All of you should be familiar with the basic “Ellington” or “primitive” system.  It uses 4 carabiners: 1 to hold the end of the line to one anchor; 1 hitched or line-locked about 80% of the distance from that anchor; 2 more at the other anchor, and a very ‘primitive’ looping of the remaining 20% […]

Alpha Mike and Jeremy are in town for a day or two, doing a demo at REI for Gibbon (the German guys who make the super static 2″ ratchet lines).  After their demo we met up at Golden Gardens for some one-inch fun.  More pics to come after tomorrow’s slacktivities…

James took me to a wicked spot over the Skykomish today.  Bolted on both sides, awesome waterfall in the background, pouring rain, everything (slackline included) slick like ice; perfect! A couple of shots below, plus here’s a quick timelapse video on youtube.

Solutions I am attempting to work with Parks & Rec to come to a mutually beneficial access policy.  As I’ve stated below slacklining in Seattle is totally legal (when done responsibly). That said, it seems a very few employees of the Parks dept may see things another way, and it would be nice to have […]

Slackline is different from tightrope, tightwire, slackrope, (etc) in that it uses a dynamic webbing. Although slackline webbing feels flat, and feels static when in your hands, it is actually a tube (that is stretched flat), and once you put your weight on it you can feel it is quite elastic. There is some semantic […]

Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill (in Seattle) is a great spot for a 100-200ft slackline.  There is a berm, in the shape of a [200+ft diameter] half circle, 10 or so big trees for anchorage.  10ft slings needed to wrap the trees for a long line (6-8ft probably do-able on most trees for a […]

At Micah’s invitation, we took off for a few days of camping, climbing, and slacklining in Squamish, British Columbia. 4 hours north of Seattle, Squamish has a great feel of remoteness. Adding to this was the fact that my cellphone provider wanted to charge me $1/minute to use my phone while in Canada; for the […]

(NOTE* This now exists as a video too) WHAT: Rigging a 3:1 primitive slackline. WHY: Because ratchets are lame, and this setup is cleaner, lighter, and fun. HOW: This assumes you already have all the gear needed for a primitive setup.  If you need to build a primitive setup, see: this link.  We’re going to […]

Thinking of slacklining in Seattle?  Here are a few spots I like.  I’ve taken the liberty of adding several of them to Google Maps.  If you search “seattle slackline” on gmaps, you should get my three favorite spots as the top results. Golden Gardens My favorite slackline spot is Golden Gardens beach in Ballard.  Sand […]

Rigging beta contained within. Do not rig highlines if you don’t know what you’re doing. You will die if you setup something incorrectly. If you’re not experienced, learn from someone who is. If you’re in the NW and want to watch/learn/walk a highline, drop me an e-mail. I finally had a chance to rig the […]

I got a line on a possible indoor slack spot, to help keep my slackline chops honed while it’s below zero outside.  Today I got my hands on the key, and this spot is pretty epic.  Aside from the hardness of the floor, this is a nice little spot. I don’t want to give away […]

It’s important to understand the strength ratings of your various equipment.  Carabiners are rated for a couple of different types of loading, and without exception the pull-load (coincident with the spine of the carabiner) is the highest rating.  Loads in other directions (pulling on the gate, for instance) are usually substantially lower.  Simply put, this […]

I’ve absconded to Wisconsin for a short while.  I wasn’t slacking much in Seattle with the “cold weather,” but after a week or two here and some -20°F weather, I have a new appreciation for the relative comfort afforded by weather that allows water to remain a liquid.

Ever since moving to Seattle, I’d had an idea about slacking on the scary-side of the railing at Gasworks, with the city in the background behind me.  A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to give this a quick test.  With a more telephoto lens, and better prep, this could be a nicely […]

Second post in a row that I am 3 months late on 🙁  Apologies to Jesse, Matus, and Dave.  This is a highline a few hrs outside of LA, shown to Jesse and me by the illustrious Matus.  Here is a google map to its location. Rigging Beta.  WARNING: do not rig highlines if you […]

Okay, so it’s not in the NW, and some of the photos aren’t slacklining, but dammit, it’s Joshua Tree. This post is a little late in coming, as we all went to Jtree on July 11th. Sorry Jesse/Sunny about the slow photo posting. (I also have some slide film I shot of this trip, but […]

Adam here, making an edit to my original 2008 post now in the summer of 2012. Tree padding is a serious issue — we should pad trees where our equipment comes in contact, and we should do it both because scientists believe this is required to ensure the health of the trees and because the […]

Bonnie and I put in an hour at GG today, and bumped into Joey and Cody right as we were setting up.  Joey’s mentioned in this Stranger blog post.

I don’t own a television, so I’m somewhat removed from a lot of local news and other typical gossip.  As a consequence of this, I have no idea what precipitated the winds, but a storm of some kind rolled through here Saturday.  My friend, Elsbeth, and I already had slackline plans, so we met at […]

Normally you will require a couple of knots in a slackline in order to rig it properly. Each end of the line must attach to your anchor slings somehow, and often a clove hitch is used to attach it to a carabiner (which is then clipped to the sling). Some of the “kit” lines have […]

You can find slackline kits on the web (like those from Slackline Express), generally in the $50-100 range, depending on options. If you don’t want to put forth any effort, besides punching in your credit card number, and remaining patient for a week or two while the kit is being made and shipped (in my […]