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SLACKLINE AND HIGHLINE NEWS – 2006 SEASON

FIRST EUROPEAN SLACKLINE FESTIVAL

“It was bitchin’, no rangers in Europe to ruin a great party.” – Chongo

· The first slackline festival ever held in Europe (or for that matter ever held anywhere to this author’s knowledge) was a wonderful success, bringing together over two hundred of mainland Europe’s best. The event was sponsored by outdoor photographer Heinz Zak and Mountain Equipment, of Germany. The affair featured ample camping, a live band, plenty of German beer, excellent European food, and service by many of the beautiful local women in the small Austrian village of Snarnitz. Slacklines of all lengths and weights were featured, including an eighty-pounder measuring a full hundred meters (three hundred feet). Two highlines were placed over a nearby canyon, one at seventeen meters (about fifty two feet – approximately the span of the gap at the Lost Arrow Spire) and another at about thirty meters (approximately one hundred feet), providing the first highline experience for many of the participants.

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SLACKLINE AND HIGHLINE NEWS – 2003 SEASON

DEAN POTTER WALKS LOST ARROW SPIRE GAP

UNLEASHED

· After months of inactivity highlining, the mighty Dean Potter walked the gap between the Lost Arrow Spire and the rim, on a nylon highline, unleashed, in BOTH directions, making Dean the very first person accomplish this feat. Previously, Darrin Carter accomplished an unleashed walk, downhill. Although the Lost Arrow Spire gap has been highlined by a handful of slackliners, Dean and Darrin are the only individuals in the world to have accomplished this feat unleashed, and Dean is the only individual to have accomplished an unleashed walk uphill.

The Lost Arrow Spire gap is absolutely the most exposed highline to ever be walked in the world. It stands over 2500´ above the floor of beautiful Yosemite Valley in California. Dean achieved the feat on his second day of walking, and after not having practiced slacklining at all for nearly a year. Dean is only one of two individuals to have ever accomplished an untethered walk. (Darrin Carter, the second individual to ever walk the Lost Arrow Spire gap, was the first person to walk this gap, unleashed, during the middle ninety’s. Darrin still remains among the best highliners in the world today.) Besides walking unleashed, Dean hung from the middle of the line by one hand in the same fashion. As usual, Dean is rad - again! But don’t worry, we’ll all be able to see the whole thing; Heinz Zack got all the action on film.

NEW, LONGER SPAN ESTABLISHED AT LOST ARROW SPIRE

· Shawn Snyder became the first to walk a new longer span between the Lost Arrow Spire and the valley rim. Shawn established the span, rigging it, and subsequently walked from the rim to the Spire, after several days of trying. The new span is about twice as long as the traditional gap and spans the lost arrow chimney. Clearly, it is the deepest gap ever spanned, and unquestionably the most exposed highline walk in the world, to date, though not the longest. Shawn (just like others elsewhere have also done) has walked longer gaps than this, just none more exposed.

FIRST EUROPEANS WALK LOST ARROW SPIRE GAP

· Two Europeans have now walked the Lost Arrow Spire gap this year, Leo Holding, of the U.K., and Heinz Zack of Austria. Leo made his first crossing in August, this summer. Upon successfully on-sighting the Spire crossing, Leo sent some of José’s ashes into the wind, while standing atop the Spire. Heinz followed Leo in October, walking to the rim, after several days of very impressive effort. Leo had previously walked the Rostrum gap on several different occasions, in the years before. This was Heinz first attempt at any highline.

Prior to Leo and Heinz, the Lost Arrow Spire gap had been highlined by about a dozen Americans, starting with Scott Balcom, who first walked the Lost Arrow Spire gap uphill in the early eighties. It has defied at least two prior European attempts, until Leo and Heinz.

· Young Mark Weiner was able to become the first individual to walk the new Lost Arrow Spire span established by Shawn Snyder, in BOTH directions. To date, only two individuals, Mark and Shawn, have completed this new, longer span. To date, Mark is the only person to yet make the crossing in each direction – but other highline masters still have yet to try.

· Three different spans, at three different lengths were raised (rigged) at the Rostrum this year. Spans varied from the shortest, measuring approximately thirty feet, the ‘standard’ gap at approximately sixty feet, and the longest span, measuring in excess of one hundred feet in length (with the later two fasten directly to the Rostrum formation itself). Mark Weiner, Shawn Snyder, and Braden Mayfield all logged walks on the longest span. Owing to its variety of possibilities for slackline spans – not to mention its easy access from the road – the Rostrum provides enormous opportunity for highlining.

· Shawn Snyder raised (rigged) a highline over a hundred feet long between the John Muir Tree and another large tree in Leidig Meadow, across the street from Camp Four. This was a spectacular rigging feat, and perhaps a very dangerous one too, being ‘wider’ than it was ‘tall’, and relying solely on the primary system.