The big topic on Perfect Duluth Day’s Facebook page over the past two days is whether the above photo showing a slackliner at Palisade Head is legit or a carefully edited hoax.
City Pages reports it’s legit.
The jaw-dropping image was captured last Sunday by Brandon Olmscheid. After finishing a gig the previous day in Duluth, the St. Cloud-based photographer decided to venture up the North Shore in pursuit of sunrise shots. Instead, he happened upon a group of people slacklining — a tightrope-like activity that (mercifully) includes a safety tether.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw one of them start to walk across a line of rope over the steep cliffs,” Olmscheid says. “As I started taking photos I couldn’t stop because I was still so amazed.”
Mark McKee and Michael Nichols were the slackliners tip-toeing along 580 feet of line suspended about 300 feet above Superior that day. Together, they run Minnslack, a group/podcast for Midwest slackline enthusiasts. The regional popularity of slacklining is growing, McKee says.
11 thoughts on “Slacklining at Palisade Head”
I’ve been wrong before, but I doubt this is real. Palisade Head is slightly convex. Where would that line be leading to?
I’m not sure if I’m a believer or not, but above is different shot from the Minnslack Facebook page, and below is a Google Satellite image. The perspectives are different, so it’s kind of hard to tell if it’s possible or not.
This also shows that little point in the background. The angle of the slackline seems wrong.
The first photo made it look like the daredevil was walking out to sea, but after seeing the others I’m not so sure. We need a photo with both ends of the line, to compare with the shoreline.
Well, the photographer was willing to be interviewed on the radio about this, and there’s a YouTube video from four years ago showing a slackline installed up there. I only got invested in this because of all the interweb gaslighting going on, and I just want the truth to be the truth when I’m looking at pretty pictures of familiar places, goddamnit!
B.S.
If it’s a hoax, it’s getting more and more elaborate.
Only thing elaborate is the lack of video.
Sorry y’all its real. Live in the metro now but grew up climbing in the area and am still close with lots of locals. Got a few photos/videos of the guys out on the wire sent my way while friends were up there climbing. It’s loooong, but people have done much longer. I doubt anybody who actually has a line that long even cares to try and make a hoax video. In a world of clickbait fake/sensationalized news we’ve all grown a little more leery. Just some people havin’ some good ol’ innocent fun up on the head.
Don’t be sorry. Be real.
Kudos to the adventurers. It would be fun to watch those videos.