Slackliner to perform daredevil stunts at “togETHer 2014”

“I particularly like slacklining between two mountain peaks or across gorges,” says Samuel Volery, an ETH Zurich graduate and Swiss champion on the “slackline” since November 2013, “But most of all I always like to try out different places. I need as much variety as possible.”

But what exactly is slacklining? It is a sport in which – similar to traditional tightrope walking – people balance on a rope stretched between two anchor points. Unlike the kind of tightrope walking you might expect to see at a circus, however, the 2.5 to 5 centimetre wide rope used by slackliners is made of polyester instead of steel. Also, as the name “slackline” suggests, it is not stretched completely taut.

A few weeks ago, Samuel Volery broke the Swiss record in highlining – slacklining at particularly lofty heights: he made his way along a 90 metre rope, in both directions, up on the Moléson mountain in the canton of Fribourg, at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres above sea level.

Freestyle show on the Hönggerberg campus

The 29-year-old from Uster will be performing at ETH Zurich’s “togETHer 2014” staff party on the Hönggerberg campus on 22 August. His plan is to stretch a rope from the roofs of the HPI building, where the Coop is, to the five-pronged HCI building. The difference in the roof heights means that the rope will slope. Samuel will then walk, balance and perform shoulder stands on the slackline – and maybe even “surf” on it depending on how it feels to him. “Each highline is completely different. I decide what I’m going to do on it on the spur of the moment,” he says, “Slacklining is a freestyle activity.”

Samuel discovered this sport eight years ago through climbing: “One day there was a rope hanging like this in the climbing centre, so I tried it out.” He admits, however, that his first attempts did not go well. “I was annoyed that I had no control over my body, so I tried it again and again.”

ETH spin-off offers courses

Samuel has now obtained a Master’s degree in Human Movement Sciences from ETH Zurich and has set up an ETH spin-off enterprise, external page“Slacktivity”call_made, in partnership with his former fellow student Tobias Rodenkirch. As well as developing their own slackline kits for indoor and outdoor use, the pair offer courses through the Academic Sports Association Zurich (ASVZ) and lessons for teachers, therapists and schoolchildren.

“You can always make progress, no matter how old or talented you are. Slacklining mainly trains the muscles around your joints, your sense of balance and your concentration,” says Samuel. “Slacktivity” courses have already been carried out at several hundred schools in Switzerland. At first, however, Samuel found that the children on his courses often had trouble concentrating, even for just a minute: “City kids, especially, tend to give up more quickly if they don’t manage it at the first go. The children from rural areas have more patience.”

Going from peak to peak in the Alpstein mountains

Slacklining can be done almost anywhere: from tree to tree, from peak to peak or from rooftop to rooftop. Samuel Volery cites “highlining in the Alpstein mountains in eastern Switzerland two years ago” as his most spectacular feat to date. He and his team stretched a 54 metre long rope between two peaks, which they had to climb up to first to fix the slackline in place (see video). The next day, after spending the night on a farm a couple of hours’ hike away, they finally went for it. “That setting was unique,” Samuel recalls, “I felt extremely exposed there.”