U
or More Urban Slackline Terrorist action...
full gallery: U line Gallery
On the 18th of October, 2010 Jordan Tybon and I went to realize our next urban highline project. We saw this line quite a long time ago while searching for the highline spots in my city; we spotted this one at the same time we found and completed the “V” Highline. 
It is a U-shaped amphitheatre on the top of the small hill in the center of the city. In the middle underneath there is a big fountain and a lot of lamps around on the top so you could set up the line in the night. The first time we attempted to set up this line, all the lights were off and we couldn't set it up because it was too dark. Later we found out that we had to wait for the weekend, when all the people are out in the city, for the lights also to be on...
Just before setting up the new line in Wroclaw, we came back from intense session in Krakow where we made a new movie with Wojtek. The film will be released soon and includes trickline footage as well as establishing a new line in the Bolchowicka Valley near Krakow. (you can check some sick screenshots from the movie HERE). During this time, we had only 50 PLN to buy food for three people for one week, so our main dish was potatoes in many different forms. We came back from Krakow drained and exhausted but we still had one more thing left to do. 
Being tired didn’t disrupt our plans. Jordan and I got into ninja-highline mode, packed our gear in our Ortlieb bags and went out for some secret rigging action in the rain. At the place we found out the half of the lamps is on, and there was only a few people. We had perfect conditions and started to set up our rig. After we built our anchors, got the line across and clipped it to the pulley system, a police van pulled up behind us to monitor and question a group of people standing close to our line. Of course we thought someone called them and told about strange two guys stretching the line in the center of the city.
Surprisingly police officers were just on regular patrol so they started checking ID’s of the people drinking beer on the bench close to us. We tried to look natural and pretend that nothing special was happening. So we casually unclipped our line and threw it down, sat down on the railing and waited while I pretended to be on the phone. One of the police officers saw our line below, walked right over it, and then all of them went away. Jordan and I thought that we were really lucky, but when we started rigging the line again a police officer showed up on the top going in our direction. Of course we waited for him. Soon the guy started asking questions:
Police officer: “What you guys are doing?”
Janek: “Ummm, we are practicing some alpinistic stuff?”
Police officer: (confused, he pauses for a moment) “Alpinistic stuff, huh?
well, just don't break anything."
Janek: “Of course, thank you!”
Police officer: “Have a good night”
To be honest, we were completely shocked about police officer’s reaction and happy to finish the line; he didn't seem to care at all. After 10 minutes the line was up and I got first ascent OS & FM. I walked few more times in the swami while Jordan was taking pictures from many different angles. After that we switched. Jordan on-sighted the line in a swami and walked it multiple time and I tried to do my best with the camera.
We took down the line down after about an hour, after we were done having fun with it. It was amazing, here we were, walking in the air in the heart of the city, but no one seemed to notice or care. The line was 31 meters long and about 10m high. We rigged it with just one piece of 1” threaded tubular webbing and padded it really nicely on the edges.
We were entirely thrilled and got a lot of positive energy. We came back to my place sharing the good news with Faith. Unfortunately she didn’t feel like highlining that day because she'd just gotten her wisdom teeth removed, but the action was very successful and we hope you enjoy.
text by jan galek
photos by jordan tybon