On July 31, 1948, hundreds gathered on the banks of South Boulder Creek to watch Ivy Baldwin walk a tightrope across Eldorado Canyon, a 635-foot span the veteran high-wire artist had traversed more than 80 times. Adding to the celebration: it was Baldwin’s 82nd birthday.
On Saturday, 25-year-old Taylor VanAllen of Morrison, a professional slackliner, will recreate the historic crossing, with his much less taut span of webbing dangling 500 feet off the ground.
Back in the early 1900s, wire walkers were daredevils, a sort of circus act that drew thousands of spectators entranced by the fall-and-die bravado of the careful steppers. Today, slackliners are bona fide athletes harnessed for safety and employing extraordinary balance on thin straps that sag much more than the tensioned wires of yesteryear.
VanAllen’s crossing marks the intersection of the modern sport with the historic high-wire shows.
“Slackliners have been dreaming of opportunities like this,” said VanAllen, who has trained on a slackline he set up across Clear Creek Canyon above Tunnel 6 and most recently a line across the Royal Gorge. “There are events like this all over the world, in France and Germany, but never really in America. This will be one of the biggest highlining performances since slacklining began in America. It’s huge for our sport.”
VanAllen’s traverse — which could take as long as an hour — will help raise money for trails in Eldorado Canyon State Park. Organizers expect more than 1,000 spectators, whose $12 tickets will help support trail building and maintenance work by the Action Committee for Eldorado.
The volunteer committee reached out to VanAllen and his sponsor Slackline Industries about recreating Baldwin’s defining stunt. Baldwin’s anchors still remain in the cliff walls and his wire remained stretched across the canyon into the 1970s.
“Everyone always thought, ‘Man it would be cool to put that old line back up’,” said Matt Reeser, a member of the committee that has identified the need for trail projects demanding expertise beyond the capabilities of volunteers. There’s a hope this event becomes an annual fundraiser for the park.
“We wanted to do something that gives back to the community,” said Reeser, who has enlisted outdoor companies for gear giveaways and corralled food trucks to feed the crowd.
VanAllen, who spent a couple years working with youth crews building trails around Colorado, isn’t nervous about the traverse from The Bastille, a 350-foot high cliff, to Wind Tower across the canyon. He has slacklined for years and he highlines — which is slacklining at height — every weekend. But he rarely “performs” above 1,000 spectators. He’s not used to big crowds. “That’s an added twist for sure,” he said.
He’s used to the height, though.
“That’s part of what got me into slacklining, learning to enjoy that exposure. You welcome the exposure and fear, but you are able to control it and set is aside because you have a task to do inside that exposure.”
The Saturday, Oct. 15 event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Eldorado Canyon State Park. Visitors are urged to park at the intersection of Colorado Highways 93 and 170 and use the free shuttle into the park. For tickets or more information, visit www.aceeldo.org.
