Every September, several hundred slackliners gather on Monte Piana in the Italian Dolomites for the International Highline Meeting, the largest event of its kind in the world. Its signature image is the one in these photographs: a row of brightly coloured hammocks slung from webbing high above a rocky gap, with people relaxing in them as casually as if they were in a garden.
The International Highline Meeting at Monte Piana
Monte Piana rises above Misurina in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The meeting runs for five days each September, and the lines are rigged at around 2,300 m. These pictures circulated in September 2014, when NBC News and other outlets published shots of “extreme athletes resting in hammocks on webbing stretched between rocks” from the meeting held around 8 September.
The International Slackline Association describes the meeting as the largest highline gathering in the world, famous above all for people sleeping in hammocks suspended in the sky.
A mountain with a First World War history
Monte Piana is not just a scenic summit. During the First World War it was the scene of a border conflict, and about 18,000 soldiers died fighting there. The highline meeting is held partly as a memorial to them.
That history shaped one of the event’s most photographed moments. On 10 September 2015, 26 people arranged themselves in 17 hammocks to form a rainbow above the gap as a symbol of peace. The same day, British highliner Jediah Doohan, then 23, walked a 209 m polyester line on his first attempt, setting a world record. He called it “Live for Love”, a nod to the wartime border conflict between the two peaks it spanned.
How highline hammocks are rigged
Highlining is slacklining at height: walking a flat strip of webbing, usually about an inch wide, anchored across a gap. The Monte Piana lines cross gaps with hundreds of metres of exposure below.
The hammock set-ups are built by athletes together with professional riggers. For the 2015 rainbow, the main line had a breaking strength of more than 150 kN, about 15,000 kg, with a separate backup line; the people in the hammocks put a peak load of around 32 kN on the system.
Trying highlining yourself
Highliners start on a slackline close to the ground and build up to height over time. The International Slackline Association is the sport’s international body. Learn rigging in person from experienced riggers: the anchors and backup lines are what make the relaxed hammock photos possible.
For a different way people occupy an exposed mountain setting, visit the Luca Vuerich bivouac. For another carefully arranged summit scene, compare Mammut’s Jungfrau portrait.
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