SARASOTA, Fla. — World-renowned daredevil, Nik Wallenda, is no stranger to big stunts.
He’s walked across a wire 25 stories above Times Square and between two buildings at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino. Now, he wants to take it a step further by getting ready to walk across an active volcano in Nicaragua.
“When I’m training I try to focus my mind on being over the top of the volcano and meditating on that,” Wallenda said. “This is the longest walk of my career yet. The highest at 1,800 feet, even the tallest skyscraper in New York would fit under that, not to mention it’s all over an active volcano.”
But as he prepares, problems arise--starting with poisonous gases.
“For the actual walk, I’ll be wearing a gas mask that filters out those gases if there’s enough oxygen. That’s another concern, if there’s not enough oxygen in the atmosphere I’ll also have an oxygen tank on my back,” Wallenda said.
The tank only lasts for about 40 minutes. The poisonous gases can also burn his eyes making him wear goggles that could fog up.
And, if that’s not enough, he got a call from his safety team with another issue.
“They said they’re concerned there’s some kind of chemical that’s making an unrecognizable chemical substance on the metal that is really slippery. So after hearing that I didn’t sleep at all. But then I went out to the wire and put Vaseline on it to see if I could walk over that and I could. That helped me sleep better last night,” Wallenda said.
The challenges are endless, but Wallenda said he stays focused by visualizing himself making it across in those severe conditions.
After all, he’s accomplished many daring feats successfully with his mantra “Never Give Up.”
As for why he’s doing it?
“It’s all about going bigger and harder and further and challenging myself to grow and overcome fears which is what my career is all about,” Wallenda said.
Wallenda is set to accomplish this daring feat on March 4, 2020. Then, two days after that he said he’ll have another exciting announcement.
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