Southern France - G4G project II

The second installment of G4G Project (my girls highline team featuring Jelena Schradi, Ancee Kucharova and myself) took us to the sun and stones of Southern France. This trip was especially interesting because Jelena brought her 8 month old daughter Liv along for the adventure.

The trip began for me with hitchhiking. Ancee and I packed our bags and set out from Prague, Czech Republic. We knew it would be a 2-3 day mission to get to southern France, which was 1400 kilometers away. I had hitchhiked the same route one or two times before, and was looking forward to the advantage of being two girls, hoping we would have a quick journey.

It was cold and rainy when we departed from Czech Republic, however after a few rides and a full day we stopped for the night. The gas station we ended up at was a hitchhikers dream; surrounded by lush German forest and plenty of grassy spots to set up a tent. We slept on a gentle slope, and it rained all night. The next morning we started in the usual slacker's relaxed way. We awoke when the rain subsided and packed, ate bread and cheese and began our journey again. We were close to the borders of France and Switzerland, and this is a place where the highways get complicated and one must be sure they get a ride in the right direction. Switzerland for whatever reason can be a difficult place to hitchhike so we tried to stay en route to France. By the end of the day, a nice father transporting his young child took us along. The poor baby was crying almost the entire drive. Late in the night he left us at a gas station and we spent another night in a tent by the highway.

There is a city in southern France that consistently leaves a bad taste in my mouth: Orange. Not only had I been stuck there for 7 hours one time, but the characters I met were less than savory. My ride to Orange the year before had also played a Duffy cd on repeat for 3 hours, and when my friend Helmar and I were finally rescued from the toll where we stood thumbing, the nice young guy informed us that Orange is indeed a terrible place with at least a few racists in the population. Naturally, Ancee and I ended up in Orange after dark. We tried to get a ride but the characters that appeared were not the types we wanted to get in a car with. Finally, by midnight we had given up. We cooked a dinner outside in the wind, and the kind security guard allowed us to sleep on the floor by the coffee machines. It was a restless night under fluorescent lighting, and around 5am people began flooding the Latte machines, looking quizzically at the two girls in sleeping bags snoozing in the corner. We were so relieved to leave Orange, and happened to find a ride going direct to Montpellier. This was not quite on the route but we had wasted many hours in Lyon, France and wanted to finish the day with friends, so I called Alain and Manu Barbet who welcomed us in with whiskey and coke and a warm bed. The next morning Alain put us on the highway towards Marseilles, and within an hour we were close to our destination. Many buses, footsteps and waiting later, and we had joined Jelena, Julien and some other friends. So, finally the highline trip began.

Jelena had been in the area for a week scoping potential highline spots. A skilled female highliner by the name of Chloe had joined our group for the first week, and so we were a team of five (including the baby Liv.) Ancee and I arrived in time to walk a beautiful line over the water, about 40 meters in length, suspended between a tree and a rocky outcropping. Since I had just taken a break from highlining I needed to get back to my level as quickly as possible, so I wore a swami for my on sight send of the line, scaring myself just enough to work hard and be sure not to fall.

The first project we established all together was a great line just off the road on Route-de-Cretes. Two crusty towers poke up off the down hill slope, overlooking the sea.

The tensioning side is an interesting rig, Jelena used a naturally formed hole in a lower boulder as the anchor, a-framing over the top of the tower. She used about 10 meters of slings and an extra 2m to backup to a bush. The other side was my mission, and it was a choss pile. I only blame myself for the experience as I volunteered to do the static side, but it was good mountain goat training to say the least. From around the back I scrambled up through dense bushes (mostly the sharp poky kind) and found myself above the tower we would anchor from. I had a rope, so I fixed it to a small juniper tree and using some sharp chossy rocks as directions, rappelled down a short overhang. I used the rope as safety and gingerly walked across the ridge to the anchoring tower. We needed quite a lot of slings for it, 15-16m total and in order to sling it and attach the slackline I had to rappel down a couple meters.

I used an even smaller Juniper bush to hang from. I regretted not having enough padding and used some broken branches to lift the slings away from the sharp limestone choss. While hanging I pulled up the gear on an extra 20m rope, trying my best not to knock down more rocks. The line was 45 meters in length, and about 25 meters high. Due to the windy conditions we opted for a rope backup rather than double webbing, and Chloe managed to get the first ascent. Jelena had just returned to the sport from pregnancy and fought hard on the line, giving it her all. Ancee, recently recovering from an ankle injury, also struggled but managed to have some really good tries, almost walking the entire thing save a few meters.

I walked the line on-sight full man despite a very distracting wind. The weather was beautiful otherwise, sunny and bright with a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean Sea. Our team returned to the line a second day to enjoy some more walks, and I had a go in a swami, walking it FM. After a few weeks break from highlining, it felt good to push myself and work my muscles back into shape. All of us girls spent solid time on the line, which was not so easy as it was heavy and long.

The next day we had a rest, all donning dresses and going to the Cassis beach for a dip. The water was beautifully turquoise but cold as hell so I only swam for 5-6 minutes but felt better for it. The beach itself was a shit show of tourists so our visit was short lived, but we had fun nonetheless.

The highline that followed was thought to be a new project by Jelena, but as it turned out Lukas Irmler had already done it, though in the end he had rigged it a bit differently than we. It was also off the route-de-Cretes, a beautiful alcove that jutted out on the cliff edges, at least 100 meters above the ground. The gap was 62 meters long, a challenging length but within reach of our group.

We rigged with my lightweight setup of type-18 and aeon backup. This location was beautiful but especially grueling due to the fact that there are no tall trees to hide from the sun under. This meant that we were baking all day, every day. We bivied near the line the first night, enjoying a view of the golden lit city of Cassis, next to an outstretched dark blue Sea. The wind was harsh and Ancee's plan to sleep in a hammock on the line failed, and she soon was sleeping near us on the ground.

The next day we all had more tries on the line. I completed a full man send of the beautiful line, enjoying the exposure immensely.

Jelena's boyfriend Julien BASE jumped off the cliff as I walked, sailing down to the fields below. Chloe spent a lot of time on the 62m highline, as it was just within reach of her ability. She would cruise out with certain stability but the middle seemed to be the most challenging transition zone.

The second half of the trip was with a smaller group. Chloe returned to her home and it was just the core G4G girls and the baby Liv. We moved from the campsite to sleep in a rural parking lot. We thought we had chosen a good corner to pitch our tent when we heard a rustling in the bushes, and were shocked to discover a giant black boar rummaging through the trash can. This boar was no small creature, she stood at least a meter tall. The trash cans were metal surrounded by wood paneling, and the boar jumped up on her hind legs and began prying the wood paneling off the bin. We moved across the parking lot to sleep, but Ancee and I definitely felt vulnerable and continued to peak out of our tent as the boar roamed around. The next morning we had survived the night of the boar, but our laundry had not. Our wet clothes stretched out on a rock overnight had disappeared; and it was either a creepy guy we had seen in the morning or there is now a very well dressed boar roaming Cassis.

The next day two girls came to join our trip; Capuscine and Laure Millot. We were now a crew of 5 girls and a baby, something very unusual in the highline world. That night we slept in the cave off of Route-de-Cretes. I thought it was a secret place but some young people from Cassis appeared and threw a party inside. They barbequed and drank, and we hung out with them briefly, waiting for their departure so we could sleep in the dusty dark place. I had slept in the same cave before on my first trip to the Calanques, and it was just as special. The chandelier, the picnic table and the candles were all still there. In the morning we sat on the man-made front porch overlooking the Sea, and I am sure we thought that life is beautiful.

We returned to Cap Canaille to rig a shorter highline that had been established there. It was about 20 meters long. We were shocked to find 14 bolts in total, sprinkled all over the rock surrounding the line. Very few were logically placed, many were right on the tourist path in thin layers of rock that sounded hollow and disappointing. We hammered 2 bolts completely in so no one would use them since they were unsafe. There was likely just a layer of rock over dirt and to tension off of them would have potentially been disastrous. We managed to rig the line despite the gnarly bolt situation, though the strong winds were less than motivating. The line would have been a beautiful solo however the wind was not a condition supportive of that endeavor.

We de-rigged early in order to swim in the Sea again. The next day was windy again so we opted out of a highline mission, climbing instead. The routes we chose were beautiful short limestone ones, complete with crystals through most of them. We felt like princesses. At the end of our highline section, we raged with 6 girls and managed to rig and walk 6 highlines, 3 of which were completely new.

After two weeks our trip in the Calanques was over. We carpooled back to Montpellier, where we met our friends the Barbet's once again for waterline adventures.

Alain took us to some of the most beautiful spots in the area. G4G continues to be a raging crew of girls who love highlining. Hopefully 2014 will be another trip to the USA together!

Thank you to Alain and Manu, my French family! To Jelena for her hard work in finding the highline spots for our team, to Deuter for the backpack support of G4G, and to Nico for producing the film (to come soon!)

Skydiving: beginning

SWEL team finally was able to begin skydiving. It was years in the waiting, however we all met in Lodi, California, at the infamous dirtbag dropzone (the cheapest place to get your Accelerated Free Fall license) and started the new chapter of being in the sky.

There is a mandatory tandem jump, so we all paid up, strapped onto the bellies of our instructors, and rolled out of the plane. It was my first skydive ever, and actually after the tandem I was unsure about pursuing skydiving at all. Due to being on the belly of the actual jumper, the wind was full force in my face, penetrating my goggles and causing my eyes to water. It was uncomfortable to be completely out of control, and the canopy ride was the most fun out of everything. As soon as we landed, Janek, Jordan and I marched up to Bill, the owner, and paid for our AFF courses. 

He gave us the reading material along with 3 DVD's about skydiving, instructing us to read the book about 12 times and watch each DVD no less than 3 times. This was an ambitious goal, as I soon found out. I had little time to soak in the full information, but after one day of studying we started our course. 

It all seemed difficult and freaky before actually jumping, and in the first 5 minutes of ground school (which only lasts 2 hours at Lodi) Bill cruised in and told us 2 out of 3 in our group would fail the test. He dislikes climbers, which was bad news for us since we did not hide the fact that we were all climbers and highliners. 

The first jump out of the plane was like standing on a cliff before a rope jump. Theoretically I knew there was little to fear, and yet it was a new sport and I was scared to fail the test. My instructor was a big bald Russian named Victor, who though intimidating, turned out to be an excellent teacher. He had a fast and rough method, already chucking me out of the plane alone on the 4th jump. My first jump was stressful and I was far too tense, causing a spinning motion that was difficult to stop. I was confused by the symbols Victor showed me so this added to my stress levels, and by the time I slammed into the ground with a poor landing, I was sure skydiving was not cut out for me. 

By the 4th jump, however, I had gained some idea of what I needed to do. Symmetry of the body was important, and relaxation. If I treated the rush of air more like a pillow rather than potential death, then skydiving could be fun. I also started diving out of the plane door rather than holding the bar, swinging my knee and turning my belly to the relevant wind. Diving felt better and more natural. The next day I finished my last 3 jumps to pass the AFF, with Victors wife, Katje, as my instructor. I practiced becoming unstable to stable, backflip, rotations, and finally had one decent landing. I was stalling my parachute too high on almost every landing, and therefore crashing to the ground on my feet or tail bone. This becomes easier with experience, however I still panicked just before my feet touched the ground almost every time.

After passing the AFF, I had time to jump 5 more times before I had to leave Lodi. An unexpected death of a very close friend brought me back to Texas, and so I set aside becoming an experienced skydiver for a later date. The 5 jumps I did independently felt great, though I began to realize that highlining is still way cooler than skydiving. I hope next time I can jump with friends, learn to pack, and practice more tracking. Overall, I realized that skydiving is harder and easier than it appears. 

Girls Only Slackline Festival III (movie and article)

Girls Only Slackline Festival III from kletterkiddies on Vimeo.

The Girls Only Slackline Festival

Please enjoy this beautiful film sponsored by Kletter Kiddies Productions. Thank you to Josef Nezerka (Himmelreich Cottage) for added sponsorship of the festival. To read a little about the event, please see below.

It is all about balance. This simple phrase permeates life in more ways than one, in the sport of slacklining it can be taken literally, however in the world of outdoor and extreme sports it can mean so much more. Women all over the world are constantly striving to find this balance in their lives, be it in a political sense or in the terms of gender roles. We are different than men, but no less equal, and sometimes it seems the best way to bring balance to something like outdoor sports is to support women separately and create an event just for girls. Tilting the scale is a slow process, and a woman in the world of outdoor and/or extreme sports knows that to practice these activities means being a minority in the gender department. There is no lack of interest from women, however the media seems to constantly portray climbers and other extreme sports athletes as masculine, and highlining in particular fits right in with that symbolism. It is no secret that there are more men than women in these particular activities, but no one seems to know why. As the organizer of the GOSF and one of the few females in the sport of highlining, this question nags at me frequently. I search all aspects of life for the answers, and I constantly come back to pop culture, it's portrayal of women and what is considered feminine, and the harsh reality that we only starting voting legally a century ago. I think many girls underestimate what they are capable of, and what I really hope to accomplish by starting the wave of Girls Only Festivals is that if anything, these girls will dare dream, dare to push themselves, and dare to try something that might appear to be a "man's sport."

In my experience of highlining and climbing, girls have a different energy than boys, and if anything creating a place for girls to be the center of attention, to have as much time on a line as they like and to share the experience with each other, I hoped to create a special atmosphere and a way for girls around the world to see what other women are up to! I organized the first GOSF after several female highliners expressed feeling intimidated by the amount of boys in the sport, their high level energy at the lines and the loud atmosphere they often encountered. I felt like it was a great opportunity to make an event just for the ladies! Not only to give them all the time on the slacklines and highlines they needed, but also to connect girls with each other, promote our gender in the sport, and share knowledge and experience with one another. I had hoped girls around the world might pick up the idea and create their own versions of the event, so on each continent could be a meeting such as this one, and this year there is an All Girls Slackline Festival being held in the USA. There should be no misconception, the idea is not to separate women and men, only to balance the scales and I think creating an event just for women is a step in this direction. Eventually there will not be a need for the "Girls Only" title because there will be enough females to represent themselves equally. I think girls AND boys can cheer for that.

I chose Czech Republic for the location based on the fact that it was the center point between the European countries with the most slackliners and highliners. The location is also a magical forest of sandstone towers, with quite easy access and the added bonus of great Czech food and beer. The focus of the festival is highlining, which is the most difficult level of the sport and the hardest to gain access to because of the intensity of rigging and climbing knowledge. The first year there was only 6 girls who attended, however there appeared to be good progress as the second year of the festival brought 20 girls representing 8 different countries. Now we are on the verge of the 4th annual Girls Only Slackline Festival, and I am excited to see new and old friends! Overall, I am excited to see the progress of females in all aspects of life, especially outdoor sports such as highlining, and I hope girls everywhere can strive and push themselves in whatever they choose to do, because we are strong, and nothing should stop us. 

TED Talk on Fear, Intuition and Slacklining

Yosemite Revisited

My trip to Yosemite was sudden and I shoved it into my life like a book wedged on an overstocked bookcase. My SWEL team members Jordan Tybon and Jan Galek had come to US later than our normal course of action, and after a skydiving excursion in Lodi we conjoined in Yosemite to revisit old lines and walk some new. Naturally we revisited the Lost Arrow Spire, though the situation quickly turned into a cluster of people once a facebook event was created and soon we were overrun with nice people, but a body is a body and it takes up time and space. Nevertheless, we made the best of it.

The weather treated us well though the usual upward drafts under the spire were unavoidable. Though this line is still my solo project, this trip was not a solo mission and my headspace was not one which supported a lack of security. I donned a swami belt to step up my previous send by a notch, and confidently walked both directions. The LAS line is so small (55ft) but demands so much respect, with 3000 feet of perceived exposure, the wind, the rappel to get to the anchor, and the rigging which is on cams on one side. That line has humbled many an experienced highliner. Besides my own send, I was able to see my lover Andrew Craig walk the line for the first time, a wonderful achievement for him as that line is so iconic.

We had planned to hike the brutal Falls Trail and walk the Yosemite Falls highline, which Janek had redemption plans for and Jordan and I had never set foot on. Our friend Jared and Preston Alden and Max Silver were atop, and though the clouds were foreboding we hiked on to find them. Upon arrival at the top, though sweaty and tired from the almost 4 vertical mile hike, we went straight to a rigged Falls line. This line, though less iconic than the LAS, demands even more respect. One anchor goes to a small nose, so upon approaching the highliner is looking straight down several thousand feet to the valley below. There is no easy step off on this line. Our friends were nowhere to be found, but Jordan and Janek had both hopped on and sent by the time I reached them. The rig was on double vectran, which should have been easy however it was so low tension that we could pick up the anchor and pull it a foot towards ourselves. Nevertheless, the storm was approaching and it was our only chance. I through on my harness over my OR softshell and went for it.

photo Jordan Tybon

Vectran is a very low stretch webbing, so I had to step very calmly and keep the line as still as possible. Soft flecks of rain had already begun to fall, but this line had been on my to-do list for years and I was determined. I tried to focus on my breathing and my technique and avoid thinking about the massive space beneath me. I could hear the waterfall below pouring off the edge into expansive mist, and I could feel the gusty breeze picking up in energy as the storm gathered in the valley. I reached the other side, leaning forward to touch the rock nose that the line was anchored to, and I probably let out a small shout of joy. On sight! I was very aware I didn't have much time to rest, so I quickly scooted out and returned, more confident on my return walk. Stepping onto the anchor I pulled out an earbud from my mp3 player and heard the claps of thunder. Immediately hail began to fall. Good timing!

photo Jordan Tybon

My team and I quickly gathered our Deuter packs and scurried up the steps back to the camping area. We found a tent and a tarp in the trees, and since we had seen no other campsite, figured it was our friends zone. Ten minutes later a group of strangers showed up, as we kicked it in their camp living room. We apologized awkwardly, and left their site. We looked around a bit but could not find our friends so we decided to descend back to camp 4 where we could be dry and warm. The storm was short but it managed to get us decently wet on the hike down.

Another few days was spent at the beautiful Taft Point. There are three established highlines there, and they happen to be the easiest approach/rigging you can find in Yosemite. There are few places on the planet as scary as the valley exposure wise, and even these highlines which are all rigged in alcoves have their exposure factors.

We set up the 20 meter and 35 meter long lines on one day, and sessioned them in the sun. The rigging is easy as they are bolted and one must just walk the line around the alcove in order to get it across the gap. The trade off at Taft is the amount of Tourists who hike down to the view point there, and so every hour I ended up talking to at least 3 kaki-clad photography enthusiast who wanted to know about our "tightrope walking." Sometimes it feels like work to discuss why we highline and what it is, other times it is a golden opportunity to educate someone on the deeper, more meaningful reasons behind what we do. Andrew was also in Yosemite at the time, and got to walk 2 lines he'd never been on before.

I sent the lines in the best style I could, trying to get used to that Yosemite exposure I hadn't been around for the three years prior. Crows glided through the air, and the infamous El Cap loomed in the distance. We returned another day to rig "Spiders eating Eagles," a beautiful 170ft line established by Jerry. We rigged it on double webbing but it was still a challenge. After a few steps I felt totally out there, very alone with my body and my mind. In the end I was able to cross all three lines OS FM.

The next part of the trip is difficult to write about as it was so exhausting that my mind attempts to block it out as I type. Establishing a new highline in Yosemite might always be a beastly task, but establishing the 106 meter long highline "Hubris" blew everything I'd done out of the water. Our team had been eyeballing the Cathedral Spires in the Valley for weeks, and Janek had acquired all the beta necessary to get on top of them.

To be continued.....