When we speak of highlining in its original and more popular form, we speak about walking lines mounted at heights greater than 20 meters, taking into account the “sag” and the lowest point of the line and not the height of the anchor.

In this kind of highlining the athlete is attached by the harness to the main line, which ensures that he is supported in the event of a fall. Here the goal is to walk as far as possible on the line.

Lines with heights ranging from 10 to 20 meters are categorized as midlines . In some cases, when they are mounted on water and the sag is considerable they can be categorized as waterlines for record purposes.

In this recent way of exploring the highline, athletes perform tricks, combined or not. They bounce on the highline and then perform a series of moves, taking advantage of momentum. The combinations can be endless and include “handstands”, “mounts”, underline rotations among other crazy stunts.

What defines Highline Freesolo is that highliner is not equipped with harness or lifeline. In this regard the risk of death is always present and the slightest mistake can be fatal. It is not a practice that, impressive as it may be, should be encouraged or celebrated. Fatalities have already happened and certainly were not the last.

Highline rigging is a complex task that should always be performed or accompanied by experienced riggers. The basic principles we refer to are just that and do not constitute any kind of manual or guide. Far from that.

even so, in the highline rigging, the fundamental safety principles are equipment and verification redundancy:

• The highline equipment must checked before setup
• There should always be double anchor and a lifeline.
• Assembly verification should always be performed by an experienced second person.
• The setup should be checked regularly beacause of the leash falls, as well as the highline equipment.

Important: Highline rigging is super complex. If you want to start practicing, look for the community closest to you, join experienced highliners and riggers from which you can consistently learn enough to build your own highlines.

In the meantime you can follow the videos of the channel “How Not To Highline” to get some notions.