Back on the Line

So it turns out that a 5 year old five dollar set of ratchet straps suspended tightly between two trees isn’t quite sturdy enough to support the weight of a 200+ pound man.  It is however sufficient to carry 50-60lb human males, even concurrently.  Tomorrow I’ll stop at Home Depot to pick up a rig rated for 10,000 lbs. That should just about do it.  And for $13.96 it will be worth a try.  If not I may have to save up for a slackline made for just that purpose but at $70+ for a starter set it will be a tough pill to swallow.

Urban Bouldering and Backyard Slack Lining

Tonight I got dominated by a climbing wall built on the framework of a backyard climbing structure.  The bottom section was simple enough but the challenge can in transferring to the upper overhanging section. It was an awesome challenge and it was only about 12 ft tall.

Then the slack line.  Basically a wide braided strap cinched tight 3 ft from the ground between a tree trunk and a fencepost.  The line looked and felt tight on approach but when I first put my foot on and applied half the pressure to step up my foot found the slack in the slack line.  My entire leg began to oscillate back and forth as I increased the pressure.  Throughout the night others kept attempting the line including all of the kids. By the end of the night 3 steps was a great accomplishment and an unaided mount was a victory indeed.