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HIGHWIRE
August 19, 2010
November 14, 2011
EARLY
Through the hole in the chain-link fence, in the heavily
wooded "empty lot", there were two large Norway Maples that
had grown next to each other. In their search for sunlight,
they declined combat with each other, leaving a zone between
them without branches. They were like two hemispherical
half-trees, with trunks a dozen feet apart.
In the interior, I would stand on a horizontal branch thirty
feet up, looking across the gap to a nearly parallel twin
branch on the other side, trying to decide if I could jump
across and grab it.
I looked at this for hours.
The odds were pretty good I could do it, but it was near
the limit of things I had done, and I wanted to convince
myself that I could make it without just going for it.
On the ground, standing next to the tree, I tried to mimic
the physical action I would need to do in order to make it
across, but this didn't work very well. It was clear I
couldn't do a standing broad jump from one tree to the
other, but leaping and grabbing a branch is a completely
different move. I was unwiling to dive forward and land
on my face, just to see if I could tag the other tree
before I hit.
There was another, similar pair of roughly
parallel branches much lower down, and I
remember wondering if I could use that lower
leap to prepare for the upper one, but the
lower leap was a little too low: If you're
diving forward, arms outstretched and you
miss your hold, you could end up doing a
face plant from ten feet in the air. There
was nothing else I could expect to grab on
the way down to save myself. TIGHTROPE
From the higher set of branches, on
the other hand, I would have this
lower branch as a backup...
Some moves get eaisier
if you're higher up,
even though the risk is
greater, too.
This empty lot had a stretch of
broken up asphalt that was strewn
with long lengths of some sort of
electrical cable. I believe it
was low-voltage power-cable, with
a heavy black rubber layer of
insulation around it.
I tied a length of this
cable between the two
trees at the height of
the high branches, and
then tried to work out some sort
of crude safety harness...
I envisioned being able to do
the jump with a safety line
that would slide across this
cable freely, and save me
if I screwed it up.
Improvising some sort of safety
harness using this electrical
cable proved too difficult for Oh, for a carabiner.
me... I tried to tie one length But we lower-middle class
of cable around the other with kids often had to do
a loose loop, but it was very without such things.
stiff and hard to work with, and
the rubber insulation was too But this privation
sticky to get it to slide freely. was no doubt good
for my soul, or something.
I then tried to tie another cable
going between the trees at the level At least I learned
of the lower set of branches. what things you
can't make out of
I think I had the idea I might electrical cable.
use the lower one to test my safety
harness idea.
Or perhaps I could learn to jump
with one hand outstretched forward,
and one sliding along the cable?
That felt too awkward.
To get this kind of move to work you
really do need to have the confidence
to throw youself into it without
hesitation. My attempts at working
out safety features were just getting My philosophy of
in the way. safety features,
in retrospect,
was strikingly
But this is not a story similar to the
about overcoming hesitation ones rock climbers
and pulling off a heroic, typically use.
albeit pointless, move.
This is like "free
I eventually gave up on climbing"-- using
developing this trick, equipment just for
and moved on to other things. protection while
trying to simulate
I removed the lower climbing without
Turning the dial cable, and just tied it-- except
from valor toward it to the middle of that technical rock
discretion was the upper cable, climbers don't put
probably the right making a rope swing much emphasis on
thing to do in between the trees. dynamic moves.
this case-- for This got a fair
me, this was a amount of use by the
virtue of *not* local kids.
using a "buddy
system". If there
had been someone
watching me, I
would feel self-
conscious about
them watching me,
and I might just
go for it.
That's the kind of (Apr 7, 2020)
thing that could Looking over these stories
get me in trouble. I see I've declined to discuss
my worst screw-up, an occasion
when I broke my jaw trying to
do something like run down a
cliff. A funny omission, eh?
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