02/07/08

Philippe Petit, is an inspirational figure to many slackers who have walked or have aspired to walk a highline. The man who performed a tightrope walk between New York's Twin Towers has been immortalised in a documentary.

This weekend, the team decamped to Cheddar, Somerset for this years Crag Attack Event.

Despite we weather on Saturday and extreme winds on Sunday, the "have a go" slackline was very popular with beginners and more experienced slackers alike, with the line barely being vacant all weekend.

This was something else entirely for Dean Potter, one of the world’s best climbers, barefoot in the dying sun last Friday, walking between ledges of a U-shaped rim above Hell Roaring Canyon, a 400-foot sheer sandstone wall on his right, a 900-foot drop to a dry riverbed on his left. No leash tethered him to the rope. Nothing attached him to earth but the grip of his size-14 feet and the confident belief that, if needed, his parachute would open quickly and cleanly and not slam him into the canyon wall.

By JERÉ LONGMAN
Published: March 14, 2008

Well done to everybody who made the effort to go to Fort William. Everybody had fun and it was a great social occasion with most of us staying together and parting over a number of days.