By Jeff Pfeiffer
“I am pushing myself beyond my comfort zone,” admits high-wire walker Nik Wallenda about his latest incredible attempt, “but I know that I am up to the challenge.”
If what Wallenda considers to be within his “comfort zone” are previous feats like wire-walking across Niagara Falls in 2012 or strolling 25 stories above New York City’s Times Square last year, one might wonder just what challenge could actually give him some pause.
In this case, the daredevil is referring to an attempt at his highest and longest high-wire walk ever — a 1,800-foot-long crossing over the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. Wallenda is the first person to try this, and his effort will be chronicled on March 4 in the two-hour ABC live event Volcano Live! With Nik Wallenda. Throughout the special, Wallenda and his family will also be featured in interviews about the planning and execution of the walk.
The extreme environment of an active volcano will add new risks to what would already be quite dangerous just with the walk itself. Masaya is part of the famed Pacific Ring of Fire, encompasses multiple craters and is one of only a few volcanoes to possess a lava lake. The lava lake returned to activity in 2015, and its most recent activity was just last year.
Volcanologists and other experts will be on-site to offer Wallenda advice, and that should give him a little comfort, even if it understandably does not put him completely at ease.
“After spending years scouting and researching volcanoes,” Wallenda says, “I fully realize why no one has ever attempted this feat: Mother Nature is extremely unpredictable. It is by far the most dangerous walk I have ever attempted, and that alone makes it very intimidating.”