(Credit: Andrew Muse Photography)
When she isn’t practicing or teaching yoga, Michelle Griffith ’14 spends her time dangling over some of the most scenic canyons in the West. In an adventure sport known as “highlining,” athletes perform slacklining high above the ground at a height far above which they could safely fall (most highliners wear a safety harness tethered to the rope).
“Mines instilled a tenacity in me that is still with me today,” says Griffith. “When I first discovered slacklining, I was able to approach it with the same attitude of perseverance and passion for improvement and success with which I achieved that little silver diploma.”
In this photo, Griffith balances over an area known as “The Fruitbowl,” a popular highlining spot near Canyonlands National Park west of Moab, Utah. “There’s a whole lot of engineering that goes into ensuring that the highline is safe, redundant, and that the force we exert on the system is significantly less than the Working Load Limit,” she says.
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