“The slackline has suffered a little from the leisure image of a hippie showing up in the park with harem pants and bolas. » Highliner for 10 years, Antoine Mesnage does not need to convince us that his passion is a real extreme sport. Arves-en-ciel, which he shot in July 2020, and which the Banff Mountain Film Festival is currently scheduling in France, shows how the 2.5cm-wide elastic webbing can lead to high-altitude feats. Appeared in the 1980s in the United States, where it gradually satisfied climbers addicted to spot from Yosemite (California), the slackline (or “loose line”) was imported into France from 2005 thanks to Damien Mercier, who created Slack.fr.
“Everyone then laughed at him and told him that his thing wouldn’t work,” recalls Antoine Moineville, one of the founders of the Flying Frenchies in the Alps. This collective of mountain sports dingos will drive the emergence of highlining in France, namely the practice of slacklining at height, all secured by a harness. “We were facing a huge unknown,” he explains. We had to demystify things because we didn’t know if our line was really going to hold. »
Highliners perceived as “the tightrope walkers of modern times”
In 2010, the Flying Frenchies tackled their first huge challenge on the Dent du Géant (at 4,014 m in the Mont-Blanc massif) in fours… in the heart of winter, which was “a little stupid”, as he confesses today the highliner. On the program a bivouac at -20°C at almost 4,000 m altitude and a high mountain crossing that has become cult, before a multitude of other lines opened by the collective in the Mont-Blanc sector. The Flying Frenchies do not hesitate to mix extreme sports in their projects, base jumping in mind. Followed by sponsors and filmed by Sébastien Montaz in impressive productions (little red bus, I believe I can fly…), they are the major influence of many highline enthusiasts, starting with the team ofArves-en-ciel.
12 years after the first stunts of the Flying Frenchies, between mountain and circus, how do these “modern-day tightrope walkers”, estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 in France, manage to surpass themselves? Breaking the record for the longest line is obviously a universal issue relayed by the Guinness Book. Around 60m 10 years ago, it has been fixed since last July at 2.3 km, the work of four German athletes in Sweden.
“We are installing a line to sublimate the mountain”
More than distance, other highliners will focus more on “incongruous places” for their adventures. “We install a line to sublimate the mountain, slips Antoine Mesnage. We like to feel like pioneers when we open a route like the one between the Aiguilles d’Arves. The 27-year-old photographer and videographer from Annecy gives pride of place to the artistic and aesthetic dimension of the discipline.
Arves-en-ciel, it’s a dream shared by Antoine Cretinon and Camille Le Guellaut, that of covering the 480 m joining two needles of Arves, between Savoie and Hautes-Alpes, located at the same altitude (3,514 m). This incredible line, which mobilized 12 people for its colossal installation, proves to what extent each major highline project, at the frontiers of mountaineering, must be collective.
Drone and fishing line prove valuable
Because the athletes face quite a puzzle, with anchor points to be determined, such as stones and trees. The team ofArves-en-ciel, who had to put together a file upstream to obtain an air permit from the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), also opted for “the most comfortable option” in order to gradually roll out his entire line: send a drone carrying a fishing line to the finish needle. Quality kamoulox.
Long before arriving on this 480m crossing at a very variable pace, from 25 minutes for Antoine Cretinon to 55 minutes for the third friend Théo Sanson, all of them had done their ranges on a slackline between two trees, most often barefoot. Once the necessary technical knowledge has been mastered in these conditions, enthusiasts ofoutdoorslike our triplet Antoine, do not hang around before considering the highline, and even the skyline therefore, when it comes to confronting the high mountains.
“We must learn to unplug the brain”
To hear them, mastering the sit start is the real sesame for large spaces. Welcome then to the management of a fear that is a priori incomparable with other extreme disciplines. “It’s something that is not at all human,” says Antoine Mesnage. We must learn to unplug the brain, to put ourselves in our bubble. I had to accept that I was capable of setting up a line, that I was sure it would hold well, to tame this fear. But she’s still there, and fortunately, because she saves you from doing stupid things. »
Everything is lined in highline, from the straps to the safety ropes. This did not prevent Antoine Cretinon (26 years old), yet accustomed to climbing and freestyle/freeride skiing, to come out “marked” from his first time near Lake Bourget (Savoie).
I faced a limit. I could only take two steps, it was too much for me. But the nights that followed, I thought a lot about this crossing and it was stronger than me, I had to go back. For a while, it was automatic: as soon as I put my feet back on the ground, I wanted to get back on the line. But all this was so disturbing that at first I only took pleasure after the fact. Then we understand that we are in a parallel world. »
“When I feel that I am stressed, I can throw myself on purpose”
This “self-taught” sport, which has no federation, requires “total physical and mental relaxation”. An engineer in Grenoble when he is on dry land, Antoine Cretinon trains, for example, by practicing meditation. Inescapable, the fear depends in part on the relation to the fall that the athletes have. “It can be good to fall to free yourself from a weight, he explains. As it’s easy to get back on the line very quickly, when I feel that I’m stressed, I can throw myself on purpose. A friend even starts sitting on the line, before systematically swinging in the void, then attacking his crossing. »
An astonishing ritual, while some sometimes dare to launch themselves on a high line without a harness, in free solo. “Obviously, the slightest error can be fatal there, whether at 10m or 1,000m, but it’s not madness because we know how to catch up on the line if we fall, recalls Antoine Mesnage. We are not cheats on death, moreover 99% of highline projects are done while hanging. The few highline-related deaths in the world mainly concern falls during the installation of the line, or anchor points having broken.
Nathan Paulin blew up the highline in France in the media
“You risk much more serious injuries by attempting tricks on a line one meter from the ground [trickline] only in the event of a fall into the void in the skyline, which we always catch up with, ”assures Antoine Mesnage.
Nathan Paulin, who is the GOAT of the highline in France, especially since his record for the longest crossing in an urban environment in 2017, with the 670 m separating the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, has obviously contributed to the media boom of the discipline for 10 years. But the infinite sporting and artistic perspectives that the highline seems to allow also make its popularity.
“Playing music on a line is a magical feeling”
“It’s so varied that I can’t imagine getting tired one day, savors the Savoyard Tania Monier (24 years old). There, I practice a lot of freestyle, which explodes with competitions, and I also sometimes play the transverse flute on the line. I concentrate much more on the music than on my balance, and I completely forget that I am above the void. It’s a magical feeling. » The Houle Douce company, created in 2016 in Marseille, with Louise Lenobleeven offers air shows all over the world mixing music live and highline.
Now a high mountain guide, Antoine Moineville (37) has taken a step back with the highline. He keeps a touching view of this discipline which he helped to launch in France: “The highline-haute montage marriage is magnificent. This tightrope walker passing between two mountains in an ephemeral way, it always fascinates me”. Enough to make these countless exploits of highlighters as immortal as Highlander, right?