Moab GGBY III

After 26 hours in the car we finally arrived in Fruita, CO. It was late in a night, but we managed talked a bit with Terry and then went straight to bed.
The ride from Austin,Texas to Terry's house was truly exhausting. Faith was driving most of the time. It took really long to get out of Texas, then we almost ran out of gas in New Mexico, but had the pleasure of meeting two German ladies who worked at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico, who were kind enough to be a part of our video. After driving through a mysterious snow storm, we finally reached Utah and then Colorado.


Somewhere in New Mexico ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

By that time the temperature outside our car had definitely dropped down. Unfortunately our car doesn't have a heater so the temperature inside was the same. The three of us put all the clothes we had on and went inside our down sleeping bags.


Our packed car. You can see warm clothing and the sleeping bag ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

It was freezing cold in Fruita. We were happy that the drive was over and we can sleep on a real bed.


Some of many gas stations ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

The next day, the 29th of November the Somewhereelseland team went to Moab in Utah. Before we left we packed all the gear and food needed to survive in the desert. Janek walked the short "Terry's backyard highline" free-solo and "Terry's Backyard 120 feet highline" with the 'shackle-leash'.
We bought a few more things to eat on the way and after 1,5h drive we were in our place, manoeuvring the weighted down civic over the bumpy, rocky and muddy road.
The first two people we just met an the parking were Dylan and Nick. Of course Dylan was carrying guns as usual, but I have to admit that time it was kind of a good idea. In the area close to the highline place there was a manhunt in action for a crazy guy, so we could possibly have had a murderer running around somewhere in the bushes.
After we got to the highline place it was almost dark. Faith and Janek managed to walk 26m (85 foot) long and 30m (100ft) high "Blame Canada" Highline OS&FM with the 'shackle leash' (a piece of rope tied into both ankles underneath the line). Two days later both of them walked this line free-solo.


Faith free-soloing ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

Jordan walked super loose "Canadian Bacon" Highline rigged with 1" threaded tubular and the dynamic rope in the belt-loop swami!

Next morning Janek started with free-soloing two small highlines (both 11m long and 40m high).

Faith, Jordan and Janek walked all the other lines besides the 60m long "Give Up" Highline in the swami-belts, ankle leash or double ankle leash. Faith and Jordan had really good tries in swami-belts on the 60m line. Although it was super cold,snow was coming and it was windy and the line was really heavy. Jordan fell few meters before screaming out some words we will not publish here ...

We had about 25 people at the same time as us and bunch of people had left before we came. We think all together it was about 40-50 people, so GGBY highline gathering is getting bigger every year. We must to say it was insane beginning of the trip. Not one of us used a harness, Faith and Janek walked their longest free-solo and each of us pushed our limits walking long heavy and loose lines in the swami-belt.

We saw Andy Lewis walking 40m long and 35m high "Shakes McCoy" Highline free-solo. That was some impressive stuff.


Andy and the longest free-solo ever ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

Mich Kemeter also walked 26m long highline free-solo multiple times and cruised the other lines including 50m long "Shakes McGee" Highline using super long ankle leash.
Julien almost send 60m long monster line using shackle leash as protection. Tancrède Melet finally sent the "Give Up" Highline. Congrats man! That was an awesome ascent! He also became the first known highliner to try the noose-leash. We missed it but heard about it afterwards.


Tancrède sending ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

Faith sent also one of the short lines "Brent & Canyon are pussy’s until they send this line" Highline on sight free-solo!
During the highline meeting in Moab, Kyle from Sender Films was shooting some sick highline footage with Andy Lewis. Watch out for the upcoming movie!

Faith had a great idea for the photo - six naked people walking on six parallel lines. We had Faith, Janek, Pierre, Julien, Mich and Andy on all the lines. Here is the photo below:


(photo by Jordan Tybon)


Andy and the true 'balls and chain' send ! (photo by Jordan Tybon)

We met a lot of old friends and bunch of new crazy people. It was a great time! Most of the attendees have already gone home. Somewhereelseland crew is resting right now in Terry's place waiting for the good weather and hanging out with Brian, Kyle, Pierre and Andy. Tomorrow we will come back to the desert to rig and send Jordan's highline 55m long exposed project which we already bolted. Our gear is stashed in the small rock caves, waiting for us. Heinz Zak has arrived and will come with us.


All six lines together ... (photo by Jordan Tybon)

Keep your eye on upcoming news from the next visit in Moab!

Peace & SlackOn!
Janek

On the way to Moab (UT)

So after 10 days spent together in Austin we decided to move finally. Today at the evening or tomorrow at the morning we will leave to Moab (UT) to take part in the G.G.B.Y.3 highline gathering. The drive from Austin in Texas to the destination will probably take about 18 hours.
Yesterday Janek prepared and packed all the gear needed for this part of our trip so we are ready to go. The car is fixed and drives well. We have to pack everything, buy food and soon we will be highlining in Moab with all the guys.
Faith called Terry and and the weather conditions in Moab are not perfect (cold, a bit of snow) but it should get much better next days. We are taking all our warm clothes and down sleeping bags from Deuter but we do not have any tents. Probably we will have to use shelters we got.





We will stay in Moab for maximum two weeks. On 30th of November our friend Heinz Zak will come and join us to highline together and take photos. After Moab other friend of us Mich Kemeter will join our trip.

Stay tuned for the updates from Moab. We are going to walk some huge lines, bolt new projects and hopefully get some new bold sends.

To learn more about last year G.G.B.Y.2 gathering click HERE.

Photo Gallery:

Part 1
Part 2

Peace & SlackOn!
Janek

Slackline FUNdraiser - Austin (TX)

Two days after Jordan and Janek arrived in Austin we had in the works a slackline fundraiser promoting the sport and helping us out with a little gas money for the tour. Faith was organizing this thing for a long time before we arrived, and had already put a lot of work into it.
We had flyers, paid for renting 60 chairs from the local high-school, and bought food for snacks for guests. Faith organized the band "Aciable Austin" too.


Flyers (design by Faith, photos by Jordan)

On Saturday, the 13th of November, early in the morning we started setting up everything for the event. On Friday we also had to take care of a bunch of errands such as picking up the chairs and video projector for the presentation. We set up 4 slacklines, improvized the screen for the movies from a bed sheet, set up all the lights, and carried wood to the fire pit.
Some people came in the afternoon to try slacklining, and the kids loved it; many people went home wanting to buy slacklines. We had group of young kids trying slacklining like crazy all day long. Some of them were really talented!
At about 6.00pm people slowly were filling up the place.
We were surprised how many people came. We helped people on the lines, even in the dark, presented our movies and slide-shows, and answered multiple questions.
All three of us had great time, met a lot of nice people, and enjoyed the nice live music. Thank you to everyone who helped making this possible! Big thanks to Faith, Sonora, Linda Dickey and all the people who came. We got quite of bit of help for our trip. We are really happy and excited about moving forward. Moab, here we come!

Peace & SlackOn!
Janek

"Bible Belt" Highline

Last Friday, the 19th of November the Somewhereelseland crew went to rig another urban highline in the city of Austin.
At the place we met up with other Austin slackliners who we got to know a few days earlier at the longline action. The night before the rig, we 'scoped out the place so we could prepare the necessary gear for the action. The highline is located next to the pedestrian bridge running under one of the main highways. The line was rigged between two massive concrete pillars, which turned out to be more difficult to sling than previously thought. We had to use two slings per side, a 10 and a 4, equaling 14ft. spansets. It took a while to while till finally the other person caught the end of it on the other side of the pillar.


Faith and Janek rigging ...

When we had our anchors ready the rest of the rigging went quite smoothly. We used Type-18 webbing with two slackPro! line-locks and 9.8mm diameter Beal rope as the back-up. We had separate tensioning system with the lineGrip attached to it. The line was a bit loose but really nice to walk on.


The crew ...

After Faith taped the webbing and back-up rope together the line was ready to walk. We measured it later and it is 30m long and about 12m above the water.
Janek had the first ascent sending the line OS&FM in a swami.



Faith Sent the line after Janek also OS&FM in a swami. Jordan managed to borrow kayak for free and got some awesome footage from below. Unfortunately our battery died soon after. Tar Zen made to much footage of Faith taping the line.




Faith doing double drop-knee

Before Jordan came back Faith and Janek both walked free-solo. It was our first Deep Water Solo Highline (DWSH). I really want to go one day to Majorca or Thailand and establish some new lines higher than this and walk them with water as the only protection.

Here is some nice GIF file Jordan made from photos shot from a kayak:

When Jordan came back he sent the line OS&FM in the swami doing some crazy tricks on the way like korean butt-bounce and nice surf.


Jordan surfing the line

Till the end of the day local slackliners where trying there first highline ever. Maybe it was a bit too long for the first one, but all of them did really well (some of them never did a chongo-start on the slackline). Big props guys and girls (and Tar Zen got the best whipper of the day)!!


Tar Zen flying down ...

We stayed till late evening hour and finally took the line down. It was pretty cold night and some of us were not prepared enough.


Gibbon Tree-Shoes? (made by Jordan)

Peace & SlackOn!
Janek

"Walk in the Park" Highline

Last Monday, the 15th of November, Somewhereelseland team set up the first highline in Austin (TX). The three of us went to the Pedestrian Bridge and set up short highline right where the bridge splits into a 'Y'.


Location of the "Pedestrian Bridge" Highline

The line was really short (about 8 meters) and about 10 to 15m above the water. Unfortunately, we were unable to rig anything longer because at longer distances, the anchors were unlevel.
Faith went first and sent the line OS & FM in a swami. She did some nice static poses together with the double drop-knee in the middle of the line. So, the first highline in Austin (maybe Texas state) was walked by Texan, thank god! After Faith Janek walked in the belt-loop-swami OS & FM.
After these two walks, Jordan sent it in a belt-loop-swami and Faith and Janek free-soloed our tiny line.
Also worth noting, a local slackliner named Tar Zen sent the line too as his first highline. Congratulations Tar Zen!! Good job!

We met a lot of nice people and gave away bunch of our business cards. Later we thought what we really need is a somewhereelseland banner, and we think we have a deal with a local printing to trade us a free banner for some promotion, which is awesome!
One of the guys we met was photographer from the Austin Statesman newspaper. He didn't manage any photos of us walking the line but we exchanged the numbers and promised to let him know if we will do anything cool slackline-related. He attended the longline session and got Faith's picture in the paper, and was also present for our longer bridge line, hopefully we will see something soon.

More photos from Jordan:





We took a lot of footage with our video camera. Soon we will post first clip from our bi-weekly video documentary.

Peace & SlackOn!
Janek

Article about 623 feet longline in Austin Statesman newspaper

On Wednesday 17th of November Jordan, Faith and Janek went to rig some big line with my new 220m long piece of "Strong II" webbing from Slackline-Tools. We went to the Zilker Park in Austin where there is definitely enough open space to set up some monster lines.
Some other local slackliners showed up and, of course, Tar Zen was first as usual. On the way to the park we met old-school Austin slackliner named Boswell. We found a beautiful spot for the 190m long (623 feet) line between two solid trees.
To set up the line we had to find the best way to do it. We have only one pair of double 3" SMC pulleys which together with single pulley from CT, the SMC Rigging Plate and Petzl ID as our 6:1 base pulley system. Because our rope was too short (65m) to set up the line with only one pulley system, we had to pre-tension the line with a lineGrip from the other side. After removing all the slack and pre-tensioning the line we could use the main pulley system. We had plenty of people to pull (and Tar Zen is about equal to two of us - he weights 200 pounds), and after rigging a multiplier with one single and one double CT pulley we had zero problems with tensioning the line, although we had to lock the ID every time we were moving multiplier - the rope was slipping through it.
The day was super nice and sunny. The only problem we had was crazy wind conditions. The line was going scarring everyone in the park.
Faith went first, got pretty good wind conditions and walked the line OS full-babe. So again new female longline record goes to my girlfriend, congratulations!
Janek was next to try the line. Janek felt super good and the webbing was nice and easy to walk - we were all amazed at how good it felt. The wind went crazy when Janek was finishing the line. He fell few meters before the end - god damn you wind! Jordan had some pretty nice tries at the begging but the wind was brutal and he decided to rest and wait. Janek walked the line OS from the other direction. While he was on the line the firetruck stopped next to the anchor and all the firefighters were watching. We were worried they would make us take it down, but they had just seen it from the road and were amazed and wanted to check out the rigging. We got this on tape - it is pretty funny.
In the next try Jordan almost sent the line falling just one meter before the anchor. This time the reason was branches which were quite annoying to walk through. He was walking in the darkness on the way back. No wind conditions made it even harder. It looked like good workout.
During the day the photographer from Austin Statesman newspaper we met other day came to take pictures of us. Photo of Faith on the line and short description were posted in the newspaper next day. Check it out!



More pictures from Jordan:


Jan Gałek sending the line (OW)


Faith finishing the walk in both directions


and one more picture with the city centre at the background

Peace & SlackOn!!
Janek