"Pierożek" Highline

Despite bad weather outside the window it was finally time to start highline season 2012. We need to be fast with realization of our projects because of the (next) upcoming end of the world J. I had to stop my ‘heavy-longline training’ for sometime because of a especially low temperatures. It was a great opportunity to kick my own ass training hard at the climbing gyms, which was totally fine with me. Most of my upcoming highline projects for this year involve lots of climbing so it is good to built strong climbing base for it anyway. As the old proverb says “Every cloud has a silver lining”. I couldn't stand no highlining for too long. I started to miss it pretty bad and thinking a lot about my last trip to Moab (UT, USA) where I have walked 14 different lines free solo and 26 highlines in total. That was really good times.

Finally the moment was right and after short exchange of information with my good buddy Maciek Borucz aka. ‘Bor’ from Łódź in Poland, I have decided it was time ‘to rage hard again’. Together with Maciek and irreplaceable Rafał Kubiak aka. ‘Pigmej we were planning on rigging two lines located inside old quarries in Kielce area. Our common friend Magda Smorąg discovered the place for highlining and both lines have been rigged and sent before already by the gentlemen from Łódź. Even thought the lines have been sent already and the winter aura wasn’t really appealing the need to highline was way too strong. For these, which don’t know about which lines I am writing about, it were of course “Pierożek” Highline (17m length/12m height) and “Machete” Highline (33m length/20m height). Both highlines were rigged one year ago, using smaller or bigger trees as an anchor points. The decision about bolting the shorter line was made after conversation with Maciek and Rafał. “Pierożek” is a great line for all beginners; both ends are safe to start on, and the line offers ‘friendly’ exposure, height and length. During first rigging the total amount of all spansets used exceeded whole length of the line. That is why, in my opinion, it was totally worth to bolt it!

Maciej 'Bor' Borucz sending primary "Pierożek" Highline (Photo Dominik Kapusta) 

Magda Smorąg on the original "Pierożek" (Photo Dominik Kapusta)

After too many beers, hours on the train and in a car, plus not enough sleep we finally arrived. The rigging was preceded by approach in a snow up to our knees height. Digging in a snow to find a solid rock and deciding where to place the bolts in it took us the longest time. Drilling and bolting went really quick thanks to HILTI power drill and fully charged battery. We used three 12mm diameter expansion bolts per anchor. Two of them, which were the ‘main points’, where 15cm in length and the last back-up bolt was a bit shorter with 10cm in length. We encourage repeating the line! To build the anchors you will need 6 of the 12mm diameter hangers and two 1m spansets to equalize the points.

Pigmej adding some 'extra power' for his personal drilling slave (Photo Maciej Borucz) 

Unfortunately the days are still pretty short and we had just enough time to rig only one line. We are planning coming back for “Machete” in two weeks already. Furthermore we might check out and bolt some new lines in “Stokówka” quarry.

To check out "Machete" Highline take a look on this video from the FA:

Re-bolted short highline kept its name. Original “Pierożek” highline lost around one meter from its length of 18 meters. All three of us had a really good day with lots of amazing sends. I opened my highline season 2012 by sending “Pierożek” Highline OS-FM free solo with some surfing action (actually the surfing was way bigger when I was sending naked ... I don't know what is the connection between that facts) ... Maciek cruised across the line in a swami-belt and ‘Pigmej’ finally raged really hard and at the end walked his first highline in a swami. Both strongmen from Łódź throw lots of tricks and Maciek and I sent the line naked showing big middle … finger to the cold weather ;-) ...

On-Sight Free Solo, Full Man ascent (Photo Rafał Kubiak) 

Pigmej being 'so psyched brah!' (Photo Maciej Borucz)

Pigmej throwing down some sick double knee drop (Photo Maciej Borucz)

'Red Butt' in action (Photo Rafał Kubiak)

Getting ready for some naked surfin' action (Photo Rafał Kubiak)

Back in Łódź we were talking and planning while drinking beer again. It was an endless night. I think for sure we are not lacking motivation which I wish for all of you and myself. Keep the rage high! And in one week already I’m hoping to send some more lines – this time together with Maciek and Damian in Sokoliki.

You can take a look for more photos by clicking HERE (just scroll down to the photos at the bottom if you don't understand polish).

Peace & SlackOn!

Janek

"Ciubaka" Highline

… The story about the first highline in the High Tatry Mountains

I published the story from the first highline in Tatry Mountains in GÓRY climbing magazine (9 (208) September 2011). I would like to share it with all of you so I prepared english translation. This version is slightly different from the polish original version. I am hoping you will enjoy it. The photos in the article where taken by Wojtek Kozakiewicz and Jordan Tybon. The story will be followed soon by Wojteks movie production. I want to thank my girlfriend for helping me to correct mistakes in a translation of this article.

GÓRY climbing magazine [9 (208) September 2011] "Ciubaka" Highline (full story and photo-report) (Photos: Wojtek Kozakiewicz and Jordan Tybon, Text: Jan Gałek) [P.1: Jordan sending "Ciubaka" Highline in a dense fog] MORE

GÓRY climbing magazine [9 (208) September 2011] "Ciubaka" Highline (full story and photo-report) (Photos: Wojtek Kozakiewicz and Jordan Tybon, Text: Jan Gałek) [P.2; from the top to the bottom: 1. Jakub "Kwjet Hanuš organizing the gear, 2. Jordan going across "Ciubaka" Highline, 3. Faith Dickey sending OS-FM in a swami-belt] MORE

GÓRY climbing magazine [9 (208) September 2011] "Ciubaka" Highline (full story and photo-report) (Photos: Wojtek Kozakiewicz and Jordan Tybon, Text: Jan Gałek) [P.3: Jakub Hanuš sending the line] MORE

GÓRY climbing magazine [9 (208) September 2011] "Ciubaka" Highline (full story and photo-report) (Photos: Wojtek Kozakiewicz and Jordan Tybon, Text: Jan Gałek) [P.4: Jakub Hanuš sending the line, the view from the top of the Zadni Mnich] MORE

"I discovered the void in between the peak of Zadni Mnich and the west ridge of Cubryna peak during my first climbing experience in Tatry Mountains, and for the next five years the idea of putting up a highline to link that space was growing somewhere deep in my subconscious. In 2006, during climbing, the view of Zadni Mnich and the thought of spanning the line above the ridge of Cubryna caused a big emotional surge, though these emotions where quite the opposite of enthusiasm or self-confidence. At that time I had walked about four highlines, however none of these lines were located in a mountain environment and the longest of them was 20 meters while the highest was 30 meters above the ground. That was my main excuse that I had no clue how long or how high the potential highline spot was. That day I thought, “too long and too high …”

My first climbing experience in Tatry Mountains. On the picture climbing together with Agnieszka Tarasińska the 2nd pitch of 'Sprężyna' route (VII- UIAA) on east face of the Mnich.

First impression of Zadni Mnich ...

Slacklining in Tatry Mountains in 2006

Over the next few years I improved at executing highline projects in the United States, Greece, Switzerland, Germany and Czech Republic. While in Poland I never had enough time to visit the Tatry Mountains because I was focusing on other targets, but I never forgot about the idea. I knew I had to go back soon after I completed my other old long-term project, “Potato Power” Highline, which was on the Bolechowicka Gate. For two years I was travelling and facing all kinds of adventures with the same group of friends, and eventually we formed the team named Somewhereelseland. Nowadays the team members are: Jordan Tybon (USA), Faith Dickey (USA), Jakub Hanuš (CZ) and myself. With these people I knew the highline project in the Tatry Mountains was possible. I was sure regardless of the difficulty of the highline at least one of us would cross the gap. It was the time!

L.A.S. Classic - the line which changed my life (OS-FM ascent in 2007)

After reviewing many climbing books, pictures, checking multiple weather forecasts and setting the date we were ready to crush. I left Wrocław with Jordan and Faith. Our friend Wojtek Kozakiewicz a great photographer and talented video-maker joined us in Cracow where we stopped on the way to Zakopane. I had known Wojtek personally for a long time and we had done many slackline projects together, and eventually Wojtek begun co-operating with our team Somewhereelseland. The effects of this collaboration are the movies “Potato Power” and the official video from the 3rd edition of the “Urban Highline Festival”. (I invite all those interested to take a look at Wojteks videos: CLICK HERE)

Six hours in trains and buses were the small price we had to pay to get to Zakopane. After we arrived Jordan and Faith got a taste of the local folklore, as we were flooded with multiple transports, accommodation and food offers. Soon we were rescued by our friend Bartek and driven to our temporary home. My friend, Kamil Kluś was nice enough to let us sleep in his awesome wooden house. That night the last team member, Kwjet arrived. The next morning after packing an amazing amount of bags and 6 people inside a small taxi we left for the mountains. I knew Kamil had organized transport for our enormous bags but I didn’t expect it to be a jeep from the National Park Service. Wojtek stayed at the bottom with our luggage and we started our hike among twenty or thirty thousand tourists up the most frequented trail in the Tatry Mountains.

After a not-so-enjoyable ride with park rangers Wojtek arrived with our bags. A short walk on a familiar trail in the woods lead us to the climbers camping site where we would stay for the next three days. Everything looked the same, as the last time I had been there, the only difference was the campsites chief. We took care of formalities quickly. After a quick breakfast it was time to unpack our stuff and prepare the gear. Our collection caused considerable interest from all the other dirtbags at the campsite. Someone was joking about whether we had come there to climb bigwall style and asked how many days we were planning to spend on the wall. We explained why we were there with all that mess and then started the fun part – hiking. We reached the pass in the Cubrynas ridge after a quite fast but equally exhausting race. Climbing both sides followed speedy gear sorting. Faith and I climbed the route “Uskok” (grade VI- UIAA). The temperature was around zero degrees so after the first pitch I could not feel my fingertips. We reached the summit after another two cold but beautiful pitches. Jordan and Kwjet climbed some virgin terrain without any beta. It looked like quite adventures climb. At the end we left the ascending ropes to speed up the rigging process the next day. We stashed the highline gear inside a haulbag under some boulders, and then we hiked down to the campsite where we enjoyed the warm hut after freezing all day.

The next morning, I woke up and switched off the alarm. It was 3 o’clock and I had slept less than three hours. The only thing I wanted to do was go back to sleep. I forced myself to get up and leave the warmth of my sleeping bag. Wojtek and Kwjet were already up. The inside of the hut smelled like morning coffee. We started hiking in a drizzle. “What a great start”, I thought. The higher we climbed the more rain we had. The fog caught up with us under Zadni Mnich, and the temperature decreased drastically over the next half an hour. While rigging the line Kwjet and I could not see each other. We were preparing the anchors during snowfall with some extra hail on top of it. I was imagining myself lying next to Faith, being warm, thinking “what a dumbass I am being here”. After a full four hours of rigging the line was ready to send and I could actually see it for the first time. It was definitely not as long and high as I thought five years before but I was happy to be there to enjoy the exposure, which was just amazing! If only it had not been freezing cold and windy. Luckily I did not have to fight too much and I sent the 25-meter line on-sight both ways. I could not feel my feet or hands. After me it was Kwjets turn. The Czech-beast Jakub sent the line without any trouble, of course. The weather got even shittier shortly before Faith and Jordan showed up. I knew the only person who was willing to send the highline any time, in any condition was Jordan. That time he went to send the highline in dense fog, during heavy rain. This relatively easy line was not an easy task when you cannot see further than two meters in front of you and everything is wet and cold. Many tries later Jordan completed his full-man ascent. He described it as “he was suspended in space.” I think it is a pretty good description.

The weather the last day was a bit kinder to us. I had an awesome session walking the line a few times in a harness and a swami-belt. Faith sent like a champ on-sight full-man in a swami-belt showing all the boys what it is about. It was amazing to watch Jordan presenting a full palate of tricks on the line and doing exposure turns. Our two friends from Zakopane gave their best too. Bartek Gąsienica-Ladzi sent the line full-man and Kamil Kluś had some good attempts.

At the end of the day we took the line down and hiked everything back to the campsite. It was not easy, but we were able to convince the campsite chief to bring our stuff and us down. I must say the ride inside the Old Russian jeep was a pretty crazy experience to finish our trip in the Tatry Mountains. Luckily we caught the last bus to Zakopane where we arrived late in the night to celebrate our successful project.

I will think about the “Ciubaka” Highline experience for a long time. It was great to face this challenge with all my friends and my girlfriend. I realized that the six years of slacklining made me better person, enriched me with better slackline skills and experiences but most importantly surrounded me with the greatest people I know.

In the morning we went back to our homes where we stayed, as usual, for a short period of time, just long enough to pack our bags and go to Greece for more climbing, highlining and dirtbagging. Did I mention Slacklife?

I want to thank Bartek Gąsienica-Ladzi, Kamil Kluś and Łukasz Janczy for their big help supporting us all the way. It was all easier because of our sponsors support. Big thanks to Gibbon, Deuter, Ortlieb, SteriPen and Five Ten!"

Full Photo Gallery by Jordan Tybon: HERE

Peace & SlackOn!

2010 Trickline Summary

The current year 2010 is slowly coming to the end. I spent most of it pushing my longline and highline limits. I am really happy with what I achieved and amazed how highline and longline were pushed to the next level by the others in the sport. I was part of some of this but it’s a topic for a separate entry.
Of course I want to focus on tricklining in this "article". I never was a really good trickliner and I do not think I will ever be the best. However, this year I joined Gibbon International crew which really motivated and inspired me to improve my tricklining skills. Being the Gibbon Rider wasn't easy at the beginning. I am more highliner & longliner. Although from a time perspective I think it was good for me because Gibbon is not only a trickline community. I saw tricklining on the highest level, performed live by amazing athletes. It would be hard to name all of them. Some of these guys are also accomplished all-round slackliners.
Being good in all kinds of slacklining became a personal goal for me, so I started tricklining more, and taking part in a trickline competitions. I met many nice people from around the globe because of that reason. I got inspired by all of them and want to thank to the Gibbon Family and other slackliners like Lukas Irmler, Reinhard Kleindl and Slack.FR Crew. I have also learned that you can assimilate nice moves from EVERY slackliner. It doesn’t matter if she or he is slacklining 1 year or 1 month – everyone has an individual and unique style.


Tricklining in Sokoliki Mountains during "Slackline Masters 2006" meeting/competition

The tricklining goals for me are: doing at least one new move during each session and practising on various lines. It should not make a difference if it is 2”, 1” or 3cm wide line. Of course I like some webbing for particular tricks. After this year my favourites are: JIBLINE tensioned with pulleys system at full length (I will post some pictures soon of how to attach 2" line to the pulleys system), SURFLINE tensioned really tight (great for BIG tricks) and old-school but still young, perfect all-rounder: 1” threaded tubular.


Trickline Contest (Slackfest 2009, Chemnitz) 1" threaded tubular from SBI (photo Slackfest.de)

During this summer I started tricklining more together with the Gibbon Crew. I went to Stuttgart few times where I did some tricklining in a parks and inside a gym with big foam-pit inside. Slacklining above the foam gave me the possibility to try totally new moves and tricks I was scared of. It felt totally safe to me but missing some tricks gave me a painful lesson. I got some NICE bruises because I fell really deep inside the pool before the foam stopped my movement. I had a lot of fun jumping on the trampoline. That was the first time I tried a backflip. It was pretty scary for me. A trampoline is great tool to try all crazy aerial tricks before you would try them on the slackline. I was really close to landing a backflip on the slackline many times. Before, there was never enough time or opportunity to warm up on a trampoline and then adapt the move on the slackline. After I will come back from my last highline trips I want to practice on the gym in Berlin. My buddy found a great gym we can use it for free. Maybe I’ll land some flips before the finals of the Gibbon World Cup ;) ...

Vibram Natural Games 2010


Highlining in Millau, "Bunny" Highline free-solo (photo by Jordan Tybon)

This big extreme sports festival in Millau was great opportunity to highline, and that was a main target for me. I walked 4 highlines and got my ass kicked on the 86 meters long beast-highline. I went there together with Faith, Jordan, Andy and Hayley, Mike and Robert driving from Stuttgart with the “Gibbon Van”. It was nice to not hitch-hike this one time. Besides highlining and presenting our slide-show on the big screen in front of a big crowd (thanks again to all the monkeys cheering us on) I took part in the trickline contest. The trickline competition was scheduled for the last day of the festival.


It was hard to talk in front of all these people ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

In the first round I was competing against Reinhard Kleindl. Reinhard has really unique style. I really like his lemur-jumps with his hands in his pockets or double-turn 180 from the drop-knee.


Reiny in the air (photo by Jordan Tybon)

I had really perfect go and landed all the tricks and combos. It was pure fun in the brutal sun. After the contest I landed my first back-bounce!


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

In the second round I had to deal with competing against “Alpha” Mike. As usual Mike did some HUGE atomic butt-bounces and long perfectly done combos. I was astonished. It was really nice and Mike finally took the first place. Congrats buddy!


Watch out! Mike is coming! (photo by Jordan Tybon)

In the competition two 30mm wide lines from Slack.fr were used. One was a bit higher. I still think the higher one could have had more tension. Heavier guys were hitting the ground during some bigger tricks. As always it didn’t stop Andy from doing all the crazy shit. Lukas Irmler did really well and stuck all his technical tricks.


Andy scoring extra points for amazing tircklining face expression ;) (photo by Jordan Tybon)


Lukas Irmler in Action (photo by Jordan Tybon)

I finished in the 4th place. The contest was judged by Scott Balcom, Robert Keading and Freddy Zimmerman. Big thanks to all of them!

MOVIE:



The final result of the comp:


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

1. Mike “Alpha” Payton
2. Lukas Irmler
3. Andy Lewis

VIVA LA FRANCE!!

Gibbon World Cup in Munich


Brenden Gebhart aka. Crazy-DUDE ;) ... warming up (photo by Jordan Tybon)

It was the first Gibbon competition I took part in this year. It took place in Munich. We had 16 people competing from all around the world and 4000 viewers! I was really tired and stressed. I was nervous because of the “one against one” formula. I don’t really like competing and it seemed to me like really competitive way. I was wrong, and soon I realized it is just fun and I was raging together with all riders. All of us were warming up for a long time. It was pretty hardcore warm-up; Mike and Carlos injured their ankles which sucked.


Injured ankle? AWESOME! ;) (photo by Jordan Tybon)


HARDliners from Chile! (photo by Jordan Tybon)

“Alpha” Mike was trying to stay optimistic but Carlos was really sad for a long time. Luckily his ankle got better soon after comp and he could jump around again.
In the first round I was competing against Bernd Hassmann. I knew he was the guy which won last year “King of Slackline” contest and he’s a good trickliner. I ignored my doubts and just did my best. It was big surprise when I got to the other round!


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

Unfortunately I had to compete against Bernd twice. He won the extra battle which gave him entrance to the next round (Carlos was injured and jury needed someone to make the amount of contestants even). Even though I showed few new tricks Bernd did some amazing butt-bounce combos and won in this round.


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

I was kind of disappointed but still happy for the 4th place. I decided to practice a bit more on the 2” line and work on different styles of tricks and technique. I knew I did some cool moves but they still needed to be landed clean and nice.
The main battle of the contest in Munich was between Andy Lewis and Felix. In my opinion both of them are on the same level and just represent a bit different styles and attitude.


Backflip-360 (photo by Jordan Tybon)


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

It was great round to watch. Andy finished his go with double backflip attempt. Felix landed so many sick tricks and combos that I thought he would win. The verdict of the jury was Andy Lewis wins! It was great time and first big lesson for me.

MOVIES:

1. Warm-up

2. Official Video



Results of the Gibbon World Cup in Munich:


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

1. Andy Lewis,
2. Felix Hachfeld,
3. Luis Meier & Bernd Hassmann

Gibbon World Cup – OutDoor

The second edition of the Gibbon World Cup took a place at OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen. In a first round I won with super nice guy Nick ten Hoopen from Netherlands (he’s doing really special butt-bounce combos)!


Nick and I jumping (photo by Jordan Tybon)

In the second round I was competing against Andy Lewis. I knew there is no chance to win with this crazy monkey. We raged together and I think that it was a nice round to watch for the audience.


BIG atomic chest-bounce (photo by Jordan Tybon)

It was really nice to observe all the guys in the comp. Luis landed “Misty Flip” during the contest, Felix landed backflip-360 and a lot more.


(photo by Jordan Tybon)


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

Everyone really rocked. It would take too long to long to write what I enjoyed about each of you guys but it was pleasure to be there with them.


More power, DUDE! )photo by Jordan Tybon)


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

Faith, Jordan and I did a highline workshop too which was a big success.


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

We spent the rest of our time talking to the other companies at the fair. After the man contest we had girls competition. My love took a 3rd place – great job!!


(photo by Jordan Tybon)


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

MOVIE:



The results of this edition were the same as in Munich:


(photo by Jordan Tybon)

MEN:

1. Andy Lewis,
2. Felix Hachfeld,
3. Luis Meier & Bernd Hassmann

WOMEN:

1. Hayley Ashburn
2. Steffi Seidel
3. Faith Dickey

Urban Highline Festival 2010


Photos and Project by VacasPurpuras

I didn’t plan to take a part in the trickline contest during this slackline festival. Besides Faith and Jordan I was main person responsible for organizing it. Faith decided for me and I HAD to start ;). This year I prepared new formula for a trickline contest. We had two people battles the same as in Gibbon contest. The only difference was that contestants could choose one of three lines in each round, and had to use each line at least once before the contest ended:

- Jibline tensioned with pulleys system (17m),
- 1” threaded tubular webbing (20m),
- 30cm wide Slackline-Tools webbing (10m)

We had a lot of people, different styles and a lot of fun! I think there was no stress. Lots of people which never took part in a trickline contest started that time. My favourite round was between Anatolij and Mich :D. Jakub “Kwjet” did some amazing tricks I never seen before (points for creativity for sure)!

I want to thank to the main sponsor of the comp: Gibbon Poland and two other companies which founded nice prizes for the contest: Slackhop.cz and Balance Community!

MORE PHOTOS: Here

MOVIE:



The results of the trickline comp:

MEN:

1. Jan Gałek
2. Lukas Irmler
3. Jakub “Kwjet” Hanuš
4. Adam "Malaj" Patejuk

WOMEN:

1. Faith Dickey
2. Magda Smorąg
3. Karolina Lis

A few days ago I went to Łódź in Poland to meet with slackline crew from this city. I had a lot of fun! Big thanks to all of you! These are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Props to Maciek “Bor” – it was great to trickline hard with this guy. We had two days of total craziness on the trickline. Both of us inspired each other and made a big progress. Maybe we’ll meet together in Krakow and do some “extras” for the new trickline movie in October.

So, what’s next?

IMS
On On 5th of November I will take part in the big final of the Gibbon World Cup during IMS in South Tyrol (Italy). . People which were in the finals in both eliminations contests (Munich and OutDoor) will fly to battle during this great meeting. During the last round there will be 8 people competing:

I had better train hard ;)!

New trickline movie

Together with my friend Wojtek Kozakiewicz (VacasPurpuras) and my girlfriend Faith Dickey we’re going to produce new trickline movie sometime in mid-October. Watch out for some new ideas and great footage! The movie will probably be shot in Krakow in the old building which is right now a club. Wojtek has a plan to start with this movie in one of the biggest climbing movies festival in Poland. We’ll see …

For more inspiration watch these three movie (definitely my favourite from this year):

1. Andy Lewis "Step IN":



2. BOR – September 2010



3. GIBBON Slackline Allstars Tour “City Slackers”



TRICKLINE HARD & REST LATER!!
Peace & SlackOn!

3:03

New production from my friend Wojtek Kozakiewicz (VacasPurpuras) is ready. It's the third slackline movie made by him. As you can see it is black and white. This time the main characters are: my lovely girlfriend Faith Dickey and Hayley Ashburn. Both of them are really experienced highliners. They rigged the highline together using 2 webbings (red "White Magic") tensioned with Line-Grip + pulleys system method.

Faith hung in a harness for a long time and the rigging took all together 3 hours in a heavy sun. As we (the male part of the crew) were "not welcome" for the rigging we showed up later in a day and just help with some last pulls.
Hayley didn't have enough time to work on the line because together with Flo she had to take off to Stuttgart.
Faith sent the line both ways and than let everyone else have some attempts (Flo had the first sent that day - he did really well!).

Wojtek's LCD screen in his camera was broken so he didn't know exactly what photos he shot. In my opinion the footage is still really nice quality and the editing is awesome (the same as chosen music). I am always happy to work with Wojtek and right now Faith has the same feeling.

The "inspiration" for this movie was production "Girls Only Highline" trailer from Sebmontaz.com which is about two girls (Jelena Schradi and Ingrid Laillaut De Wacquant) rigging and walking some highlines together. I had pleasure to meet and highline with Jelena in Millau (FR) during "Vibram Natural Games" festival.

Faith always wants to promote the sport to the other girls and get more of them into highlining. This is more urban vision captured by VacasPurpuras fisheye lengths. The title of the movie came from 3 hours of rigging compared to 3 minutes time of walking the line.

So, here we go. "3:03" and girls on the 42m long and 30m high "Sieg Highline!" in Berlin, ENJOY!

Light & Fast HIGHLINE Rig

I was trying to figure out for some time the way to make highline rigging lighter without sacrificing safety at the same time. The inspiration came from climbing style of course. If you have lighter gear you can do more; ambitious projects in the mountains, be faster and more efficient. Finally, reducing the weight of our backpack will spare us some “pain-in-the-ass hitch-hiking” (if you go the dirtbag way), and make our projects easier on our knees on the way up and down.


Faith and I sorting highline gear before action (Greece, Meteora 2010) photo by Jordan Tybon

That doesn’t mean I want to discard traditional highline rig which requires super strong spansets, usually 2 – 3 ¼ T (WLL) shackles (I’m not sure but Terry might be using even stronger shit :P), heavy slackline-bananas or line-lockers sets etc. This gear will stay on my rack for a long time no doubt, but from my experience if the highline project is not easy approach and I have to carry the highline gear (+ camping stuff, climbing stuff, food …) I don’t want all this heavy stuff.

The idea of “Light & Fast Highline Rig” is not only my idea. As usual, a lot of influence came from observation some great highliners like Terry Acomb, Jerry Miszewski, Bernhard Witz and Landcruising crew. Thank you to all of you guys! BIG Thanks to Andy from slackPro! who helped me a lot with producing some prototypes and always listen to what I had to say. It was really nice to have the guy with big knowledge and all needed tools to help me with that.

Situation NR 1 – One highline, bolts for anchors

ANCHORS

Usually in highline rigging I am using spansets. I have two kinds of them. Green beefy spansets I bought in US (great for wrapping around boulders, they are very durable, and there is a big safe margin) and purple and orange lightweight spansets from Slackstar (700kg WLL).
When an anchors has more than 3-4 bolts it’s really hard equalize the spanset (so on each bolt is the same force) because spansets usually are thick and wide. Than next thing is you have to use steel binners or triangle mailons (quick links) which are wide enough to fit the spanset. To take 6 to 9 of them ((3 to 4) x 2) is already a lot of weight.


Trying to equalize 5 bolts using Slackstar spanset ("The Great Bongzilla" Highline, USA, Moab, UT 2009) photo by Jordan Tybon

The solution is to use oval mailons which are 35kN each and lighter. If you don't want to carry spansets, you can use 11mm diameter static rope for an anchor. You make a loop out of the rope using double or triple fisher-knot. I have two pieces 8.5m long. So, after tying the know I have 4m long sling (maximum). It’s really easy to adjust. You can buy 11mm diameter static rope which has 30-35kN of strength. This is totally strong enough, but to stay totally safe you tie loops from each bolt to the anchor point using some free pieces of webbing (11/16” or 5/8” tubular webbing is perfect). I saw this methods in Moab. Terry and Jerry are using this type of anchor. It’s easy to adjust, lighter than a spanset and takes less space in a backpack.

SHACKLES, ATTACHING THE WEBBING AND BACK-UP

For my light rig I use 12mm stainless-steel Omega-shaped shackles only (you can buy them from example from: SlackPro!, Slackstar, Slackshop.cz or Landcruising). On the longer highlines I like to use two webbings. Till 60 meters I take with me “White Magic”. On the shorter lines I prefer dynamic rope as the back-up. To reduce the weight you can buy smaller diameter single dynamic rope (8.6 – 9 mm) which can be used also to climb to the highline if needed.

TWO WEBBINGS

When you take two webbing across the gap you have to make sure that the lines will stay flat. If it’s windy it could be hard so the best you can do is to hang something heavy on the free tail of the webbings. After that I attach both webbings on the non-rigging side with two lightweight "slackPro! lineLocks". Another person stays there to remove the slack from the top line and adjust the back-up webbing.
On the rigging side I have prepared pulleys system with two lines clipped to it. I use two shackles with lock-mans; one on the top, another one on the bottom + the lines should be taped together close to the lock-mans so they don’t move around. If I know the length of the line I can estimate how much pulley system I need. After I have it ready I let the pulleys system free and my buddy is removing slack from the top-line and back-up (leaving it more slack so there’s only small force on it). After tensioning the highline is ready. I just have to tape the lines together (it’s possible to do before the trip too) and back-up the pulleys system + clip the free tails from lineLocks on the other side.

ONE WEBBING +BACK-UP ROPE

In this case I always bring the webbing and back-up rope across and then use the pulleys system first to tension the back-up rope. To attach rope to the shackles I use double figure eight knot. I don’t need two lineLocks and two lock-mans (only one lineLock and lock-man). Afterwards the same as before: taping, back-up the pulleys + clip the free tail from lineLock to the anchor.

PULLEYS SYSTEM

This is gear for my pulleys system:

- 30m long 10mm diameter static rope,
- 1 x 45kN oval mailon,
- 3 x 35kN oval mailon,
- Gri-Gri,
- 2 x double 50kN CT pulleys,
- 2 x single CT pulleys,
- 1 x oval aluminium binner and Tibloc (for multiplier),
- 1 x 12mm Omega-shaped shackle or Triangle 45kN Petzl mailon (depends if leave pulleys in the system),
- 2 x CT 36kN aluminium rigging plate

Even lighter and still strong enough and effective pulleys is this model from SMC:

Model: SMC MINI Double PMP

More info

SLACK-BANANAS

Together with Andy Riedrich from SlackPro! I had customize light-weight product called "slackPro! lineLock" similar to slack-banana. The first version is not perfect yet but it works good enough and was tested on 56m long “Island King” Highline and 95m long world record highline “Master of Universe” walked by Jerry Miszewski (both lines located in Ostrov, CZ)


SlackPro slack-bananas in action on the "Master of Universe" Highline (Ostrov, CZ 2010) photo by Jordan

Some info about FIRST version:

- it is small,
- it is easy and nice to remove the slack,
- it is pretty light,
- the angle between the bolts is really nice,
- if both lines are tensioned and the lineLock are above each other they don't put to much pressure against each other (there is solution to avoid this problem totally)

PDF file with specs of the lineLock for the back-up line


Closer look ... ("Master of Universe" Highline, Ostrov, CZ 2010) photo by Jordan Tybon

Soon (in about 4-6 weeks), I’ll have version 2 for testing. Some things which will be changed to make the product lighter and easier in use:

- the bolts in front and on the back of slackline banana will be bigger (replace 10mm diameter blots with 12mm)
- the bolt in front will have an option to open it so you don't have to get through all the extra slack (for example like in Jerry's "Web-Lock"),

PHOTO:


Web-Lock (Berlin, 200m longline, 2010) photo by Jerry Miszewski

- the side-plates will be made of aircraft aluminium ( 1 to 2 mm thicker) to make the product even lighter,
- the middle bolt will be moved more to the middle of the banana so there is more space between it and the front bolt,
- the back-up slackline-banana will come with the dyneema slings longer than the top-line banana (so they don't press against each other),



- the back bolt will be easy to remove so you can clip to 12mm U-shaped shackles for the 9:1 pulleys system



SITUATION 2 – One highline, need to sling boulders for anchors

Spansets are not light but they’re really good to sling the boulders. It’s hard to break them, they have a big surface, which means a good grip on the rock. In my opinion 1T WLL spansets are good compromise (still strong enough and lighter than green spansets). The easiest way to buy them is from Slackshop.cz or Landcruising has also some nice spansets to sell as well. I always put tree protection (from example Tree-Wear from Gibbon is perfect) under spanset where it sits on the sharp edges. After I have my anchors ready the rest of rigging goes like in SITUATION 1.

SITUATION 3 – More than one highline

If I want to rig more highlines than one I am taking Line-Grip with me. It’s not super light-weight tool but comparing to the other set of pulleys which takes extra space and weight in my backpack Line-Grip is definitely the winner. If I use Line-Grip to tension the lines I clip shackles with lock-mans on the non-rigging side and lineLocks on the rigging side. After pulling the line tight I remove slack from lineLock and release the pulleys system (always protect webbing from the sharp edges of the pulleys etc.)! If it’s needed I can tension both lines (back-up or top-line / top-line and back-up rope) at any time. It’s always better start from tensioning back-up line first.
We used this method on the 95m highline and it worked perfect!

PREPARATION

Before I leave to set up the highline I prepare everything I can, for example:

- put the ring on both lines and clip it to slack-banana/slack-bananas, tie all the knots I can tie before,
- prepare pulleys system so I don’t have to do it on the top,
- put the things to the back-pack in order (so I don’t have elements I need at the begging on the bottom)

I am sure I can still find the way to make this rigging even lighter and faster. The way to go are new materials and more experience. I will post about it after I use this method multiple times on different projects.
If something is not clear, easy to understand please post about it. I’ll like to hear what you think about it. Any ideas to improve it?