Looking down on the midway from 35 metres in the air with only a 19 millimetre wire beneath his feet, Nik Wallenda successfully completed his 549 metre high-wire walk across Stampede Park.
“There was definitely a lot of sun," said Wallenda following his feat. "I was looking down a lot and to the side because as I got the other end those stabilizers were starting to slip and my concern was if I stepped over, as the wire is going up hill, those stabilizers want to slide, gravity wants to pull them down."
"I was trying to get the guys to move up because if I stepped over and it slid down and caught my tether it potentially could have caught my wire and ripped me down onto my back. It’s obviously really hard to recover falling backwards.”
It is the first Stampede for the famous Wallendas, whose ancestors have been involved in aerial acts since the 1780s. Prior to his attempt, Wallenda confirmed the walk would be a Guiness World Record. "The Stampede reached out to Guinness and Guinness has confirmed that this will be a world record for the longest urban tightrope walk."
He and his family have also been performing daily shows in the Thrill Zone, on the high-wire, 18 metre tall sway poles and stacked chairs.
The record attempt at Stampede took roughly 30 minutes and concluded with a belt buckle presentation by Calgary Stampede brass.
Following his time at the Stampede, Wallenda plans to begin training for a walk over an active volcano.
