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Benham Harper

@explore_learn_slack

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Find your canvas, choose your medium, then make a mark.
A rambling man on unceeded land.

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There isn't anywhere else I'd rather be for spring and summer.

#squamish #adventure #highline #ski #rave

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Squamish Arts Festival featuring the almighty @djneonsteve 🎶🎶🤗
A hike up the chief, tenting at Maamquam, Pearls and breaky at Sunflower. All in one night. Impressive if I say so myself eh @mariellegentile 💜

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...Continued from previous post.

Saturday was nearly a writeoff. Rain, dense fog, and wind kept us pent up in our tent all day long. Despite being exceptionally prepared with rigging gear, we were severely underprepared with entertainment. Morale fell as the hours ticked past - this was supposed to be our day to session the highline before derigging the next day. At 19:00, a break in the clouds prompted a mad dash to the summit of Dionne. We arrived to receding clouds, golden hour, and a frightening amount of wind. After some psyching up, Christian had the balls to be the first one on, and, after some screaming, claimed it wasn’t actually that bad. The breeze was consistent and was holding the line steady; the tension was right; the atmosphere was incredible. We all sessioned as the sun fell and the light changed, battling nerves, emotions, and freezing toes. As night fell we scrambled back down to camp in the light of our headlamps, elated.

Our last day felt like a bonus. An early start meant we could all have another session. Benham, then Cael, then I sent the line. Derig was flawless and done in half an hour, and James and I downclimbed Tantalus one last time. We packed up and began our trip back, once again loaded with heavy bags. Firm snow made for quick travel back to the hut, where the beers we had stashed awaited us while we spread out our gear to dry on the helipad.

I'm still reflecting on this trip, but something I'm so grateful for is having such competent friends to go do these adventures with. Our team was great - outside of the weather, this rig could not have gone better - but it could have just as easily have been a number of other dear friends that could've made this happen. We assembled not by picking and choosing people, but simply because these were the people immediately beside me at a barbecue when I was looking to make plans. Love you all, you know who you are.

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A few weeks ago @jamesacampbell96 @caeltruco @christiancellinger @explore_learn_slack and I rigged a 240m highline between Tantalus and Dionne peaks. We called it “The Gift”. A gift of the fruits of our labour and planning. A gift of conditions. A marriage gift for myself, and a gift for James who is expecting a child. The name reflects how appreciative we are to be able to be present for these vivid experiences in the mountains, and all the things happening lately to be thankful of in our little community. We all felt that this line was one of the all time best experiences in our highline careers, and probably the most rad alpine highline in southwest BC.

We flew into the range after work on the 16th, directly into a rare Squamish lighting storm. Loaded with nearly 300lbs of gear, we set off up the Dionne glacier. The ridge spread the storm to either side of us, and soon we were climbing the last stretch of ridge onto Dionne’s SE shoulder. We made camp and settled in just before the storm arrived in earnest. Earplugs and an “emotional support lightning rod” - a hiking pole standing watch on the rocky mound above our camp - helped ease the nerves as the lag between flash and thunder dwindled to nothing.

We woke on Friday to the peaks peering out of dense, wind blown clouds. After bolting an anchor on Dionne, James and I left the rest of the team and climbed Tantalus, blindly positioning the anchor. In equal fashion, Cael flew the drone into the clouds; despite only occasionally glimpsing the far side, we soon had the line rigged and could hear Benham singing his way across the line for the first time. James and I opted to downclimb back to camp with eyes on climbing the Witches Tooth, a skinny spire between the two peaks, on the way. This side quest turned into a mini epic of a previously unclimbed line, with James running out of gear and placing a bolt 40’ runout before the final pitch. All the while glimpsing our friends through the fog sessioning the highline above our heads, trading encouragement. We made it back to camp and up Dionne in time to each have a session, mentally fried from being in no fall terrain the entire day.

Continued in next post.

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a days recap captured by mostly the go pro that I haven’t used in ages - very grateful for the ventures that involve meeting up w good friends in parking lots, hiking, rigging, time spent at the anchor, time spent on a line, and feeling all the feelings that come with it 🫂

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| 𝗛𝗢𝗪 ? |
People are always ask what is 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘺 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘧𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨- and better yet what is even Speedflying?! Like, how did this happen? When I describe my accident from a couple of years ago, you can imagine it’s a funny game of charades 🐥
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Also, I realized I never really posted my flying content back in the day when I was flying a lot, so I’m gonna change that
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𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗮, 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁! 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 😌
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This flight happened right after I sent(walked clean) the second longest highline in Canada- a 1.1km highline and I literally run up Mt. Habrich chasing the sunset. Such a rad day! To my knowledge, it was the first-ever speed flight off of Mt. Habrich… maybe still to this day?🤔
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So much love to all those incredible homies who were on this project, and to the Squamish crew in general. Love y’all🤘
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@jer.rl @bjorn.jivung @endlessropeaccess @a_small_cary @asasurfswebb @taylor_stg @that_girl_with_the_sunflower @audrey_noemie @jirkageorga @explore_learn_slack @charlierj91 @lanochod @caeltruco @beadesy @jordvnpoole @emile.lacroix8
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#speedflying #highlining #letsrunitback

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The red carpet (and pink smoke) was definitely rolled out for this Maharaja's grand entrance 👑

Gave @jojotrampo the brief to make the #baarat feel like a big party and make @jakermeister24 feel like a king. She said ‘say less', and then.. 'quick siiiiiiip'

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It’s out now! I’ve talked about it a bunch but I have finally uploaded my short film ‘A Line To Nowhere’ on (you)tube. Obviously can’t fit the whole thing on reels so I have posted the first minute of the film here as a teaser, hopefully people go check out the rest (tho I may post the rest on reels in parts). This was a super fun project to get to be a part of and I’m so grateful for the friends that I have to do this stuff with. If you enjoy my other slackline videos then it’s probably worth checking out! Big thank you to everyone involved, but especially @rock.guy.shaun because we definitely wouldn’t have done it without him. #outdooradventures #extremesports #slackline #8mm #ropeswing

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Heard this alternate version of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Pride’ by Anna Wise and instantly thought of this footage I had been sitting for many months. The airy vibe of the song for whatever reason reminded me of the way the clouds surrounded us on this day. A little different of an edit than normal but wanted to try something new and play around with some tools in my editing software. Vertical videos returning soon 🫡 #outdooradventures #extremesports #slackline #cinematic #kendricklamar

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Moments like this feel a lot more rare these days. Finding something new and scary in the familiar, with the right amount of uncertainty to make the end goal that much more special. We hiked up in the morning with way too much gear, but not knowing what the anchors would be like made it necessary. The suffering of the steep approach and precarious scramble with 50+lbs packs was rewarded with the most satisfying sense of accomplishment I hadn't felt in a very long time. Let's make these moments less rare.

#highline #slacklining #slacklife #squamish #sonyalpha

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Squamish has been an outright blast this summer. I’m Sorry if I haven’t been replying, we’ve just been busy. #squamishbase #basejump #slacklife

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Naked Fainting Goat - 105m, all natural anchors, full man first ascent by Benham Harper @explore_learn_slack
Rigged by @mat_bolduc @slackmau @explore_learn_slack @geralds.moves

1. Sunset first ascent with Benham
2. Insane luck with the auroras, Benham shoulder stands in the darkness
3, 4, 5. @mat_bolduc magical sunrise session
6. Benham going for round 3
7, 8. @slackmau walking amongst the giants of Habrich, Copilot and Skypilot

That was a magical 36 hour sufferfest. Thank you boys for that. More to come.

#slacklife #highline #slacklining #alpine #auroraborealis #sunsets

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