Tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon....

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

No net , no tether ....


A member of the so-called "Flying Wallenda Family" is at it again!

Nik Wallenda is expected to walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon.

Step by step, Nik Wallenda has walked on wires around the world and most recently across Niagara Falls.

So what's next? His biggest, most nerve-racking wire walk yet - the Grand Canyon.

We met in his hometown Sarasota, Florida, where the aerialist has been practicing twice a day for weeks on a replica of the wire he'll take on over the Grand Canyon.

"Why the Grand Canyon?" Reporter said.

"Why not the Grand Canyon? No one in the world's ever done it before and the Grand Canyon is just breathtaking in itself, just to walk up and look over the edge," Nik Wallenda, Tightrope Walker said.

Wallenda's first steps off the edge will put him 1,500 feet above the canyon floor, that's higher than the Empire State Building.

He'll walk for almost a quarter-mile, facing wind gusts up to 24 miles per hour, all without a safety harness.

"Wearing a tether, or having a net is a false sense of security. If you don't have it, you know you better train properly to make to make it all the way across. The only scary part about walking across Niagara Falls was wearing a tether because, in my mind, I'm thinking is this thing going to trip me, is it going to get caught?" Wallenda said.

"What is different about the Grand Canyon from Niagara Falls?" Reporter said.

"The height, and the winds. The winds are extremely unpredictable. But it's eight times higher than Niagara Falls," Wallenda said, "Yeah, the biggest challenge about doing live TV is waiting for the director to say go."

Wallenda's stunt is expected to air LIVE Sunday at 7 p.m. on Discovery.

[lacon]

I very vaguely remember "The Great Wallenda" doing something like this across a gorge in north Georgia sometime around 1970.  His father maybe?

[shortleg]

  My father told me about the family having terrible
accident where a few of them fell.
   He called them the Falling Wallendas.
           Shortleg[Dave]

[R J]

I'd say he will be paid well to do tis task.

I don't think I'd have the kahoons to do that now.

When I was a pissin punk kid I might have considered it, but that would of been it, NO DO.

[Fritz The Cat]

Tightrope Walker Falls to his Death "SLOW MOTION"

[wiggydotcom]

Unfortunately, in Fritz's video, that was the Great Karl Wallenda's demise.

[Serk]

If you cut the cord from cable TV like we did and wanna watch anyway:

http://skywire.discovery.com/live.html

(Or even if you've got cable still but want a choice of multiple cameras)

[bassman]

This was one of, if not the, worst accidents for the family...

http://www3.gendisasters.com/michigan/6346/detroit-mi-circus-performers-tragedy-jan-1962