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  • (gentle electronic music)

  • - [Faith] When you highline often,

  • you really learn to train your fear like a muscle.

  • Sometimes the height isn't the scariest part.

  • Sometimes it's the exposure,

  • which is how much space you can perceive around you.

  • (gentle electronic music)

  • My name is Faith Dickey,

  • and I'm a professional slackliner.

  • (gentle instrumental music)

  • So slacklining is the umbrella term

  • for all the different facets of walking

  • on a flat, woven band.

  • One of these facets is highlining,

  • which is walking a slack line high off the ground.

  • One of the best ways to train for highlining

  • is setting up slack lines over water.

  • When the current is passing underneath you,

  • you automatically start to fall that same direction,

  • and it's almost like you're not in control of your body,

  • and that's great practice for highlining

  • because in highlining when you're dealing

  • with all the fear and adrenaline,

  • oftentimes it feels like you're not in control

  • of your own body either.

  • (water splashing)

  • (gentle electronic music)

  • Chamonix is a town in the Alps of France,

  • and it's one of the places

  • that really drives me in highlining.

  • What's different about highlining in the Alps

  • is that the whole experience is more intense.

  • Being that high off the ground,

  • you look at the valley below,

  • and the houses are just tiny specks.

  • They look like toys.

  • It's unbelievable.

  • One of the highlines that I walked recently in Chamonix

  • was on Aiguille du Midi,

  • and when we reached the top,

  • it was a totally clear, blue sky,

  • and we were surrounded by peaks,

  • but during the process of rigging,

  • the clouds started to roll in.

  • It was like an acid trip walking the line.

  • I was out there in space and exposure,

  • trying to balance,

  • and the line was swinging beneath me.

  • Meanwhile, these huge, white clouds were passing,

  • and the line would disappear.

  • The anchor would disappear,

  • and then it would reappear,

  • and there was no way to control it.

  • I just had to hang on.

  • - [Woman] Yes. (murmuring)

  • Oh man.

  • - [Faith] The beauty of the mountains is awesome,

  • and yet it is a landscape that demands focus and respect.

  • Alpine highlining is the purest form of the sport

  • I can think of.

  • (gentle electronic music)

(gentle electronic music)

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