Mind the gap ... 4,000ft up Ben Nevis
IT is one of Ben Nevis’s most perilous cliffs, with a precipitous drop only the bravest of daredevils try to scale.
Yet a group of thrill-seekers braved the crossing between the walls of the treacherous Gardyloo Gully – near the peak of Britain’s highest mountain – by walking over a thin cable, breaking the record for the UK’s highest altitude ‘highline’.
The sport involves walking across a flat, inch-thick piece of cable, called webbing.
Breathtaking pictures captured the team of eight ‘highliners’ as they took turns to perform the daring feat.
The sublime mountain landscape makes the walkers seem mere specks, yet their giant achievement made history.
The images show the group balancing precariously as they negotiate the gully. Although the highliners are some of the most experienced in their sport, they wear safety harnesses to stop them falling.
The group, who completed the challenge in May, included Sheffield-born Sarah Rixham who has previously held the world record for the longest female highline.
Another dramatic image, published last week, shows Miss Rixham walking 230ft across a wire suspended over the Chancellor Gully on the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe.
She has said that highlining makes her feel ‘free and floating’ and, despite the apparent danger, she insists that she feels safe when walking on the cable – even when she falls off.
Setting the new highlining record on 4,413ft Ben Nevis with Miss Rixham were fellow highliners Tom Parker, Jack Chandler, Tania Monier, Rosanna French, Augustin Moinat, Thibaut Simon and Brodie Scott.
Their efforts were captured on camera by photographer Johny Cook.
The team broke their own record, set in May last year, when they crossed a line 3,202ft up Skye’s Sgurr Alasdair mountain – the island’s highest peak.