10 Most Extreme Tight Rope Daredevils

Dean Potter's solo walk at Taft Point in Yosemite by Photographer Jeff Cunningham.

Crossing a 100ft drop without any safety equipment would make most normal people more than a little anxious. But you might say tight-rope walker Andy Lewis takes the high-risk dardevil stunt all in his stride.

Not satisfied that his high-wire act – a 45ft crossing of a 100ft deep ravine over an area called the Flat Sands in California – was risky enough, at one point he even strikes a pose on the line balancing on his ankles. 


Daredevil Olivier Roustan performs the highest ever tight rope walk in Europe and crosses the 250ft high rope over the River Usk in Newport, South Wales. 

An extreme tightrope failed his attempt to walk along a one-inch thick ribbon suspended 500ft above Cheddar Gorge when he lost his footing. Jon Ritson, a leading sportsman in the field of slacklining was saved by his harness and spent three hours trying to finish the 95ft walk. He set off along the 95ft long slackline but lost his balance and tumbled through the air. After three hours of further attempts, he reached "a physical block" and decided to call it a day.


Yes, that's a bear driving a motorcycle on a tight rope with a guy hitching a ride beneath him. (Yangshuo Bear Zoo). 





Frenchman Philippe Petit stunned the world in 1974 when he strung a cable across New York City's twin towers and walked across. 


In October 2010, World-famous tight rope walker Mustafa Danger failed in his World Guinness Record attempt at crossing a steel cable hanging from the Great Bali Hotel to the Monte Tossal overlooking Benidorm's Poniente beach. The motorcycle tightrope attempt failed only a few meters short of the hotel after he had travelled more than one kilometer in distance and at a height of 186 meters. Mustafa and his assistant were eventually pulled to safety.


One slip and he would plummet 10,000ft to the ground below. Yet Freddy Nock took his most hair-raising stunt nonchalantly in his stride. These stunning images show 45-year-old Freddy Nock completing his latest feat - walking more than 5,200 feet down a mountain cable car wire - without a safety net or a harness in the Swiss mountains. Using only a balancing stick, he walked down the wire of a cable car line on Mount Corvatsch - which is 9,908 feet above sea level.

A priest performed a dangerous tight-rope stunt with no safety equipment 80ft above ground after a last minute hitch in plans for his charity fundraiser. Father Jerome Lloyd was supposed to be carried along the rope on the back of a circus performer in scenes reminiscent of Frenchman Charles Blondin in 1859. Blondin made it across a high-wire suspended 160ft above the Niagara Falls with his manager on his back.

Unfortunately, Father Lloyd's stunt had to be adapted at the last minute after professional tight-rope walker Chico Marinhos was unable to lift the 12.5st priest. Father Lloyd, 43, a missionary priest from the National Catholic Apostolic Church, carried out the stunt wearing his traditional soutane and saturno.