For those who don’t get a big enough adrenaline kick out of soloing rock routes, here’s a new sport to get the heart pumping.
Two guys spent 24 hours setting up a slackline across from Napes Needle on Great Gable, one of the iconic rock fingers in the Lakes. There’s footage on YouTube and a big discussion on the UK Climbing forum about whether it’s a good or bad thing.
In a nutshell, slacklining is the US-born sport of stringing a highwire from two points and walking across it, with a safety leash as a lifesaver if you come off.
The YouTube site also has footage of a similar walk across the quarry next to the Cow and Calf rocks at Ilkley in West Yorkshire.
Discussion includes the perils of falling off the Ilkley site and damaging a tourist or the more likely danger of being pelted with stones by local chavs.
Slacklining evolved in the US when the climbing fraternity started experimenting with nylon webbing to produce the high-thrill experience. Slacklining can take place anything from a few centimetres above the ground to the yawning chasms of the Yosemite. And now it’s come to England.
grough’s gone to lie down with a cold compress and two paracetemol.