Big Boy

As I look outside at the 1,5m layer of snow, I know that the trip is over for me. My mind, still used to the 'desert life', struggles with the reality.
Sleeping inside after so much time seem extremely claustrophobic. The view of the stars exchanged by the cold ceiling. The howling of coyotes exchanged by the annoying noise of the alarm clock. Yeah, I'm home.
But I somehow don't want to be. Feeling like a drugaddict without a dope, I wanna highline again, climb again. So many projects are being constantly created in my head. Next trips, next highlines, next routes, continuing of living the slacklife, feeling truly alive again.



But let's start from the beggining.

2 days after the last post, Michał "Korny" Korniewicz got injured from bouldering. While topping out on one of the problems at Manx Boulders area, he dislocated his shoulder.
Fortunately for him, one of the climbers with medical experience was climbing nearby and he helped Korny to relocate the shoulder, but we all knew that the trip is over for him.
The visit at the doctor was like a court verdict. Quick rebooking of the flight, and Korny is back in Poland 3 weeks before the end of the trip.

What can we do?
Shit happens and life is brutal. We all wish Korny quick rehabilitation and we continue to climb :). We introduce ourselves to the american crack climbing, by climbing some of the local classics. Our hands got totally desctructed by the John Bachar's "PigPen" problem - a beautiful roof-to-overhanging hand crack.




Soon after New Year's Eve, many of our friends come to Joshua Tree, including the highlining world record holder - Jerry "Slackin-Jer" Miszewski. On the 2nd day of January, together with him, we go to Cave Corridor, to rig and try the famous "unsent" project - The Big Boy.


Faith- Big Boy

The Big Boy.


After rigging it turns out, that the line is extremely loose and only Jerry, the specialist of walking on loose lines, walks it. And he walks it in his 2nd try!
After short brake he also gets his FullMan. Jerry is the only person who sent this line during that rig.
Besides him, only Janek manages to get good tries. After two-day struggle, the line is derigged with no more sends.
For me, that time was the time of big demotivation. I don't know why, but I couldn't get myself motivated to walk more lines.


Daemon- Big Boy

Maybe it was because of exhaustion, maybe 2 months of constant highlining with only short rests is not to good for my mental and physical shape.
My mind was turning more to climbing. But who would have thought, that it will change very soon.

...


Po After Cave Corridor action, we went to rig the EBGBs highline.
Yes, one of the anchors is located on the top of the boulder with one of the best known climbing route in Joshua Tree - EBGBs (you can see Michael Reardon freesoloing that supertechnical route in Peter Mortimers film - Return 2 Sender). The estimated lenght of the line was 39m, but since the beggining it had looked strangely long.
The rigging was quite complicated and took a long time. For rigging, we used two pieces of Type-18 webbing (flat, nylon, superstrong webbing), which was donated for us by BALANCE COMMUNITY, Jerry's company. Thank You so much, Jer!
The main line was tensioned to 10% and the backup line to 5%. It turned out later, that the line was very loose and stretchy (nylon webbing stretches a lot in comparison to e.g. polyester webbing such as WhiteMagic, but for that reason it is super strong).


EGB-Janek.

On the first day, Janek sent the line one-way, not without problems. On the second day he completed also the fullman.
Jordan spent 3 days, fighting with the line. On the third day, in the 2nd try or so, he made his sent.
I wasn't very motivated for highlining at that time and I focused on climbing, but seeing Jordan's battle I suddenly felt the motivation again.
But that line was a kind of line that you have to get used to, and I hadn't had enough time to do it. It was a humbling experience.
Faith took some good tries, but eventually she didn't send it to. After the rigging, we measured the line and the verdict was - 50m.
So Jordan crashed his personal best, which made him very happy.

Finish next.


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