Tuesday, 21 August 2012
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Tightrope walker at Niagara Falls
One of the notable architectural features of Niagara Falls is this tower, very similar to the CN Tower in Toronto. It has odd rounded elevators that crawl up the outside and disappear into the top like little yellow maggots.
A tightrope connects the tower with a nearby hotel. We were amazed to see a guy walking across it.
He looks like a mosquito. Here's a closer look. Still looks like a mosquito, or maybe a mayfly.
He spent about 45 minutes getting from the tower to the hotel. He stopped at nearly every guy rope. I don't know if he was resting or what.
Finally he reached the hotel roof.
I seriously need to get a new camera. This one leaves weird spots on the prints and has only a 3X zoom.
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Comments (36)
Brave soul
cool. that tower looks similar to the Space Needle in Seattle.
that's crazy.
Holy crap! How can he do that for 45 minutes? And why would he? It terrifies me just to see pics! Oh no, I hope I don't have nightmares again tonight. Last night, I was running through a building with people chasing me. Tonight--people chasing me on a tightrope??
I might try zip-line, but definitely NOT tightrope walking! The spots on your photos might be a sensor that needs cleaning -- less expensive than a new camera!
WHOA!! Talk about a brave soul. It would be interesting to find out if there was any news on the man that did the walk. Interesting pictures...
Just got back from there. That fella needs his head examined.
@Kellsbella - I didn't see you.
@MzSilver - Someone said he was raising funds for cancer.
@slmret - Where would I look for the sensor?
@Roadkill_Spatula - In my dslr, it's right behind the lens -- you raise the mirror that creates a viewfinder, and it's behind that. In a camera without changeable lenses, I'd have to look at the manual, and might have to have it cleaned at a camera shop (they could tell you where it is and how to clean it, too). I need to have mine done about once a year.
@Roadkill_Spatula - A worthy cause indeed.
@slmret - It's a point-and-shoot I bought in 2008. Not worth putting money into, but if I can fix it myself, I will.
@Roadkill_Spatula - Well, I wasn't the tightrope walker. I did buy him a beer after his 45 min. trek.
Absolutely breathtaking. LINK Nick Wallinda did it before but he wore a safety line. I think I would need that beer just watching live.
wow that's terrifying!!!! I wonder if he had any harnesses just in case... like if the wind blew a tad bit harder than he was expecting? Well in any case, glad he made it!
Way too awesome!
Wow, what an amazingly dangerous thing to do! I hope he was tied onto the tightrope with a cable? I could not imagine being able to do that!
@mrs_mkz - @StephanieWall - @mommachatter - I couldn't see a safety line, and I don't know how it would work anyway with all the guy wires. Here's a promo picture of the dude.
Sheesh, no net below to catch him? He's nuts! But cool that you got to watch him.
'It's complicated', as they say. The tightrope walkers practice enough that doing it is 'easy', for them,so to speak. Kinda like your translation work or remodeling skills, from your perspective.
Problem is that the cost of an unpredictable event is like, falling. Far. Worse than an errant synonym or a tile cut a quarter-inch short.
I lived in 'The Falls' for a year, '68, playing at a club a block away from the throbbing waters, so the place has a special zing for me. Mostly barrels in those days, littering the rocks below.
Also met and talked briefly with Kurt Walenda a week before his final walk in Puerto Rico. Like someone else mentioned, nightmares are made of this.
Glad you took these shots, Tim. They really do show the loneliness of the long-distance walker.
@jsolberg - I remember being very moved by the photos of Walenda's fall. He looked like a tubby old man, very vulnerable as things went wrong. I didn't remember it being in Puerto Rico, just that it was over a city street.
@Roadkill_Spatula - I'd been one of many on the guy ropes in a PA walk. Remember thinking how easily one lunatic could cause him to fall. Shaking his hand later, seeing his little ballet-shoes and the body of a man on the far side of elderly, I spent the rest of the night worrying, for some reason.
I've had my own screamer falls, long enough to figure out on the way down 'how'd that happen?' then trying to land without breaking the legs.
My recurring nightmare is that I stupidly contracted to re-point the stone steeple on a church I know well in Jaffa. Every fence below it has rows of sharp points, and my seven ladders tied with twice keep coming apart. Oy.
@jsolberg - Oy indeed. At least you should invest in duct tape to reinforce those ladders. I had a hole in my second-story roof, way out on a corner above my power lines. The rats went in and out there. I ignored it for years because there was no way I was creeping out there or climbing that high on an aluminum ladder. Finally a friend who used to be a roofer patched it for me a couple of months ago.