I'm sure everyone is aware of it by now but the famous highwire act named Nik Wallenda is set to walk a highwire strung 200' above Niagara Falls. It will be televised, here in the U.S. on ABC tonight.

The highwire is strung over the gorge separating the American and Canadian sides of the falls. He's going to start on the American side, from Goat Island, and finish up on the Canadian side by the tourist center.

He's supposed to take 40 minutes to walk the wire.

So....... that's about 6.5 secs to.....plop!..then....:E

Die fliegenden Wallenda!
Some may just about be able to remember 1962 and the collapse of the seven man pyramid performing without a safety net. Those sort of tragedies mattered much more in those days than might be the case today.
Good luck to him but it has been done before. I remember Charles Blondin who was the first to make the crossing in 1859. He repeated the adventure several times in both directions and in once instance trundled a wheelbarrow across the falls. He's buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

He's not going to 'plop' because apparently ABC insisted he had a safety wire as they didn't want to televise him plunging into the water. Even so, he's an incredibly brave man, although the difference between bravery and foolishness is questionable.

Wallenda is probably a brave man. Foolishness might perhaps have been the quality of Bobby Leach who climbed into a steel barrel and went over the falls in 1911. He died fifteen years later, slipping on an orange peel in Christchurch, NZ.

Personaly, I thought the Maid of the Mist trip at the bottom. the view from the tower over the top, and looking over the rails by the pavement ( sidewalk then ) was enough to confirm the question of sanity and foolishness.....regarding those who have chosen alternative methods of becoming associated with the falls..:ugh:

I presume he's related to Karl Wallenda who I remember watching fall off a wire in the mid 70s...

I presume he's related to Karl Wallenda who I remember watching fall off a wire in the mid 70s... Yep, Karl was Nik's great-grandfather. The chilling video of the elder going off the wire in San Juan PR should be easy to find for those interested in such stuff so I won't post it here.

No doubt the reason the TV folks insisted on a safety device.

I would have thought most civilised places required safety backups these days.

Here I understand it's a 'no ifs or buts' situation and has been since the late 1990s. In that period I knew a few people who worked for local acrobatic groups and there was some hairy stuff happening (and injuries:sad:), after which the government workplace health and safety people got involved and legislation was introduced.

A person hitting a safety net can still be injured if they're uunlucky or a beginner (I believe it's easy for your legs to jacknife up and hit your face with enough force to break your nose or jaw), and I've heard performers complain that safety lines make some tricks more awkward, but it's still a lot better than going splat.

It's how they make their money... The probability of an accident multiplies their worth... Their reward is disproportionate to those who place themselves in far greater danger for the benefit of us all...

I wish him well but my heart will not flutter when, upon the morn, I find he fell to his death for he finally paid for the sensational life he lived.

Off to bed now...

Boing! bonk! Oooooch! Fcuk! Owwwwwwwwwwwwwie! Boing!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/walnaze/Boing.jpg



Why?


Because it's there.:rolleyes:

Some poor souls will do ANYTHING to leave New York State!

GF

Well, he did it! Good on him.

Ozzy

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/walnaze/Dec1506Canada77.jpg


Don't know which one this is, but perhaps the most fearsome was the guy who apparently made it, but then got caught in an eddy. No one could get to him for two days IIRC.



The saddest, was the impoverished 60 year old school teacher who did it to make funds to retire on. She succeeded, as did her cat, but no one gave two hoots. She died in poverty.

He especially owed his celebrity and fortune to his idea of crossing the Niagara Falls gorge on a tightrope, 1100 feet long, 3¼ inches in diameter, 160 feet above the water.

This he accomplished, first on 30 June 1859, a number of times, always with different theatric variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette and standing on a chair with only one chair leg on the rope.


From the Wiki entry for Charles Blondin. Bet Nik ain't gonna be cooking an omelette. :E

Well, he did it! :D

How do they got the wire across??

I wondered that too. :}
Lots of big, heavy equipment would be my guess.
The easy way or the hard way; sometimes you have to admire the hard way, ie on a string. :ok:

I'm with K & C on this. I can't even watch this stuff on TV without my nuts shrinking to a miniscule size. What it must be like to actually do it, safety wire or no wire, is beyond my comprehension :eek:

I can't even watch this stuff on TV without my nuts shrinking to a miniscule size.


That's because of the person sitting beside you is becoming stressed, and grabbing them.:}



I can't understand how anyone with a sack over their head could eat an egg, however it was cooked.:confused:

Let's see him match this next time:

http://www.potz.blitz.szpilman.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/philippe-petit-wtc-tightrope2.jpg

Then there was his grandad...

Tight Rope Walking Fatality - YouTube

Ozzy

I noted this in the WikiPedia writeup of Nik's crossing of the falls:Wallenda carried his passport on the trip, and was required to present it upon arrival on the Canadian side of the falls.Having endured Canadian immigration numerous times before, I can only imagine how this must have gone.

"And what is the nature of your visit, sir?"

"Oh, I see, a business trip. I'll have to ask you step over to the green room, please. The officer there will have some questions for you." :8

I am not technical, but as I recall s = ut + !/2at(squared).

Quite fast.

"Good luck to him but it has been done before. I remember Charles Blondin who was the first to make the crossing in 1859."

Nope, never been done before. Others, like Blondin, have grossed the gorge, downstream from the falls. Nik Wallenda is the first to cross the falls themselves.

Reportedly, the exchange was:

Upon setting foot in Canada, a customs agent approached him, looked at his passport, and asked him if he carrying anything into the country, because nothing balances out a tightroper better than a couple kilos of smuggled drugs. And when the agent asked Wallenda, "What is the purpose of your trip, sir?", he replied, "To inspire people around the world."

Nik, as he emerged from some fog over the falls. An amazing feat.
Congratulations to Nik Wallenda.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-06/70494823.jpg

impressive.. for a swedish detective.

Another shot of Nik Wallenda crossing the falls:

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Entertainment/ap_nik_wallenda_niagara_falls_ss9_jt_120616_ssh.jpg

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20120615/800_wallenda_niagara_falls_cp_120615.jpg

Nick Riviera.

Thank you for the pick up on Blondin not being the first to cross the falls.
You're quit right Wallenda was.

cc

Bloody hell,

Not content with walking the tightrope, he took a fishing rod with him as well. That must trump Blondin's omelette.

Not belittling the achievement or anything, but his Grandad did it without a safety wire.. I think with a safety wire like he had, I'd be quite happy to give it a bash..

He did not want to wear the safety device but his sponsor, ABC News, made him do so. And he needed their sponsorship to help offset the $1 million cost of his attempt to cross the falls.

Go for it Alloa. When can we expect to see you cross?

I'm in negotiations with the guys from ABC as we speak.. I reckon I can do it with no safety wire, wearing a pair of stilleto heeled boots and carrying a 12" American hot Pizza in one hand and my granny in the other, and I don't need a million dollars, I have spoken to U-Haul and they will lend me some tow ropes from their wagons.. :p

One more shot of Nik crossing the falls:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02250/niagara4_2250159c.jpg

Thanks for the photos rgbrock, they're lovely.
He doesn't seem to be carrying any duty free though...:}

As for the wire, everyone's different but it didn't bother me in the slightest. He still did it without faltering or slipping; the wire didn't assist that. If anything it would have made it more difficult.

It would be interesting to know the technical details of the safety "slider". How did it get past the stabilising danglies?

It would be interesting to know the technical details of the safety "slider". How did it get past the stabilising danglies? They have these clever notched rolling bits on the safety belts used on Bridge Climb in Sydney. Your harness is never detached from the bridge at any point during the walk, though there are hundreds of standoffs on the safety rail it must negotiate. I suspect it's something like that.

I looked for some photos, but without success.

Thanks for the pics, rgbrock!
For me even photos are scary enough! :p and I get a big butterfly in my stomack even when I look down a first (or second, depending on your philosophy :E) floor balcony... which makes it even harder to understand how I'm able to do the rope trails, including the black one (which last time reminded me of my myocarditis of some years ago, so I've sufficed with the pre-black. Even though the cute guys we started it with have both grown up to the black one by now).

probes:

So I guess I couldn't interest you in a little rappelling outing?!!!!

http://www.mccoy.army.mil/vtriad_online/07112003/images/JROTC_Rappelling_tower_300x.jpg

hmmm... if I saw he faces of the guys... and you swore I didn't have to take the stairs (which are much scarier, done it)... well, who knows? :E

Snore. A 2.5" wire? And anchored, with a tether, and a balancing bar? More of a publicity seeker than anything else..If one was interested in real rope-walking, you could google Andy Lewis, and come up with this: Andy Lewis -- Free Ball Free Solo naked!!!.mp4 - YouTube (caution, nudity) It's a good thing that we can't see the front view, 'cos his balls would be so massive as to obscure the sun..

probes, behave yourself. Besides, I think they make you wear trousers. :p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/walnaze/Boing.jpg

Was that an early rendering for the Death Star?

Having endured Canadian immigration numerous times before, I can only imagine how this must have gone.

"And what is the nature of your visit, sir?"

"Oh, I see, a business trip. I'll have to ask you step over to the green room, please. The officer there will have some questions for you."

It would have made a good spectacle if the Immigration officer refused his entry and made him walk back to the US the same way he entered Canada.

MagnusP, you amaze me. Of course I wear trousers on rope trails (not like the one who does not make North Shore snore... and who does make him caution us against nudity, not horrific heights :rolleyes:)... or is there anything regrettable about getting a glimpse at the faces of the guys? It can't be that bad, can it? :eek: