It’s not unprecedented for someone to slackline across Yosemite Park’s Upper Falls, but it’s very, VERY rarely attempted because it’s so dangerous. Every few years we see news of someone attempting this feat, and this year almost ended with a headline along the lines of ‘man slacklining dies after falling 2,500-feet’.
You can see in this video that there’s a very tense moment as the slackliner loses his foothold and nearly falls 2,500-feet into the crevasse. This is enough to make any sane man clench his sphincter in fear:
In total, the clip lasts just over 4 minutes and it’s nerve-wracking from the first step to the last. As a viewer, I always feel conflicted in watching videos like this of slackliners or tightrope walkers. To a slackliner, there’s not a whole lot of difference between walking across a rope 2-feet off the ground in the backyard and 2,500-feet above the earth in Yosemite’s Upper Falls. The actual walking doesn’t change, just the level of tension in the air (not on the rope).
To the viewer, we think that this person’s capable of falling off at any moment and plunging to their deaths…Why are we watching these? Is it that we want to see this person fall? Are we mesmerized by seeing something out of the ordinary? Or is it all of the above? I’m legitimately asking because I don’t know why I’m so fascinated with these daredevil-type videos. They’re different from typical Extreme Sports feats that I share on BroBible. They’re not tied to record-setting tricks. This is just some dude walking on a rope and risking his life. But I can’t look away. It’s amazing.