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PROVO — Four local men walked over Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon on a slackline and lived to tell the tale.
If you ask me, they’re insane. But according to Quin Stevenson, who also filmed and edited the video, “Despite what it looks like, it's a very safe sport.”
Slacklines were pioneered by rock climbers to use on their rest days, according to Stevenson. A slackline has the look of a tightrope, but instead of being an extremely taut rope, it’s a looser, 2- to 3-inch-wide webbing strung between two anchor points.
You may have seen people setting up slacklines in your neighborhood or on college campuses. In these cases the line is set up about 3 feet off the ground between two trees. But when “slackers” start putting the line at death-defying heights, it’s called a highline.
Stevenson — along with fellow rock climbers and adventure enthusiasts Jackson Bell, Cameron Kolk and Craig Lanning — set up such a line at Bridal Veil and filmed their adventure.
And it looks like a terrifying experience.
Even though they take precautions, including wearing a safety line, the only feeling I can imagine having on a highline is extreme panic. But Stevenson said that’s not the case.
“The feeling you get in the middle of a highline is pretty unbelievable. It sounds so cliché, but everything around you melts away and you find yourself intensely focused, but super-relaxed at the same time,” he said.
That feeling sounds nice in theory, but I’m just going to take their word for it with two feet on the ground.
