Wallenda's daring canyon walk, tonight

[Hum]

Carl Colson knew little about daredevil Nik Wallenda's impending high-wire walk across the Grand Canyon until last week when he got a call from the Porta-Potty guy.

"He said he's bringing a trailer with six Porta-Potties and needed 500 gallons of water a day," recalls Colson, general manager of the Cameron Trading Post, which lies down the road from where Wallenda's much-hyped walk will be televised Sunday. "He said, 'We're not supposed to talk about it,' and I said, "Well, it's kinda outta the bag."

Indeed, Wallenda, 34, a seventh-generation member of the Flying Wallendas whose soaring acrobatic feats have dazzled audiences for centuries, is set to perform what could be his most thrilling act ever. On Sunday, he'll traverse a steel cable running 1,500 feet (that's higher than the Empire State Building) above the Little Colorado River in northern Arizona without a net.

Discovery Channel cameras will be trained on his every excruciating step during the live event, but opportunities to watch the spectacle in person are limited.

Wallenda's walk will take place well outside Grand Canyon National Park boundaries. The walk site is high above the Little Colorado River Gorge, which is stunning and, no doubt dangerous to negotiate via steel cable, but, as Colson rightly points out, isn't the Grand Canyon.

"Someone who doesn't know any better, might think it's the Grand Canyon," he continued. "It's deep and it looks pretty good until you actually see the Grand Canyon."

Wallenda's cable will be strung across a gorge on Navajo-owned land off of Highway 64, 18 miles west of Cameron, and 40 or so miles east of the Grand Canyon's major South Rim tourist facilities.

Navajo Tribal officials are welcoming the spotlight the stunt will shine on its Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park, a mostly unimproved site where Navajo artisans sell jewelry and other wares from makeshift booths.

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[Kalint]

His balls can be seen from space.

[Hum]

 ^ I hope he gets to keep them. :p

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

I hope he makes it! They have a 10 second delay just in case something happens (hopefully not)!

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

Its starting now, it is very unsettling knowing that he has no harness!

[firey]

Watched him cross niagara falls on TV, that was pretty cool.  

[Hum]

Its starting now, it is very unsettling knowing that he has no harness!

http://skywire.discovery.com/

[tagerd0g]

Jesus, I'm on the edge of my seat!

[Biotoxic_hazard_835]

Watching it right now. The guy is crazy.

[arrrgh]

Every time he has to slide his foot over one of the stabilizers, my wife's like "aaah, he's gonna trip".

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

He made it! Man he had nerves of steel!

[ATLien_0]

My friends tried starting a drinking game during the walk, everytime he says Jesus take a shot. Amazing walk about as good as Alex Honnold free soloing El Cap

[Hum]

Glad he was successful -- the real Grand Canyon next ? :p

[DocM]

Great stunt!

VERY risky stuff - we were at the Shrine Circus in Detroit when the Wallenda's fell doing their chair pyramid walk; two killed, one paralyzed, and the old man Karl was injured. I was ~12 :/

[Astra.Xtreme]

Very cool stunt, but it was extremely annoying hearing him "praise" jesus every 5 seconds.

[AnotherITguy]

^{At the risk of calling ASTRA.XTREME for Flame baiting a religious argument... Astra does it annoy you because he believes in GOD? If so, he is entitled to believe in God.  Just how I find it annoying that you "get annoyed about someone who believes in God". The man almost lost his life, so get over yourself.}

[_neutrino Veteran]

i do not even like standing on the ladder to change the light bulbs at my house (12 ft ceilings)

[AnotherITguy]

_{Amen to that, it bugs the heck out of me too.}

[Hum]

Very cool stunt, but it was extremely annoying hearing him "praise" jesus every 5 seconds.

 

 

What would you be saying, knowing that you could die at any moment ... ? ;)

[neufuse Veteran]

Very cool stunt, but it was extremely annoying hearing him "praise" jesus every 5 seconds.

to us watching it was annoying, to him it was calming and a way to keep himself in the right state of mind

[Astra.Xtreme]

^{At the risk of calling ASTRA.XTREME for Flame baiting a religious argument... Astra does it annoy you because he believes in GOD? If so, he is entitled to believe in God.  Just how I find it annoying that you "get annoyed about someone who believes in God". The man almost lost his life, so get over yourself.}

 

Wow, over-exaggerate much?  Whether he said jesus, satan, or mashed potatoes, it doesn't matter.

The audience gained nothing from hearing his mic other than having to listen to him repeat the same phrases hundreds of times.

I said nothing negative towards the religious aspect for it, so it is you that needs to get over yourself for making that assumption...

[dead.cell]

I'm not religious, but after something like that, I'm pretty sure I'd be praising God, Jesus, Zeus, Krishna all the same... :ermm:

[Hum]

 

The audience gained nothing from hearing his mic other than having to listen to him repeat the same phrases hundreds of times.

 

 

^ The audience probably wanted to hear his blood curdling scream as he fell off the wire. :laugh:

 

And there is a Mute button on the remote, for a reason ...

[Astra.Xtreme]

^ The audience probably wanted to hear his blood curdling scream as he fell off the wire. :laugh:

 

And there is a Mute button on the remote, for a reason ...

 

One of the female commentators in the beginning sounded like she wanted to see him fall.

But yeah having the mic and also camera at the "impact zone" on the ground was a little fishy.  :rofl:

[neufuse Veteran]

One of the female commentators in the beginning sounded like she wanted to see him fall.

But yeah having the mic and also camera at the "impact zone" on the ground was a little fishy.  :rofl:

they where there for documentation reasons... this family always documents everything they do so they can watch it again and learn what was right, what was wrong, what to improve next time... not to get a close up of a body smashing