not easy either, you had to climb through a canyon which had ropes hanging down to aide you up the steep inclines. This path would be really fun without a pack, but with a 60 lb pack on, it was pretty brutal. This hike became very well known by us over the next few days because we were obligated to come down every night for activities at the festival. It became quite tiring to come up to the lines everyday, which was difficult for trying to walk large highlines. But it was still amazing!

When we got to the top where the lines were to be installed, Lukas Irmler, Alexander Schulz, and Christian Krr were already up there with the King Line rigged. This King Line has a really cool history. Two years ago at the Natural Games, both Damian Cooksey and Andy Lewis walked this line. It was the world's longest highline at that time at 204 ft. (62m) in length. I went up to the line to check it out before we started to rig and I couldn't help but want to walk it. I knew this would happen so I brought my harness up there with me as well as my iPod. I quickly checked all the rigging on that side and tied myself in to get ready to walk. I cruised across that line on my first go without any troubles what-so-ever. The return send is a bit harder as you have no visual reference and there is a black cave in the background that is very distracting. I had a nice surf at the end, which is a trick that will NEVER get old.

Line-Specs

After walking the King Line a few times, I decided it was time to start planning for the big lines. There was a potential gap from the spire of the King Line (Le Vase de Sevre) and the spire to the left of it (Le Vase de Chin). This would have been an EPIC 95 meter, spire-to-spire highline that is roughly 500 feet directly above the ground. The only problem with this line is that both spires had cracks completely around the bases and it looked line it would have been not so hard to bring them down. We all discussed this problem and decided that we would not anchor the line to the spires, but use them as A-frames instead. This idea seemed to work well, but it still was putting bad forces on the spires that could cause them to come crashing down. We had the line completely rigged, but then we all decided that it was unsafe, so we took it down before anyone could try it. This was definitely the best choice. Rigging highlines can be EXTREMELY dangerous and safety should always be on your mind. It's really hard to not let you ego and drive to walk highlines get in the way of safe rigging techniques. Rigging should a delicate process that is done correctly and safely, which is precisely why we decided to derig this dream of a highline.

We decided it would be better to use the base of the spires instead for anchors as the rock was much more solid down there and we had no risk of bringing the spires down. We ended up using the base of one of the spires and then going to a platform further out on the other spire. This gap was 115m long. The rigging of this line was quite nice, but I am getting ahead of myself with this. More on this line later.

During the next few days, quite a few new lines went up: A 10m highline, 20m, 35m, 42m, and a 66m line. The 35m and 42m were very very fun. Both were next to each other and had some amazing exposure. The 42m has a nice backstory as well. It was also rigged during the Natural Games 2 years ago and nearly everyone was scared to even go down to the anchor! This was mainly due to the fact that both anchors well a ways down on the vertical cliff and you had to rappel to get to them. It was pretty scary to just sit on the equalized spanset and tie yourself into the leash while still on belay from above. Never-the-less, I had a great session on this line with some surf-walking and a small exposure turn in the middle.

Line-Specs

I had an equally fun and motivated session on the 35m highline. This line had a little less exposure compared to L'Inespérée, but was still quite exposed. I was enjoying the line very much in the middle and had a solid 3 minute exposure turn. I was able to watch someone walk L'Inespérée while in an exposure turn, which was pretty cool. I really like this trick a lot because it requires all of your focus and concentration. You have such amazing view from the middle of the line, with nearly nothing in your way. I was admiring the beautiful Gorge that we were getting to play in. Nature is a wonderful thing.

Line-Specs

One of the lines that I was really excited about was the 66m line up above the King Line. This line had a wonderful view of the entire Gorge and all the lines we had setup. It was also rigged in a very strange way that made it especially difficult for how long it was. Both of these things plus the fact that it was very loose made me really excited to get on it. I always love a good challenge on a highline.

When I got up to the anchor to try this line, there was a very large crowd of people wanting to watch people walk these highlines. This spot we were at was already a popular tourist spot due to the Spires, but now that we had 7 highlines rigged, it became a big tourist attraction. Earlier that day when we arrived to the top, there was a crowd of people standing at the anchor to the big line. I went up to them and they asked me if I was 'The Superstar that was going to walk the big line' and that they all have been waiting for 4 hours for people to come and walk the lines. This was astonishing to me, i've never had people waiting around to watch me slackline before. I didn't feel comfortable doing this actually, it added a lot of pressure to the already terrifying activity that is known as highlining.

Anyway, back to the 66m. I inspected all the rigging on the side I was on and decided it was time to walk. I leashed up, put some sweet tunes on, then began my journey across the beautiful gap. I was able to walk across the line, turn around, walk back, and surf close to the end on my first go. This was crazy because all the other guys were having trouble on this line, so I was sure I was going to have to fight pretty hard. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When I finished, there was a HUGE applause from around the highline area, which surprised me. I never know how to respond to applause, so I just sat down and enjoyed the fact that I just got the first ascent of a SWEET highline in Millau, France. I decided to name the line The French Tickler.

Line-Specs

And now for the big one. As I described above, this line crossed the gap between the two spires, but at the base of each. One anchor was a bit off to the side of one of the spires, which is why it's longer than the spire-to-spire line we attempted to rig before at 115m in length. Both anchors were enormous, with roughly 8 attachment points in total. The rigging was very clean and organized, exactly as it should be for such a monster. The only weird thing about this line was the webbing. We used a prototype webbing from Slack.fr's new webbing called Moonwalk, which is a mixture of Dyneema and Polyester fibers. This prototype had a strange design with black Polyester on one side and white Dyneema on the other. So when the line flickered in the wind, it would flash black and white. This made the line very easy to see against the brown rocks, which is very nice for walking. Having a webbing that blends in to the rock that you are walking towards makes it very difficult to see the movements that your body is making, thus making it hard to compensate for them. What was strange about the webbing was that it looses tension VERY quickly and continuously. We had to retension the line 4 times because we would loose over 50% of the tension we started with during each night. This phenomenon is known as 'Creep'.

The first day we had the tension at roughly 1,800 lbf. After a few solid attempts, we all decided that we would need to add more tension the next day. So, the following day we brought the tension up to 3,000 lbf and it quickly dropped down to 2,200 in a matter of about 20 minutes. I thought this tension was perfect for walking, so I gave the line a few tries and was able to walk all the way across with 4 falls in the middle. I knew then that it was possible to walk it. Then comes Alexander Schulz after drinking a Red Bull, he was able to walk the line Fullman! It was incredible to watch this guy cross this line. He has been slacklining for 3 years now and highline for just under 1 year and he is already walking highlines of this caliber! I was astonished and motived as hell after he walked it. My next attempt was a send! I was not able to get the return send directly after though, simply because I was exhausted! Looking back, I should have had a few more attempts this day after taking a break because it was perfect.

The next two days, my main focus was this big line. I played on this thing as much as I could because lines of this size are rare and I wanted to get as much time on it as I could. My best run was a walk to the middle, took a fall, walked from the middle to the anchor, turned around, walked back to the middle, took a fall, did some static tricks in the middle, did a bouncing start in the middle, walked to the other anchor, turned back around, walked a little ways, took a fall, then got off. I felt like if I had just a few more days on this line, I could have gotten to the point where I was cruising it back and forth with no troubles. It's amazing what a difference the weight of the line makes on how hard it is to walk. This Moonwalk prototype weighs a total of 32 grams per meter. Since we doubled it up for the line, our line had a total weight of 64 g/m, which is less than the majority of Slackline Webbings on the market! So it was like we were walking a 115m single line, which was really nice.

Line-Specs

Notable Sends

• Jordan Tybon Fullmanned the King Line in a swami
• Lukas Irmler got the return send on the King Line (many many times) after sending the other direction last year
• Alexander Schulz fullmanned Black & White for the new highline world record
• Several people walked their longest lines

If I didn't list your notable send, I am very sorry, I'm not sure if I remembered all of them.

Verdon

Gorges du Verdon is such a beautiful place. 1,000 foot tall walls carved by a vibrant blue river. Alcoves everywhere that are perfect for highlines of all sizes. The particular alcove that we chose to rig lines at has possibilities for lines up to 700 feet in length at 1,000 feet high. Such an epic place for adventure with possibilities to B.A.S.E. jump, do rope jumps, climb, and highline all within the same alcove.

Our first day in Verdon, we all were pretty exhausted from Millau. We all decided it was a good day to spend at the water and rig a simple waterline. We asked Julien if he had any established any waterlines in the area that were fun. He told us about this 170 ft. long line over the river at the base of the Gorges. We all were super excited about this line and decided that this would be our rest day line. So we all piled in Annice's Van and headed down to the river.

When we arrived to the river, we were all having a hard time locating the anchors for this line. It wasn't until we looked a little higher on the cliffs that we were able to find them. It turns out that the water had dropped nearly 12 feet since the last time they rigged this line. This made the line over 20 feet above the water. Plus, we were there on a very busy tourist day, so there were TONS of paddle boats going along the river where we were planning on rigging the line. This made for a very interesting walk.

Needless to say, our rest day line turned out to be quite the challenge. Everyone was having serious troubles with this line because it was also very windy and the line was bouncing like crazy. Only Faith and I were able to get the full send on this line. To make Faith's walk even more bad ass, the cops came while she was in the middle. The French Police Officer kept blowing her whistle while Faith was walking, trying to make her get off the line. Since Faith was not about to just jump off a 20 foot high waterline, she just kept walking while the Police Officer was blowing her whistle. This made the Officer quite mad, so she started sounding her siren instead. Faith remained solid. Someone from our group finally went to go talk to the officer to let her know what we were doing. We agreed to take the line down, which was a total bummer because as soon as we detensioned the line, the Officer left, the wind stopped, and most of the tourist boats were gone. We could have continued our session for many more hours. Instead, we all decided to do some crazy cliff jumps instead, which also turned out to be really fun.

The next few days were all dedicated to raging. The first day we rigged a 15m, 28m, and a 60m highline all in the same alcove. Alex and I had a much much bigger line in mind that we started to scope out. This line would have to be longer than the one we just rigged in Millau, but it was limited to 140m because this was the longest piece of Spider Silk I could bring with me. We found an epic gap, but more on that later.

After rigging the smaller lines, we all played on them for a while. I got the first send on the 60m line, which was rigged with Verve from Landcruising as the main line and Aeon from Landcruising as the backup. This setup was weird for me, the Verve has some strange movements that were amplified by the Aeon. It was a beautiful gap though, with some incredible exposure on one side. I was able to cross it fullman continuous on my second try. I had a good session on this line where I stuck a short exposure turn. I didn't think I was going to be able to look at the exposure on this line because of how big it was exposure-wise, but I had a quick look out and it wasn't so bad. A few days later I watched Jordan walk this line in a swami, which was absolutely incredible. That guy is incredible at swami walking.

I also spent some time walking the shorter lines during the next few days. The 28m line was very nice. I was able to listen to an entire song on my iPod while in an exposure turn. I was admiring the incredible river below the line. It's such an incredible feeling being balance in the middle of a highline above such an incredible place. There is nothing that compares to such a feeling.

Line-Specs

Line-Specs

Line-Specs

And now for the project line, one of the main reasons I came to France. We were all putting off rigging this line because it was so giant and intimidating. The gap we found ended up being 129.8m (425.7 ft) in length, which was HUGE! It didn't seem like it would be such a big jump from the 115m line we had done just a few days prior to this. We discussed the rigging and we decided to use Spider Silk MKII as the main line and the Moonwalk prototype for the backup. We decided this because Spider Silk MKII doesn't have the issue of loosing tension over time since Vectran fibers have negligible creep, which is super cool. All the rigging went smoothly and we were able to get the line up within a couple of hours without any troubles. But, since it was devastatingly hot by the time we were done, we all decided to rest and have some fresh tries in the morning.

Man oh man, this line was a beast...Alex and I gave it our all on the following day with the best attempt being Alex, who walked about 1/5 of the way out. There was something about this line that made it especially difficult. It could have been a mixture of the length (425 ft.), the height (800 ft.), the color of the rock (same color as the webbing), the exposure, the orientation (the anchors were both slanted, making it hard to get a reference point for balance), or the tension. We played with the tension quite a bit to try and see if that would make it easier or harder. The best attempts all happened when Alex and I were hungover and the line was at roughly 3,000 lbf. My best attempt on this line was from the middle, I was able to walk back to the anchor from roughly the middle. For some reason, I could not get past 1/3 of the way out when starting at either anchor. We spent 4 solid days attempting this line with no success. Such a humbling experience. I have some work to do if I want to keep getting longer and longer on these highlines. It's not over 130m highline!

To add to the craziness of this trip to Verdon, I got to spectate several B.A.S.E. jumps and rope-jumps. I also got to try a 400 foot rope-jump, which was out of this world! 5 seconds of freefall before the ropes caught you...insane!

That concludes my trip to France. I want to thank everyone who made this trip possible, including but not limited to: Vibram, HippyTree, Slack.fr, Balance Community, all my slackline friends. Hopefully we can make this happen again next year!