Nik Wallenda walks highwire across volcanic 'Mouth of Hell'
'It's life or death when I get on that wire'
With one carefully placed foot in front of the other, “King of the Highwire” Nik Wallenda walked 1,800 feet across the mouth of one of Nicaragua's most active volcanos Wednesday evening on nothing but a steel cable.
Scores of viewers watched as the seventh-generation scion of the "The Flying Wallendas" family of aerialists battled intense heat, wind, poisonous gasses and the threat of molten lava below to complete the trip, which lasted 31 minutes and 23 seconds and was chronicled on ABC's two-hour special "Volcano Live with Nik Wallenda." It was the 41-year-old's longest and highest stunt to date.
While "overwhelming at times," the death-defying stunt was one Wallenda had been eyeing for about six years, he told FOX Business Thursday.
"It took me staying calm and very focused and if I let my emotions take control, I would have been too scared to even finish the walk," Wallenda said Thursday.
"It was overwhelming at times," he added. "In my mind, it's life or death when I get on that wire."
NIK WALLENDA PLANS VOLCANO BALANCING ACT
Wallenda, whose most recent tightrope walk involved crossing Times Square on a 1,300-foot cable, said Masaya met all his criteria.
The volcano, nicknamed "the mouth of hell," has an active lava lake in its crater that reaches roughly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to The Daily Mail.
It is reportedly one of only eight volcanoes in the world with such a lake. While the last time Masaya erupted was in 2008, ash was expelled from its top as recently as October 2019, digital outlet Heavy reported.
Cameras were able to capture every detail of Wallenda's journey, from the crevasses on the highwire to close-ups of sweat dripping down his face. Smiling afterward, he blew kisses into the air as he prepared to be unharnessed.
"It was everything that I sort of expected, certainly prepared for, but the winds were, as we knew, they were unpredictable,” Wallenda said in an interview with ABC moments after his walk. “There was a time when I was taking a step and I felt like I got knocked back and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope I get my foot back around there in time.’”
As he stepped back onto land, he felt relieved, Wallenda said. So was his family, whom he described as "proud" of his accomplishment.
"In my mind, it's life or death when I get on that wire."
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To date, Wallenda's highwire stunts have netted him 11 entries in Guinness World Records, and he has held live performances in every state in America as well as around the world.
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Wallenda's ancestors traveled Austria-Hungary as long ago as the 1780s as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and later, trapeze artists. His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, brought the family to the U.S., where they performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circuses, in the 1920s. He died in 1978 while crossing a wire stretched more than 120 feet above the ground in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was 73 years old at the time.