Nik Wallenda defies death with successful tightrope walk over ‘Grand Canyon’

Nik Wallenda proved again Sunday that he is indeed the King of the High Wire, becoming the first person to walk a tightrope over the “Grand Canyon” in what was billed as a life or death stunt.

Indeed it was a death-defying act, crossing a 1,500-foot-deep canyon on a two-inch steel rope, but it was a bit misleading, considering it wasn’t exactly the Grand Canyon.

The place where Wallenda made his 1,400-foot-long tightrope walk was actually over Little Colorado Gorge in the Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park, land of the Navajo Nation, located near Cameron, Arizona, according Forbes magazine.

A tweet from Grand Canyon National Park on Sunday also made it clear the stunt was not in the park itself.

“The event would not have been approved in Grand Canyon National Park,” Maureen Oltrogge, the park’s public affairs officer, told Forbes.

But Navajo Nation gave Wallenda and Discovery Channel permission to use a gorge on its land.

The stunt was no-less dramatic, however.

Unlike his historic crossing of Niagara Falls last year when he wore a safety harness for the first time in his life, Wallenda returned to his modus operandi and did the breath-taking walk without a safety harness or safety net.

A misstep would have meant plunging to the bottom of the gorge and Little Colorado River below, a drop measuring more than the height of the Empire State Building.

A global audience watched live on Discovery Channel or Discovery.com as Wallenda successfully performed his highest tightrope walk ever, a 22-minute, 54-second endeavor that was every bit as intense and entertaining as expected.

“I did it,” he said on Discovery Channel, tears running down his face just moments after getting off the wire.

Asked how he was feeling, he replied, “Emotional.” Then he asked for some water.

“It was way more windy [than expected], and the movement of the cable, the sidewalls, as I was walking, were getting in the way and we’re confusing me as the pendulums were swinging against them. So I tried to react and when I react, I take the rhythm into the cable. It took every bit of me to stay focused that entire time. My arms are aching like you’d never believe.”

Before he began his walk, Wallenda gathered with family and evangelist Joel Osteen for a prayer before he was delivered by helicopter to the other side of the gorge for the start.

Temperatures were 86 degrees with southwest winds of 6-13 mph with one wind gust measuring 48 mph.

Almost as soon as he began, Wallenda, a devout Christian, began praying.

“How I love you, Jesus…You’re my Savior, yes Jesus…God, you’re so good. Thank you for this opportunity. Calm these winds in the name of Jesus.”

Twice during the walk, Wallenda kneeled down, providing some tense moments as his balancing poll swayed in the wind. What he was doing was trying to take the inconsistent bounce out of the wire and get the cable back into a smooth rhythm, as he spoke about in his interview.

Near the end of his walk, Wallenda ran to the end of the wire, relieved. No doubt those watching live exhaled, themselves.

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