Eagle County’s Davis Hermes took his slacklining to a whole new level – 2,300 meters to be exact – but he reached that elevation between two unusual anchor points – hot air balloons.
Hermes, who started slacklining after seeing a demonstration at the 2012 GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, has been traveling the world for competitions and to explore new places to slackline. He is the current title holder for the World Championships held in Laax, Switzerland last summer and dazzled viewers by slacklining between Fisher Towers, a pair of iconic rock formations made of sandstone near Moab, Utah in the fall of 2022.
As if slacklining between the Fisher Towers, with about 800 feet of direct exposure below, wasn’t enough Hermes has once again achieved a feat almost unimaginable to the rest of us. As crazy as it seems to slackline between two hot air balloons, Hermes said this is not a new idea. Hermes’ friend and fellow slackline competitor, Rafa Bridi of Brazil, did it first along with a few other slackliners.
“I wish I could take credit for that idea, maybe I’ll come up with something in the future,” Hermes said. “But, I saw that and I knew that I wanted to try it. I knew the resources and the proper person to reach out to in order to make something like that happen. Not that it’s easy, but since it’s been done before it’s not like there’s the question of ‘is this even possible?’”
Hermes went straight to Bridi to accomplish this goal. He traveled to Praia Grande, Brazil and the wheels were set in motion. Hot air balloons typically lift off during ideal weather conditions early in the day, so they set off before sunrise on Aug. 4. The rigging of the slackline was done between the two balloons before they left the ground. They were also flying with regular patrons going on a hot air balloon ride, who had no idea what they were about to witness and that this would set a world record for highest slackline between two hot air balloons, increasing the elevation from 2,000 meters to 2,300 meters above the ground.
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