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.
