The Spot

Several hours from Johannesburg is Waterval Boven, now Emgwenya, the site of world class sport climbing and haven of northern SA’s growing highlining community. We camped at Mountain Mayhem, a farm and climbers camp that also hosts a yearly highline festival.

boven-cliffs Cliffs of Boven. Photo by David Blaszka

Waiting Out the Weather

When we arrived at camp on Friday, October 17th. I was pleasantly surprised to discover wood fired showers and a covered kitchen. These were welcome luxuries as we waited out a long weekend of rain, wind, and clouds. Most of my conversations with my teammates Cary, Audrey, and Leighton were about the feasibility of the project. The highveld, where Boven is located, has daily thunderstorms and rain this time of year. During those rainy days we discussed possibly rigging something shorter and less exposed. Meanwhile the JoBurg crew seemed content to wait for the forecasted weather window and not worry too much about contingencies.

cloudy Clouds over the valley

gear Gear under the stretch tent, waiting to be rigged. Photo by David Blaszka

Rigging

Luckily, the weather window did open! In preparation for clear skies and calm winds, we got the first cord, fishing line, across the gap during the last cloudy evening on Monday October 20th. The plan was to fly a fishing line across the gap using a drone. It was a stressful, cold evening. We had to wait for gaps in the clouds for each attempt to fly the drone. At one point the drone spun wildly out of control and the tag line had to be dropped. Thankfully, Leighton had the foresight to build his own release system so the drone could drop the fishing line and escape in case of issues. In the end Leighton successfully piloted the drone with skill and nerves of steel to get the line across. It was so cold and windy that night that I didn’t even make it to the end of the tagging mission and went back early to ‘check on’ the fire. Back at camp I found a warm and cozy fire.

cold-tagging A cold evening for tagging. Photo by David Blaszka

fire Warming up and drying out at the fire. Photo by David Blaszka

After that night it was smooth sailing. The next day, the sun came out and there was no chance of thunderstorms for the rest of the week. I stepped back from leadership on this rig and my friend Audrey from Quebec stepped up. She led the rig with a calm confidence and seemingly had every possibility already accounted for in her plan.

Audrey Audrey leading the troops. Photo by David Blaszka

rigging Tensioning the line. Photo by David Blaszka

The South Africans were seasoned riggers as well. I was impressed to see they had pieced their own curtain rod together and already knew the blake’s hitch for grabbing the slippery HMPE curtain rod for tensioning. During the rig I focused on a few specific tasks and shared my knowledge with people who wanted to learn. It was one of the smoothest rigs of a 1k highline I’ve been a part of. We were done and people were walking the line by that evening!

An All Around Success

That was Tuesday and we had the line up until Saturday morning. Around 20 people got to experience the line.

audrey Audrey walking home at sunset. This moment was later in the week.

Setting the Record

My friend Cary and his friend Leighton sent the line and claimed the African record for longest line sent on the continent. In slack lingo, sending is crossing without falling. As locals it was a very proud moment for everyone on the team. For Leighton especially this was a huge accomplishment that came after a ton of planning and pressure. He’s one of the strongest slackers in SA and there was a lot of expectation for him to send.

leighton Leighton looking at the line with a broken heart after falling just before the end on his first send attempt. Photo by Cary Small

cary Cary finishing his send and claiming the record!

Who’s on the Line Anyway?

Between resting to let some pain in my hip flexors diminish and letting others get their chance, I didn’t take a crossing until Thursday, the third day the line was up. I made it about 750m blind folded before the wind knocked me off. That session built my confidence that a blindfold send might be possible. Alex, Audrey, and I had a bit of fun trolling our friends on the other side too. Audrey told the team at the other anchor that Alex would be getting on the line while I put all her clothes on. They all knew something was off, but they didn’t figure out it was me on the line until I lifted the brim of her bucket hat at the other end of the line. David thought the shadows on the bottom of “Alex’s” face looked weird in his camera and Carry realized the tattoo on “her” arm wasn’t Alex’s. We got them good, possibly one of the best trolls of our life. notAlex Surprise! It’s me, in Alex’s clothing lol. Photo by David Blaszka

Blindfolded Flow

Fast forwarding to Saturday, the morning of derig, Leighton gave his final session to me and I got to give the blindfold send another try. The first half of the line I cruised. Then the wind started and I was in for a fight. As the first gusts picked up, I reminded myself that every step would be a fight, but also some of the best slacklining I’d ever done, if I could just stay on the line. I thought I might last just a few more steps but I kept walking another 500m or so in gusty, thermic conditions. From what I saw other days I knew the line was lifting, falling, and swinging side to side. Unexpectedly, I found the changing winds on my body more challenging than the slow shifts in the line.

Finally, about 70m from the end, a sharp gust knocked me off before I could send. This was the most focused, deepest flow state of my life. I was walking the webbing and riding the wind. The sustained challenge from the varying, gusty winds was what I needed to tap into the moment. Walking blind collapsed my focus to only what mattered. Staying balanced and taking the next step. My dhristi, the focus point as it’s called it in yoga, was my center of mass, in between my pelvic floor and navel. As long as this point was centered above the line, I could handle the changing forces on my body and on the line. I don’t know if this focus point is news to other slackers or not, but it felt like a breakthrough realization to me during that session.

wind The line bending upwards from a thermal in the canyon, shortly after I got off.

This session got me stoked for the 2km highline we were going to rig in Moab in just a few weeks. I thought that with good conditions I could send it.

hilux What does it take to rig a line in Africa? Among other things, at least one Toyota Hilux.

Omnivores Dilemma

During our time at Mountain Mayhem we ate well. Audrey, David, and Natalie are vegans so we prepared a lot of soy mince and seitan based meals. While these were tasty, filling and well spiced, we were missing meat and curious about all the local cuts the South Africans were braii-ing (don’t call it BBQing) over the fire. Luckily Martin took care of us and got us some T-Bone steaks, lamb chops, and boerewors, a farmer’s sausage with spices. We are forever grateful for him giving us a chance to braii with the locals.

smashing Me smashing sunflower seeds for the day’s lunch.

Look Mom We’re On TV

In the end two reporters came out and the line got featured in a local Afrikaans newspaper as well as Argentinian and Spanish newscasts. I think they were excited to share the store of ‘adrenaline junkies’ from around the world collaborating on such a project.

Check out the news reports here

Final Thoughts

derig-pic It takes a village. Photo by David Blaszka

This project was chance to share our expertise with a group of highliners who had the stoke and most of the gear needed to put up a big line. It was truly a collaboration among crews within the country and internationally. I’m grateful for the chance to share my passion and lift others up. I can’t wait to see how the South Africans build upon this success. This post didn’t focus much on the South African’s sessions beyond Cary and Leighton, so if you want a broader perspective on the project, Laurence, a new friend from SA made a great post on his blog, Riding the Highline.

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