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Nik Wallenda to walk high wire live over Grand Canyon

Nik Wallenda, known as "The King of the High Wire," will tightrope walk over the Grand Canyon live on TV.

2013-06-24_0230Nik Wallenda, known as “The King of the High Wire,” will tightrope walk over the Grand Canyon, Live today on Discovery Channel at 10am AEST.

Wallenda will walk untethered, with nothing beneath him but the Little Colorado River. The broadcast ends at 12:30pm AEST.

You can get a 360 degrees snapshot of what he faces here.

“We’re tremendously excited to be bringing some of televisions most talked about and historic events exclusively to Discovery Channel’s Australian audiences. From Lance Armstrong and Oprah Winfrey’s compelling interview, to this latest feat showcasing Nik Wallenda’s greatest and most dangerous challenge yet.” said Mandy Pattinson, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Discovery Networks Australia, New Zealand & Pacific Islands.

Nik will tightrope walk higher than he has ever attempted before, 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River, a height greater than the Empire State Building. Balancing across a distance of 1,500 feet on a wire only two-inches in diameter. In 2012, Wallenda became the first person to tightrope walk directly over Niagara Falls from the U.S. to Canada at a height of 200 feet.

“The stakes don’t get much higher than this,” said Nik Wallenda. “The only thing that stands between me and the bottom of the canyon is a two-inch thick wire. I’m looking forward to showing the audience a view of the canyon they’ve never seen before.”

Wallenda, 34, said that this latest event will be the fulfilment of a lifelong dream to walk at such a great height as well as a chance to honour his great-grandfather, the legendary Karl Wallenda, who died after falling from a tightrope in Puerto Rico in 1978.

2 Responses

  1. Yes this now explains the Mythbusters Duct Tape Canyon episode last week.

    Surely you’d have to be slightly bonkers to do this with no safety harness in place.One wrong move and it’s R.I.P

  2. MythBusters had something about this last week in the US, they didn’t have the actual walk of course as it’s not been done but now I know why. It was all a cross promotion for this week.

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