VIDEO: Daredevil breaks world records with blind tightrope walk between Chicago skyscrapers on live TV

Nik Wallenda has broken records with two death-defying wire walks between Chicago skyscrapers, one of which was performed bliindfolded.

15:44 03 November 2014

Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda has broken records after completing two death-defying high-wire walks between Chicago skyscrapers.

 

The daredevil completed one walk at an incline and then another with a blindfold on a cable suspended more than 500ft over the Chicago River. He had neither net nor a harness all throughout. The stunts were broadcasted live on the Discovery Channel. 

 

The first stunt was completed in less than seven minutes while the second stunt finished in just one minute and 17 seconds. He completed the stunts with gusts of wind of around 24mph and with temperature as low as 40 degrees. 

 

He now holds two Guinness world records – the highest inclined tightrope walk and the highest blindfolded walk. 

 

Speaking a week ago from his home in Sarasota, Florida, he said: 'It is key to my success to have that support. If I didn’t have my mom and dad’s support and my wife’s support I wouldn’t be able to make that walk.

 

'If they came up to me moments before I was getting on that cable, even though 220-plus countries around the world are watching live, and said, "You know what? I don’t want you doing it," I wouldn’t do it. It’s that simple.

 

'I did an event about five years ago where I went on top of a Ferris wheel, they turned it on and I walked. I rehearsed once and it was moving everywhere. I got down to the ground and my wife had bitten every one of her nails off. And she’s usually pretty confident in what I do.

 

While Wallenda is a seventh-generation tightrope walker, the family has been marred with tragedy: his great-grandfather, Karl, fell from a wire and died in 1978 while performing live on TV.