{"id":24982,"date":"2019-06-06T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/highline-events-to-reach-new-heights-at-gopro-mountain-games-in-vail\/"},"modified":"2019-06-06T20:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T02:24:00","slug":"highline-events-to-reach-new-heights-at-gopro-mountain-games-in-vail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/highline-events-to-reach-new-heights-at-gopro-mountain-games-in-vail\/","title":{"rendered":"Highline events to reach new heights at GoPro Mountain Games in Vail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Davis Hermes, of Edwards, performs tricks at a highline demo event at the 2016 GoPro Mountain Games in Vail. The highline dicipline of slacklining will move from the demo realm into the compeition venue at the 2019 GoPro Mountain Games.<\/strong>
Matt Munson \/ Special to the Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

VAIL \u2014 The slackline events have grown to rank among the most popular spectacles at the GoPro Mountain Games; this year, the competition is quite literally ramping it up a notch. Specifically, to a highline about 50 feet above Solaris in Vail Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the Mountain Games, slackline just took off and blossomed,\u201d said Mickey Wilson, one of the individuals who originally brought slacklining to the Mountain Games many years ago. \u201cIt grew into some amazing world-class tricklining. This year it\u2019s going to be a lot different. The crowd is going to love this event,\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people know Wilson for what may be the most famous \u2014 and certainly the most heroic \u2014 slacklining endeavor in history. While skiing with friends at Arapahoe Basin in 2017, a man in a chairlift ahead of Wilson caught his backpack getting off the lift and ended up dangling by it off of the chair. Wilson crawled across the lift cable \u2014 more than 30 feet off of the ground \u2014 onto the chair and freed the man, dropping him to safety.<\/p>\n

Wilson has been recognized for this valiant act the last two years at the Mountain Games, exhibiting his skills on a highline strung over Gerald Ford Amphitheater during the live music events. This year, he is spearheading the efforts to transform the slackline competitions, serving as a judge for a freestyle event and organizing top local athletes to compete on the highline, which might strike unversed spectators as the most harrowing, dangerous sport they\u2019ve ever witnessed.<\/p>\n

\n
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\u201cThere is fear in your heart when you\u2019re up there. Then your brain says, I have an anchor, I have a leash.\u201dMickey WilsonSlackliner<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt seems extreme. It seems crazy, especially to the uninitiated. But highlining is the safest extreme sport in the world,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYour highline system has a main line and a backup line. Your leash has a main line and backup line. Highlining can be pretty low impact. For the most part, highlining is friendlier on the body than other slackline disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike slacklining on a low line where the ground is the cause (when certain tricks go awry) of significant injury, the worst thing that can happen to athletes that fall off of a highline is a \u201cwhip\u201d: the jerking motion of the body when the leash catches them.<\/p>\n

Wilson notes a trip across a 125-foot long line, 3,000 feet above the ground at Yosemite Falls among his most impressive highline journeys. Even though it took a couple of takes to pluck up his nerve, he does not describe this endeavor as \u201cscary.\u201d But, let\u2019s take into consideration we\u2019re talking about someone who was fearlessly scaling tall structures before most kids learned to ride a bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom and dad always tell a funny story about how when my dad was a producer at events with bleachers that were 40 feet high, everyone would hear a scream and someone would say, \u2018there\u2019s a little boy crawling up there!\u2019\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI was a little monkey kid, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spectators love it<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that Wilson \u2014 or any other athletes who were monkey kids and who gravitated to balancing on a line at dizzying heights \u2014 is fearless when stepping onto a highline, particularly where there\u2019s an audience below.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a little intrinsic, internal voice in your head that\u2019s making you scared on whatever highline you step on,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAfter many attempts, you learn to quiet that voice. Also with all the eyes looking at you, there\u2019s more fear. There is fear in your heart when you\u2019re up there. Then your brain says, I have an anchor, I have a leash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highline competitions will take place throughout the 2019 Mountain Games with lots of new events. Highline Freestyle Best Trick, set for Friday at 4:30 p.m., gives competitors four attempts to stick their hardest single trick, which is defined as starting at the top of a bounce and ending when the line has gone down and back to the starting position. Highline Freestyle Best Run, taking place Saturday at 4:30 p.m., gives athletes two minutes to showcase all their best tricks and skills on the highline. Highline Speed Walk, scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m., features a racing across the wobbly, 1-inch wide highline. And the Highline Rumble, set for Saturday at 1 p.m., pits competitors against each other in a head-to-head format to see who\u2019s left standing.<\/p>\n

This story is from VailDaily.com.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davis Hermes, of Edwards, performs tricks at a highline demo event at the 2016 GoPro Mountain Games in Vail. The highline dicipline of slacklining will move from the demo realm into the compeition venue at the 2019 GoPro Mountain Games.Matt Munson \/ Special to the Daily VAIL \u2014 The slackline events have grown to rank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 18:28:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}