3 Nov 2014

Highs and lows of daredevil tightrope walkers

Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda makes back to back crossings between two 500ft high Chicago skyscrapers. Watch him do it, his other career highlights and a stunt that didn’t go so well.

Mr Wallenda, 35, managed the stunt in Chicago while battling 25mph winds.

The first 500ft crossing was undertaken without a harness or safety net. He then, blindfolded, crossed the 94ft gap between the two Marina City towers.

The whole event on the Discovery Channel was broadcast with a 10-second delay in case he fell.

Watch the video here:

This isn’t Wallenda’s first death-defying stunt. He crossed the Grand Canyon last year, again without a harness.

It doesn’t always go completely to plan, however, with two daredevils in Spain falling while attempting a walk between two-hot air ballons. They were wearing parachutes.

Highs and lows of daredevil tightrope walkers

This isn’t Wallenda’s first death-defying stunt. He crossed the Grand Canyon last year, again without a harness.

It doesn’t always go completely to plan, however, with two daredevils in Spain falling while attempting a walk between two-hot air ballons. They were wearing parachutes.

Wallenda crossed Niagra Falls in 2012, making this his third high-wire stunt in three years.

High-wire record set by Freddy Nock on Tianmen Mountain in 2013.

The new tightrope-walkers are the ‘slackliners’, able to throw up a line between two mountains anywhere.