A Walk in the Skye – By Air, Land & Sea
Our athlete Alex Schulz has just walked a slackline between the isle of Skye and the highest of the unique sea stacks “MacLeods Maidens”. Climbing and rigging the highline on this stunning island was surely a very special experience, but still only half the adventure, as we spent the last three weeks on a sailboat to get here all the way up from south England riding through still waters as well as storms! Read Alex experiences of this journey in his blog post below:
Press material (article & media files) available in our press section.
A Walk in the Skye – By Air, land and sea
The backstory
It all started about two months ago, when our friend Dave Dykes from Sails and Trails - hungry for adventure - proposed a sailing trip to the Outer Hebrides which are located in north-west Scotland. Johannes and me were immediately hooked. We know Dave since our trip to the Maunsell Forts and besides there we had enjoyed the support of his “adventure taxi” at two other projects (Most notably the Highline at The Old Man of Hoy. So in Mid of May we jumped aboard in Ramsgate, a victorian harbour town in the south-east corner of England. Before getting the sails up for such a long journey, however, Daves’ vessel "Bonnie Girl" had to get out of the water for a refreshed painting for better speed and some repairs. On the way down from London he had got hit by something heavy on the Thames that had shifted the rotor & motor by a few inches and water was all over the bilge (=bottom part of a boat). Nothing to ignore for sure! So after a few days in Ramsgate (including hiking the White Cliffs of Dover) we were back in the water, just about to leave, when the sinking alarm went off – WHAT THE HECK?? Luckily the reason was found asap: Dave & me hadn’t closed one of those „seacooks“ properly, so water came streaming in… now at least the girl was definetly clean!
On the way up north
Planning well in advance is very important for sailing. Considering the weather forecast, we decided to go anti-clockwise around Britain, as we wanted to avoid motoring against the wind and a bumby ride against the waves and being stuck at the south coast of England for a few days. Regardless, we we got right into a Gal storm on our first day. The max reading on our instruments was 37 knots or 70 km/h wind and 1.5 meter high waves hitting us from the side. According to Captain Dave, the 36 foot long vessel could only get thrown over by waves that are higher than 2 meters and brake on you… Regardless, this was still a very scary ride for us newbies. Moreover, the strong movements made me so seasick that I couldn’t eat anything until the next day, despite having taken special anti-sickness sailing pills. At 2 am we finally anchored to a concrete mooring ball. Due to tidal changes, we got woken by the boat hitting the swimming chunck of concrete 3.5 hours later. So off we went with an early start, continuing our journey up north.
We learned a lot during the next days: From tying special sailing knots over navigation knowledge to handling the sails in changing wind conditions. So once captain Dave had taught us enough to handle it alone, we could start with the sailing routine: Sailing through the night, each one had to take a four hours long shift, while the others could meanwhile rest. It’s very cosy to sleep in a boat at sea, the swinging is a bit like a craddle or hammok.
My first night shift on my own started with the full moon rising. I really enjoyed the peaceful feeling of gliding through moonlit water with the wind pushing us along. In general, I experienced the sea has a calming effect and it detached me from the busy & high-speed life on land. Sailing is a rather slow way of travelling. This mode of transportation enabled us to appreciate the things we saw along the way much more than when you’re just rushing past:
Sea stacks with thousands of birds on and around them. Dolphins joining us, shooting up in the air or riding stomach up along while voicing their clicking noises. Slow sunsets & sun rises – the higher north we got, the longer the daylight lasted. At our northmostern point there was still light until midnight and the sun came up again barely three hours later.
On our way north, we stopped in Edinburgh for a day. Johannes and me managed a quick cultural sprint through the city centre; we found the castle with its’ park lovely and the general atmosphere of Scotlands capital quite relaxing. Also, the Scottish people were all incredible friendly and chill. We also picked up Daves friend Matt there. Besides being a nice travel companion, he gladly borrowed us his climbing rope and trad gear for the highline project. Unfortunately, he could join us only until Inverness.
Through the heart of Scotland
Inverness defines the east end of the Caledonian Canal. This channel was built 199 years ago by many hands and cuts right through the Scottish Highlands. Half of it actually consists of natural lakes, one of them is the famous Loch Ness. We didn’t see “Nessie” but we did enjoy travelling through the beautiful landscape of the scottish heartlands to the fullest. Short before the west end of the Canal, we saw Mount Ben Nevis, which - with an elevation of 1345m - is the highest mountain of the United Kingdom.
Luckily, the highest elevation of the canal is just 50m above sea level. Nevertheless, you need to pass through 29 of so called “locks” along the way. Those are chambers with lockable walls – the currents in there get pretty strong when the lock keeper opens the gates. It was Johannes and my job to hold the girl nice & steady and not let her hit the wall or other boats. Luckily, we succeeded every time and after passing Neptuns Staircase (8 locks in a row, descending back to sea level) we arrived in one piece at Fort William which marks the end of the Caladonian Canal.
The last pitch of our journey north towards Skye took two more days during which we saw loads of scotish castles and dolphins came playing with us & the boat.
Adventure at the MacLeods Maidens
After preparing all the slackline gear on the 15th night of our journey, we finally got a first glimpse of the moonlit Maidens in the dark. I had loved the forms of them from the very beginning. But what an impressive, unreal sight this was!
The rocky shore which was exposed to the winds & waves made it impossible to anchor closeby, so we had to seek shelter a few more miles further north-east for the rest of the night.
Late morning, after we had checked that there are no birds nesting where we wanted to go, Dave droped Johannes, me & two backpacks full of slackline gear off into his dinghy a few hundreds yards from the Maidens. Luckily, he also entrusted us with his electric motor. After a sketchy landing on the foot of the biggest of the three sea stacks, we quickly found the most logical line and started climbing. The first two pitches were easy enough without a rope, altough it was a bit of a challenge & quite the adventure to scramble up with a 20kg backpack through very loose rock… I was definetly glad to arrive at the belay point below the last pitch, where I could finally tie myself in. Johannes lead the 20m climb to the top, using Mats trad gear & rope (thanks again!). Once we both stood 65m above the sea on this pointy needle, we were stoked as hell to get this line up! So next, we fixed some static ropes, went down again and picked the setup up from the shore where we had stored it. Climbing with a 250m slackline, a 40m rope, a 10m spanset and some metal wasn’t really feasible, so I had to fully rely on the ropes while jummering. Of course they held. We didn’t exactly trust the very top part, so went 5 meters down and wrapped a 40m long dyneema kern-mantle rope two times around the peak – meanwhile it had gotten late and the wind had picked up a lot, so I hurried down to not make our adventure taxi wait for us. We indeed managed a perfectly timed meetup on sea. After getting on board and tying the little boat behind „big mother Bonnie“, we had quite bouncy conditions on the way to our anchorage due to wind & waves from the side. While Dave made sure we didn’t overturn, we quickly backed up the little bit of footage we had shot that day on our sturdy LaCie SSDs. We arrived well after midnight.
So on the next day, we needed another sleep-in and after a 2.5 hours long ride Dave dropped Johannes and me off 4.3 miles away from the spot around noon. With two backpacks (one full of cameras, the other filled with slackline gear) we enjoyed a beautiful hike through the wild scottish countryside along the coast. The anchorage of the highline on the shore side was straightforward. We found two big enough boulders to wrap with spansets. Unfortunately, the wind was just way too strong to setup the line that day. But we did come back the next afternoon with Daves support in the rain (of course it stopped the moment we had put up Daves ultralight tent) and finished rigging up the highline. That involved me abseiling 80m with a 70m long rope (just working out with the stretch) and ascending the tallest Maiden, after connecting the reep cord with the 70m rope. From the top, I fed out the nylon webbing of our sponsor Balance Community and Johannes pulled it in. After tensioning I crossed over with a lineglider during sunset. I was too tired & hungry to walk that day. After a good sleep in the rather small tent it was finally line time!
As soon as I was sitting out there, I remembered why I love to highline sea stacks: You are incredible exposed and distracted, maybe even a bit lost, when you look towards a thin rock structure and have the restless sea below you and as far as you can see in front of you. This creates a sensation that makes me feel very alive and even a bit scared at first. At least until the first full crossing and first leashfall. Although the fear fades away, I continue to experience the presence of the sea, I walk into the endless void on the way out and hear and see the waves pounding ashore on the way back, while sea birds flying past me. Looking along the countless layers of steep shoreline into the sunset while standing in an exposure turn feels indescrible beautiful.
All those moments of joy and inner peace are so fullfilling. It’s worth all the effort of rigging, travelling three weeks in a sailboat, including sea sickness, waiting and sleep-deprival. It was also worth the 80 meter long jummer as part of derigging and the super exhausting hike with >50 kg heavy backpacks through the night that felt endless.
At this point, I want to mention the braveness of Dave and Katie Tunn. According to the motto „Do one thing every day day that scares you“ they also went out on the line, fighting their instincts telling them not to. Katie is living on Skye since a few years and besides doing many other things, she is an artist, adventurer and marine conservationist. I experienced her as a super kind, helpful & inspirational human being. Do make sure to visit her website and check out her Instagram!
The end
Dave and Katie agreed to drop us a bit south at Mallaig railway station. It was a beautiful last ride. While watching the last sunset on sea I thought for the dozenth time that sailing is a similar feeling of freedom as highlining.
All in all, we had travelled more than 800 nautical miles by sea which is nearly 1500 kilometers.
We all definetly experienced a time warp, it all felt so much longer! Deceleration was maybe not only because of the slow mode of transportation but also because of hundreds of magical moments in nature. I am also glad about the fact that despite the occasional use of the small diesel engine, our sailing trip up to the Hebrides had quite a low carbon footprint, maybe even more CO2 efficient than our train ride back to London - on which we realized that we can definetly avoid flying next time because the train connection from Munich to London is not only affordable, but also it only takes 10 hours and requires just 1 change.
Dave continued onwards to the Outer Hebrides which are at least as wild than the Inner Hebrides and for sure even more remote. Read his impressions on the blog section of his company website Sails & Trails, including how he had to free the rotor by diving 5 times into the cold and dark water below his boat.
Facts to “A Walk in the Skye”:
Location: MacLeods Maides, Skye, Scotland
Date: June 07th, 2021
Length: 90 meters
Height: 80 meters
Rigging: Wrapping the peak of the tallest Maiden / Slinging boulders on the shore side
Special remarks: Loose rock, 1st highline at the MacLeods Maidens, 3rd established highline on Skye (One of the previous ones was established on the famous Black Cuillin Ridge by a group of UK slackliners)
Selection of Media Coverage
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19359531.walk-skye-extreme-athlete-alexander-schulz-completes-amazing-stunt/
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19359540.walk-skye-extreme-athlete-alexander-schulz-completes-amazing-stunt/
https://adventureuncovered.com/stories/a-walk-in-the-skye-by-air-land-sea/
