“This is a really cool portrayal of what the community can do when we bring our gear and time together,” said Jenks. Ryan Jenks, spacenet coordinator for GGBY, explained: “Andy’s pentagon-shaped net is going to be the centerpiece, and we’re going to build off of that until we run out of gear.” The project featured spacenets at multiple heights and used an adequate number of bolts – only as many as needed to be safe – in an effort to lessen the environmental impact. I guess in short, over the years, the spacenet idea wove itself together.” In explaining how the concept came to actualization, Lewis said, “Spacenets came from years of dedicating my life to being around, using, and trusting ropes with my life. The first spacenet created, known as the Mothership, was weaved together by professional slackliner and BASE jumper Andy Lewis and a handful of his friends. This year GGBY also featured spacenets, which are aerial hammocks weaved together in a spider-web-like fashion with synthetic steel and paracord. First-timers could partake in the Introduction to Highline workshop taught by Louie Wray, who said that helping others overcome fears to step onto their first highline was a fun and rewarding job. Lines were shorter and ideal for beginners who ventured to the other side of the canyon. The most daunting of the lines was estimated to be 900 meters long, more than half a mile, which allowed it to lay claim to being the longest highline in the U.S. Participants of all skill levels could choose from approximately 15 highlines on which to walk. This year marks the 11th year of GGBY, put on by Slackline U.S., a nonprofit organization. It is managed entirely on volunteered time and gear provided by professional riggers and locals. The celebration has since expanded into an international gathering of highliners, known as Gobble Gobble Bitches Yeah (GGBY). They came to celebrate the sport and their own highly unique highlining community. More than a decade ago, a small group of highliners began an informal holiday tradition of gathering at the Fruit Bowl during the week of Thanksgiving. Participants use a harness to safely tether themselves to the webbing in case of a fall, known as a “whip.” At the Fruit Bowl, steel bolts are used as anchors to suspend the webbing from one cliff edge to the other. Highlines, unlike slacklines, are rigged 100 feet or more above the ground with intense exposure. Keen concentration and balance is necessary, but for highliners specifically, possessing the ability to mitigate fear is vital. It is as vast as it is deep and although the canyon’s red walls are as visually inspiring as any in the world, the area has been relatively unknown thanks to its ultra remote location in Mineral Bottom.įor those undeterred by the effort to get there, the Fruit Bowl has become well known to a global community of people interested in one particular activity: highlining.īorn from slacklining, both activities require the participant to sit, stand and walk on one-inch nylon webbing. 'We all eagerly await this years’ gathering as history has shown the progression of these sports coming together to create quite the vertical circus of new achievement,' Mosbaugh added.Deep in the heart of Moab’s share of the Colorado Plateau lies a canyon known as the Fruit Bowl. He and Lewis meet in Utah every Thanksgiving to find new ways to get the 'blood pumping' through their veins. In 2012 he tightroped across a thin wire thousands of feet up from cliffs in Yosemite National Park. Mosbaugh has performed his own perilous stunts. Recalling the event Lewis said: 'This was a massive undertaking and we totally rocked it.'īrian Mosbaugh, 29, from Slackline Media, who photographed Lewis in action said that no one was injured. Video footage shows the thrill-seekers hurling themselves through a hole in the net and plummeting to the ground below before opening a parachute to land. Some madcaps chose to bungee from the giant hammock while others base jumped or skydived from it. Team effort: The thrill-seeker rigged a series of rope trapezes in the red rock last fall with the help of more than 50 friends and volunteers.
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