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Nik Wallenda is preparing for one of his most daring stunts yet, with ‘Volcano Live!‘ airing Wednesday. But one of his most iconic tightrope walks remains his Grand Canyon walk.
Watch Nik Wallenda’s Grand Canyon walk video, where he crossed a 1,400 foot span of Little Colorado Gorge 1,500 feet above the ground on a two-inch wire.
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Also see unedited video of Nik Wallenda’s Grand Canyon walk below.
Nik Wallenda’s Grand Canyon walk was exactly six years before his Time Square high-wire stunt. He crossed the gorge on June 23, 2013. Winds were about 30 miles per hour.
He starts the video with an optimistic, “See you soon.”
At the end of his walk, he said he has another high-wire dream: to cross between two skyscrapers in New York City. He’s planning to do just that Sunday with his sister, Lijana Wallenda Sunday, June 23, 2019 at 8 p.m. It airs live on ABC from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST.
Here’s what you need to know:
Nik Wallenda prays throughout his walk, saying “Praise You God. Praise You Jesus,” asking for a calm state of mind and for the wind to calm its buffeting of the wire.
“Whew, that’s a view there!” he says as he clears the edge of the canyon.
Nik Wallenda’s dad, Terry Toffer, speaks with him over an audio feed throughout the walk.
“How’s that reacting now, Nik?” Toffer asks, referring to the tightrope.
“I’m not liking it,” he answers.
He takes a break about 2 1/2 minutes in, crouching on the wire.
“How you feeling, Nik?” his dad later asks.
“Good!” he answers. “A lot of wind.”
“Yep, I know it’s out there,” his dad responds. “You’re doing the right thing, though. Just take your time.”
Later, Nik Wallenda seems slightly agitated with his father’s commentary.
“I don’t want to take to anyone, Dad,” he says.
“OK, I got you,” his dad answers.
Throughout the walk, he makes adjustments due to high winds.
“The winds are way worse than I expected,” Nik Wallenda says.
“You’re doing fine, though. You’re handling it fine,” his dad answers. “It’s nothing that you haven’t encountered before.”
“Just need to relax more,” Wallenda answers. “It’s kind of hard to relax when you’re 1,500 feet above a canyon.”
Halfway through the Grand Canyon walk, Nik Wallenda says “Definitely whipping that cable,” referring to the high wind.
As he nears the end, he crouches on the cable and blows a kiss to his family waiting for him on the edge of the canyon.
“Take your time, now,” Nik Wallenda’s dad says as he gets closer to the end.
“I am,” he answers, as he breaks into a near run.
When he reached the other side, he kissed the ground and then threw his arms around his wife. He wiped tears from his face.
“It was way more, way more windy,” he said during an interview at the end of the Grand Canyon Walk. “And the movement of the cable and the sidewalls as i was walking were getting in the way and confusing me, as the pendulums are swinging against them, so I try to react and when I reacted I kicked that rhythm into the cable. It took every bit of me to stay focused that entire time.”
He said the pendulum cables were swinging in opposite directions of the tight rope because of the wind. The canyon walls also added complexity, giving him nothing to visually focus on, he said.
He looked out across the canyon, wiping tears again from his face. The Grand Canyon walk was a lifelong dream for Nik Wallenda, he said.
“It was breathtaking. It was everything I ever wanted it to be,” he said.
Periodically, he said, he even got to enjoy the view.
“I did get to enjoy it about three times, and towards the end I got to enjoy it again,” he said.
Wallenda comes from a long line of tightrope walkers. He said he credits his ancestors with his ability to perform monumental high-wire stunts.
“My ancestors, the road that they paved for me to be able to do this stuff, seems weird to you that this is a dream of mine but I’m carrying on a legacy and this is in my blood,” he said.
After the Grand Canyon Walk, he said his goal for his next stunt was to cross between two New York City skyscrapers.
“My dream for my next stunt is to walk between two skyscrapers in New York City,” he said. “I can imagine the millions of fans that will be there watching, and that really is what holds me up are my fans.”
Watch unedited video:
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