The Maiden Highline - 1st ever Flatirons Highline

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Overview
A  dream came to life this summer. We organized the first successful rig of the Maiden Highline in the Flatirons outside of Boulder, CO. This amazing tower highline has been on our list for the past few years.  With inspiration from good friends Carl Marvin and Taylor Van Allen, we committed to an early morning IN/OUT mission. This had to be a one day project because we cant leave a fixed line overnight in the flatirons.  Coming in at about 100 meters long we rigged the mainline on Slacklife BC's Skypilot webbing with Balance Community's Aero 1 webbing as the backup.


 Planning Stage
My buddy Carl Marvin is a para glider, climber, trail runner, aerospace engineer and certified BADASS. Carl had climbed the Maiden many times before presenting the project idea to me a few years ago. At the time, these lengths of highlines were very long! For a couple years, the conversation kept arising but it was hard to find a time that worked with the Raptor Closures. 

  Taylor Van Allen also had his eyes on the Maiden. Taylor, Evan, Brian, Tyler and Hayley even attempted the project in 2016 but came to find out that one of the formations was closed due to Raptor Nesting.  Taylor and I have done many projects together in the past but somehow we both stumbled on to the topic of the Maiden Highline.  Taylor was nice enough to entertain the idea of combining crews and go for the rig!

The final team was a mix of Boulder/Golden/Fort Collins slackers -
Carl Marvin
Taylor Van Allen
Doug Main
Kaleb Collins
Hayley Purdom
Justin Smestad
Tyler Reynolds
Evan Andrew

"How many friends do you have that you can literally say I trust you with my life?"
Highlining is a team effort. Knowledge of technical rigging, strong communication and the ability to make decisions is what makes a great highline team. ​ This was the dream team!

"The RIG"
​The Rig went "all natural." This means that no permanent hardware was installed in order to rig the line. We were able to sling the rock using a large amount of static rope, amsteel and spansets.  From our knowledge this was the first line to be established in the flatirons. Since then a few other lines have gone up from the local slackers in the front range. 

We started the morning at Evan Andrew's house around 2 am. Arrived at the parking lot about 3 am and then we were off!  We arrived to the maiden before sunrise and witnessed the magic of the clouds engulf the tower!  The sunrise was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.  The rig was flawless and the line was up shortly after sunrise!


As a team we decided to name the line "Maiden Colorado"

Whats Next -
Maybe we can organize the First to the Third Flatiron soon! But regardless, the Maiden has a special place in my heart!

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