{"id":25168,"date":"2019-06-10T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T03:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/competitors-touch-sky-in-new-mountain-games-event\/"},"modified":"2019-06-10T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T03:12:00","slug":"competitors-touch-sky-in-new-mountain-games-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/competitors-touch-sky-in-new-mountain-games-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Competitors touch sky in new Mountain Games event"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\" readability=\"6.8146639511202\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-367208-739\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com | Logan O'Brien, of Lyons, competes in the Highline Speed Walk competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. The competition saw athletes walking 50 feet in the air, as fast as possible.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"12\">\n<p><strong>Logan O&#8217;Brien, of Lyons, competes in the Highline Speed Walk competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. The competition saw athletes walking 50 feet in the air, as fast as possible.<\/strong><br \/>Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1.jpg\" alt=\"Logan O'Brien, of Lyons, competes in the Highline Speed Walk competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. The competition saw athletes walking 50 feet in the air, as fast as possible.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com | Caleb Beavers competes in the first Highline Speed Walking competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. Highline is a new event for this year's GoPro Mountain Games.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Caleb Beavers competes in the first Highline Speed Walking competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. Highline is a new event for this year&#8217;s GoPro Mountain Games.<\/strong><br \/>Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Caleb Beavers competes in the first Highline Speed Walking competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. Highline is a new event for this year's GoPro Mountain Games.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com | Dakota Collins gets high above the crowd for the GoPro Mountain Games Highline Speed Walk in Vail. The goal was to walk across the highline the fastest. If the competitor fell twice they were disqualified.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Dakota Collins gets high above the crowd for the GoPro Mountain Games Highline Speed Walk in Vail. The goal was to walk across the highline the fastest. If the competitor fell twice they were disqualified.<\/strong><br \/>Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"Dakota Collins gets high above the crowd for the GoPro Mountain Games Highline Speed Walk in Vail. The goal was to walk across the highline the fastest. If the competitor fell twice they were disqualified.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com | Dakota Collins gets high above the crowd for the GoPro Mountain Games Highline Speed Walk in Vail. The goal was to walk across the highline the fastest. If the competitor fell twice they were disqualified.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Dakota Collins gets high above the crowd for the GoPro Mountain Games Highline Speed Walk in Vail. The goal was to walk across the highline the fastest. If the competitor fell twice they were disqualified.<\/strong><br \/>Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/HighLine-VDN-060819-1-3.jpg\" alt=\"Dakota Collins gets high above the crowd for the GoPro Mountain Games Highline Speed Walk in Vail. The goal was to walk across the highline the fastest. If the competitor fell twice they were disqualified.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/competitors-touch-sky-in-new-mountain-games-event\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/competitors-touch-sky-in-new-mountain-games-event\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">VAIL \u2014 Kiley Hartigan signed up for the GoPro Mountain Games a week ago on a whim. Little did she know that she\u2019d make history Friday when she attempted to walk across a 200-foot long slackline spanning Solaris Plaza\u2014 some 50 feet in the air \u2014 and do it as fast as humanly possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Yes, you read that right. Highline speed walking is really a thing, and it\u2019s way cooler than that racewalking thing they do in the Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Friday\u2019s competition was the first of its kind in the United States, and Hartigan couldn\u2019t have been more inspired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI won\u2019t be bashful about it. I really enjoyed it,\u201d said the 23-year-old who lives in Lyons, north of Boulder, in a retrofitted van and lives to ski, climb, slackline and travel. \u201cWhen I first saw highlining, I was so blown away by a person\u2019s capacity to do something so outrageous. And I know that, for people who are seeing this for the first time, there are people out there, just like myself, who will see this and be like, \u2018Hey look at that super-awesome girl walking that highline.\u2019 I love motivating people and encouraging people. It\u2019s part of the reason why I did this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mission accomplished. Hartigan fell three times on her run, which disqualified her from getting an official time, but it was more about the journey than the result.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Personally, she said, she likes highlining better than being just a few feet off the ground. It\u2019s where she can zone out and be completely at one with her body. She did admit, however, that the idea of speeding up a process as precise as walking across a 1-inch piece of webbing some 50 feet in the air is a \u201ctotal oxymoron.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cTrying to go fast is really confusing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Caleb Beavers, 22, who moved to Boulder from Nashville to attend the University of Colorado, said he started highlining about three years ago. Friday\u2019s event was his first official speed walking competition, though you wouldn\u2019t have known it given the way he nimbly maneuvered, without a fall, across the 180-foot portion of the slackline where competitors were timed from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting because usually we\u2019re out in the middle of the wilderness, you know, over a canyon,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s serene and calm. It\u2019s meditation for me, almost. This one is super fun, but I definitely don\u2019t enter that meditative space with everyone. It\u2019s really fun to interact with the crowd and pump people up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Oohs and aahs<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For Dakota Collins, 26, of Fort Collins, Friday\u2019s competition wasn\u2019t his first rodeo. And slacklining isn\u2019t just a hobby \u2014 it\u2019s how he makes a living as the founder of Rocky Mountain Slackline, which sets up rigs like the one used at the Mountain Games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Collins took one of the biggest falls of the day Friday, losing his ballcap when his harness caught him after going headfirst off the highline, drawing oohs and aahs from the crowd below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat was my first time on this line,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish I would\u2019ve gotten a practice run, but it worked out good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Collins said he went to Argentina last year to help set up a highline rig over a music festival and competed in his first speed-walking contest there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt was friggin\u2019 awesome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">His company, which he founded in 2013, is focused on slackline instruction and integration into communities<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe work with public school districts, gyms, anything like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The hope is to inspire the slackliners of the future, some of whom were taking runs on the apparatuses set up below the highline in Solaris Plaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Beavers and Collins both stressed that practice, technique and core strength are essential to slacklining, but arguably the most important component is strength of the mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cUsually when you\u2019re not speed walking, you can take a second to balance yourself out,\u201d Beavers said. \u201cThis one, you just have to walk through it. That\u2019s just all I had to tell myself was, just don\u2019t stop. Walk through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">This story is from VailDaily.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/competitors-touch-sky-in-new-mountain-games-event\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Logan O&#8217;Brien, of Lyons, competes in the Highline Speed Walk competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in Vail. The competition saw athletes walking 50 feet in the air, as fast as possible.Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com Caleb Beavers competes in the first Highline Speed Walking competition for the GoPro Mountain Games on Friday in [&hellip;]<\/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-25168","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 22:03:51","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\/25168","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=25168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}