First Slackline Crossing of the Lost Arrow Spire

I owe a special debt of gratitude to my Dad, Ken Balcom for this footage. Back in 1985 home video cameras had just come out and very few people had one. These cameras were huge, they used a VHS tape and the tape was dwarfed by the size of the camera. The batteries were also very large and very heavy. My Dad had told me that if I could commit to a date to do the Spire that he would rent a camera and drive up from So. Cal. to shoot the event. Im not sure he knew how hard of a hike it would be up the Yosemite falls trail carrying that giant camera, batteries and enough stuff to spend the night, but he did it. This footage would not exist without his efforts and for that I am forever grateful. Thanks Dad!

On July 13, 1985 Scott Balcom became the first person to walk a slackline between the Lost Arrow Spire and the rim of Yosemite Valley. This was a pivotal moment to what has grown to become the slackline movement of today. This is a short video of that event set to the poem Beauty is fearless by Pook.

About the poem

Pook was in the US air force during the Vietnam War. One day while he was getting off an airplane in Vietnam there was a huge explosion. The concussion of the blast knocked him against the railing of the stairs leading from the plane, bruising his hip and arm. Later that day, he walked past the crater left by the blast. All the bushes at the craters edge were mangled by the explosion. The next day he walked past the crater again, and over night one of the mangled bushes at the edge of the crater had bloomed a single white flower. Pook crawled into the crater on steep loose terrain to get a good look at this blossom. Pook, stared with amazement. How could this shredded bush produce a flower? It was then that he thought, Beauty is fearless.
All Rights Reserved, 2009

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• slackline
• highline
• slackdaddy
• poetry
• extreme
• sports
• rumi
• surfing
• skiing
• skating
• skateboarding
• snowboarding
• tightrope
• yosemite
• music
• really-high

[SlackDaddytools]

You can now find this poem at the SlackDaddyTools web site.

[DarylJayBem]

Big up from Czech Republic!!! Making my first steps 2ft above the groud, this is real ispiration! Thanks, keep on!

[CuSlackline]

No HD!?

[peacin]

@abcjohnlock1993 What are you talking about? Nothing about this video is Mormon. LOL

[Ns64Th09]

Bravooo :)))))

[DirectedBySteve]

this is wonderful

[peacin]

@gottfix Write to me at emilegarcia@ymail.com. I'll get you the words.

[peacin]

@dothecoosa Hi, This is my dads Poem. I'm sure I can get you the words. write me at emilegarcia@ymail.com

[genericmember1234]

@SlackDaddytools where I couldn't find it ?!?!!?

[genericmember1234]

WOW that is an amazing video !! seriously, amazing slack plus beautiful poem....thank you so much for posting :)

[abcjohnlock1993]

im tired of videos of mormons!!!! no offence to all you mormons. but your little vids are all over youtube. in fact. i too an christian. but im not mormon and im SICK OFF IT!!!!