Slacklining - New Activity for East Lothian? March 12, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Outdoor Learning, Slacklining , trackback
I have been reading Dave Macleod’s climbing blog and came across this post on slacklining. Wasn’t sure what it was. Dave’s blog took me to another link and above is the video. Perhaps this could be used for a staff challenge? maybe not!
Not exiting enough? How about this one.
Comments»
Hi Bill! We set one up between two trees. How boring I know - no chasm of doom. But it’s quite addictive! It’s hard to say how one gets better at it, but suddenly you can go two steps without falling off where an hour ago you could only go one. It’s fun and naturally draws people in - what are you doing? Can I try? How far did you get? kind of a thing.
Try it - its fun!
We do it between trees too, if you look on youtube there is a bloke who does a line to line back flip. I have forgoten the name of the website but they have a trick scoring system for dismounts and stuff like that. its loads of fun.
This inspires me to give it a go. I can see some usefull applications on team building and confidence building activities.
I saw the post on Dave’s blog just before Christmas, I was about to spend a weekend in Sutherland and suggested to the guys I was going with that we had a shot over Corrieshellach gorge but nobody took me up on it! Not had chance to try it anywhere else yet so if it happens on any EL days I’d l’ve a shout.
@stevie are you the Stevie Boyle who went to Dunbar Grammar?
ahh. It seems this is more popular than I imagined. This is definitley inspiring me to try. I think the between two trees might be a safer option than the Corrieshellach gorge - the bridge is scary enough
We set up a low rope type activity with two wires between trees set in a criss cross with 4 ropes which could be used, shared or not used to assist the team crossing the wires. There are loads of different ways to use it and it worked really well as a team activity. There is a proper name for that element which I can’t remember but we just called it the X-factor. Some of those trees in the video section of Glen Nevis look a bit dodgy!
Ali, Yes have also worked at location with permenant wires set up using ski poles etc for balance. I just like the idea of working at height with cows-tail. It could be a progression i.e. 1 foot then 3 foot and then 20 foot above the ground etc.
When I used to build rope courses we used a crossed rope element I cant remember what we called it, I think it was cross-over or something. Bill if your going to start its really easy we just use a bit of static rope and some rope slings and Krabs oh and some padding for the trees. I use an Alpine clutch system to get it tight. Needle sport in Keswick sell kits online http://www.needlesports.com
Hello Stuart I am Stevie Boyle that went to Dunbar Grammar I’ve been back working in East Lothian since 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/sports/othersports/14climber.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=011b87847ced4637&ex=1206072000&emc=eta1
check out this, Baselining
Stevie, That is awesome!!! I am not so sure about the bare foot landing on the parachute jump! ouch.
Would like to know more about the alpine clutch system.