Sarah Rixham

Expose your fears. I wake up excited, it’s early but I can’t sleep, the highline is there waiting. I go to the line but have to resist; I need to stretch, warm up my stiff muscles from rigging the day before. Stretch, harness on, tie in, check, check again, am I ready? I shuffle out onto the line, looking ahead I see it oscillating, waiting to be walked. The anticipation is great; I start to recall the feeling of standing balancing in space. I lean forward and push up into the half crouched starting position, let the wobbles pass and I stand up. The line shakes, I shake. Breath. My muscles feel weak, not properly warm. My arms wave, I’m not in control, my legs snap apart and I catch the line, grabbing it with my hands. But I felt the movements of the line, now my muscles remember what to do. Back up to standing I feel more relaxed, the line calms down and I start taking steps. I feel my muscles reacting to the movements of the line, my core is strong and my arms loose. My body knows how to react; it has learned to interpret the waves and wobbles moving down the line, it is ready to correct the shakes with small controlled movements before the oscillations even reach me. I have a direction but I move slowly enjoying the behavior of the line, from the corner of my vision I see the void. When my mind and body connect with the line it feels like I am floating; balanced and stable, supported by almost nothing. I look down and see my bare feet, framed by the ground far in the distance. I turn to the side to soak in the view and slowly realize that I am alone and peaceful in this space. This is the feeling that I am searching for to be there in the moment, physically and mentally, totally aware of my whole body and focused. Regardless of the tranquility, this mindset doesn’t come naturally, hours of training and hundreds of falls amount to rewards of feeling balanced on the line.

 

I got into slacklining from a climbing background, as many of us have, just trying a small slackline while hanging around. Not learning particularly quickly but quickly finding a passion. At the same time I was getting hooked on climbing and kept developing my skill over the next few years. Going from nervous, sketchy first trad leads to being confident climbing up multi-pitches in the mountains and looking for adventures wherever I went. Longer routes appealed to me, something that would test a multitude of skills; problem solving, strength, stamina, technique, composure. I like being high up and exposed, pushing my limits and embracing the natural environment.  I was looking for adventures both physically and mentally and the idea of highlining greatly appealed to me. The first time I tried I was certainly not disappointed. I am now an addicted highliner. I want to share some insight into some of the similar concepts highlining has with climbing such as rigging and mindset and also how it is unique in some ways.

 

Highlining is a sport that can be taken in many directions; longer, higher, tricks, different leashes, but it always has the ability to push both your mind and body to its limits and get you out of your comfort zone into a place where you can learn new things and embrace the growth mindset. Climbing can also do these things and I think that in both highlining and climbing alike, for me, the appeal lies in learning to understand more about myself.

 

One thing a lot of people associate these sports with is fear and I think it is a factor that is always present. So let's talk about fear for a minute. As much as I try to pretend I'm fearless and other people see me as having no fear, it’s not true, fear manifests itself in many forms. The key is to sort out the rational fear from the irrational. As much as I would like to be truly fearless, it does have its place in protecting us from dangerous events. But irrational fear can be limiting. So to eliminate it you have to face it, and this is a big part of highlining. There is something inherently unnatural about walking in the air on one inch of webbing that many people’s minds have something against. But when you rig a highline safely, you can trust your set-up and all you have to do is to fight your fears - whatever they may be; fear of falling, of pain, of space, of failing or of fear itself. In climbing too you can expose your fears, it can be safe and it can be unsafe and you have to judge where the line is and stay within it, pushing your abilities but not too far. However with trad climbing you can be safe one moment and not the next, run out with no more gear. Highlining has something unique that once it is set up correctly you can be happy you are safe, then you can relax and have fun, free to leave behind the rational fear and learn to deal with the irrational.

 

This takes me to rigging a safe highline. Highlining is more than just walking the line, just as trad climbing it is more than just moving up the rock; the protection is important. In climbing that was part of the interest for me, small challenges to work out, keeping your head calm and trusting the gear you have put in. With highlining it is paramount that you trust the rig and then you can be happy to walk the line, take falls and push your abilities.  

 

Setting up highline anchors shares similar principles to climbing, namely using solid anchors and redundancy, this may be natural or bolted. Equalization, taking into account angles, limiting extension and avoiding abrasion are also important. Redundancy in highlining means back up everything; back up line, back up anchors. Its good to think in terms of what happens if any part of your rig fails; if something else will catch you, you can be happy you are safe. Static or dynamic rope is used for the backup line and rope is a good option to equalize anchors but a lot of the gear also comes from industrial rigging. Lifting slings are used instead of climbing slings as they are more resistance to abrasion and have a higher breaking strength to deal with the loads they take. Shackles are used over carabiners as they can be tri-loaded and don’t have moving parts so are not affected by cyclic loading. It is important to rig your line well within the safety factor of your gear. The rigging is quickly developing in highlining with new gear and ideas coming out all the time. Gear is getting lighter and adapted to be slackline specific. My goal is to take highlining higher and more exposed using climbing to get to more remote places and into the mountains. For this light gear will be essential and I hope to develop my use of trad anchors to do this.

 

Adventure sports appeals to many people for different reasons; being in the outdoors, teamwork, problem solving, flowing movement, personal and mental growth. There are many sports that can give you this and highlining is just another one. For me highlining has captured my heart and taught me a lot about myself. When I truly commit to a line and am walking in a flow state nothing is more relaxing, exhilarating and beautiful. To learn you need to get outside your comfort zone and what better way to do this then stepping out onto a piece of webbing, with space beneath your feet, and crossing a void. Another important thing that strikes me in both climbing and highlining is the positive, enthusiastic and open communities that invite people in and help to push them towards their goals. The best advice I have been given from some inspiring people is to practice more and expose your fears, so that is what I try to do.