But that shouldn’t make Wallenda’s feat any less impressive: Not only is he walking across the skyline 600 feet above Chicago streets (the highest he’s ever attempted), he’s doing the second part of the tightrope walk blindfolded — from the west tower to the east tower of Marina City, a commercial/residential complex. And the first part of walk has an uphill slope of 15 degrees — something that gave him new challenges in training that he didn’t encounter when crossing Niagara Falls (2012) or the Grand Canyon (2013) on a wire.

Discovery will air the feat live in 220 countries with hosts Willie Geist, Natalie Morales and the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore. Dozens of cameras will be set up around the city and on helicopters to capture the action. But there won’t be any drones: Chicago banned them for the event so Wallenda won’t be distracted (even though he says he’s been training with one nearby, just in case).
Wallenda is a seventh-generation member of the famous Flying Wallendas family, the acrobats who have been doing circus shows and high-wire acts for more than a century. Nik’s great-grandfather, Karl, famously fell to his death while trying to cross between two buildings in Puerto Rico in 1978. Nik and his mother completed the walk in 2011 as a tribute to Karl.

“It doesn’t haunt me but it’s definitely something I think about,” he says. “And everything I do is to pay tribute to him. I wouldn’t be as safe on a wire if it wasn’t for him losing his life.
“We’ve learned so much from that accident about being prepared properly.”
Nik now holds seven world records, including one for the longest walk over a waterfall when he crossed Niagara, and one for the highest bicycle tightrope in 2008.

To train for this walk across the wire, which is about the width of a nickel, Wallenda re-created the length of the walk at his practice facility in Sarasota, Fla., though he was close to the ground, not 600 feet in the air. A wind machine blew 60 mph gusts at him during training.
“People always say wire walkers don’t look down. The truth is I do look down,” he says. “That wire is the safe haven for me. Often it can become peaceful, comfortable and enjoyable.”