Leash up the Dragon – Walking the highest highline in South Africa

Leash up the dragon is a locally produced outdoor adventure film that follows the story of highliner Tim Slab as he takes on the challenge to rig the highest highline in South Africa that also happens to be the first one in the Drakensberg (Dragon mountain).

What is highlining?

For those new here or those stumbling across slacklining for the first time, slacklining is the act of walking between two anchor points on a tensioned piece of 25mm or 50mm slackline webbing. There are a lot of different disciplines in the sport that range from walking, yoga lining to tricklining, you can find out more about those in this post. Once you take slacklining to heights that would cause death if you fell from them it is considered highlining. This is what many consider to be the pinnacle of the sport as it requires a lot of in-depth rigging knowledge, gear, time and dedication and mental fortitude.

What makes leash up the dragon special?

The current record for the longest line in South Africa is 340m and was accomplished in the Rocklands area of Cederberg, with the second longest one coming in at 320m rigged across Bokkemans Kloof in Hout Bay.

The challenge of the highest elevation highline has however not been pursued by anyone in South Africa until now, and with an elevation of 3200m, every other highline in the country pales in comparison. 

Highlines require immense technical knowhow and problem solving as these projects rarely go exactly according to plan. The team, gear and most importantly the weather all have to play their part. In the film “Leash up the Dragon” Tim explains how the weather refused to cooperate with them during their trip, the wind was howling the first few days and after that they were completely engulfed in clouds. The team decided to prolong their adventure by a few days and as it turns out, it was completely worth it. When the team woke up on the last day, the wind had died off and they were lucky enough to experience thermal inversion, a phenomena where the clouds lay at the base of a mountain or valley due to the pressure of colder air from above and you are able to look down on a sea of clouds.

This was the moment, this was Tim’s opportunity to take to the sky and get the send he has worked up to the previous days. He struggled at first but once he got across, he honed his skills and managed to get the send on the way back. They could now de-rig and head back down the treacherous Drakensberg mountain trail.