最新報導的部落格

Not only must Nik Wallenda be physically sound for this feat, he must be mentally prepared as well.

Daredevil Nik Wallenda attempts to walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope ... without a harness.

UNDOUBTEDLY it will be one of the most daring and captivating live events in history – Nik Wallenda, known as “The King Of The High Wire” – will traverse the majestic Grand Canyon, without using a harness.

Scheduled to take place tomorrow (June 23 in the United States), Discovery Channel will capture this nerve-racking, nail-biting event on the live show Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda.

Wallenda, 34, will walk 460m above the Little Colorado River – a height greater than the Empire State Building – and spanning a distance of 380m. This will be the highest he’s ever attempted on a tightrope.

In addition to the staggering height and distance, Wallenda will have to battle wind gusts of up to 32km per hour.

“The stakes don’t get much higher than this,” said Wallenda in a phone interview with a group of international journalists recently.

“The only thing that stands between me and the bottom of the canyon is a two-inch thick wire. I’m looking forward to showing the audience a view of the canyon they’ve never seen before.”

He said that this latest event will be the fulfilment of a lifelong dream to walk at such a great height as well as a chance to honour his great-grandfather, the legendary Karl Wallenda, who died after falling from a tightrope in Puerto Rico in 1978.

The Grand Canyon, one of America’s most visited tourist destinations, provides a spectacular backdrop to the event. For weeks in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, the aerialist and holder of half a dozen world records, has been practising for what will be his biggest feat yet.

Wallenda and his team are focused on creating the conditions he’ll likely face at the Grand Canyon. The Florida heat, while humid as opposed to arid, is almost similar, with temperatures rising 32°C by mid-morning.

But the winds that pass through Grand Canyon walls pose another challenge. However, with detailed and intense practices, Wallenda said that the canyon’s winds won’t scare him.

“I’m not scared of them, but I have to respect it. I respect the fact that what I do is very dangerous. You know, people always ask what is the last thing you do before you get on the wire.

“Well, I give my wife and kids a kiss and tell them I love them. But the same thing happens when I get up in the morning and I head out to the gym. I kiss and hug them and tell them I love them, because we all never know when our last day will be. It’s just as easy to get hit by a car.”

While he has devoted a lot of time practising, Wallenda knows he had to be mentally prepared as well.

“It’s probably more important than to be physically prepared. The physical part comes very naturally because I’ve done it so long. But the mental part is something that I do have to work on and a lot of it comes from just meditating.

“I’ll visit the area where I’m going to walk. And I’ll sit there on the overlook and I imagine myself making my way across that cable and successfully making it to the other side, hugging my wife, my kids, my father, my mother. That helps me prepare mentally.”

Wallenda comes from a long line of family members who have done this dangerous stunt. But that’s not exactly what he wants for his three children.

“My family has done this so long, for seven generations and 200 years, naturally, everyone thinks I want my kids to do this. But the truth is, I don’t want my kids to do this.

“I want my kids to do what their heart desires, and if their heart desires to do this, I will gladly teach them the proper way of doing this and make sure it’s as safe as possible.”

> Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda airs tomorrow at 8am on Discovery Channel (Astro Ch 551).