YOSEMITE

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Highliners set record, pay tribute to riggers

Experienced rock climbers and slackliners rigged a new record-length highline for Yosemite National Park, more than twice as long as any previous known line rigged in the park, and two individuals successfully walked the entire length of the line without falling, becoming the only two to send the new line. Key events happened June 10, June 11, and June 12, 2021, between Taft Point, 3,500 feet above the floor of Yosemite Valley and a lesser-known location highliners call “Your Mom,” a feature previously rigged by highliner Ryan Jenks a few years ago. Daniel Monterrubio, 23, born in Laredo, Texas, and currently a resident of Richmond in the Bay Area, was the first to try to walk the new line on June 10. His brother Moises Monterrubio, 26, born in Hidalgo, Mexico, and also a current resident of Richmond, was the first to walk the new line without falling on June 11. A friend of the Monterrubio brothers, Eugen Cepoi, 37, of France, also walked the new line without falling on June 11. “It was pretty unbelievable, pretty special,” to be the first person walking the new line, in part because it took more than five days to safely rig it, Daniel Monterrubio said. “I knew the rest of the team was on the other side and the line was safe. I knew all the work we had put

into it. “Once I was walking on it I could look down at places where we had struggled with the rope in the gullies. It was a huge sense of accomplishment. It was windy. The line would go to one side and the wind would lift me and the line. I have experience highlining in the wind, so if anything, it was more epic.” Daniel Monterrubio was walking toward Taft Point on June 10 and fell five times, protected each time by his harness and safety gear attached to the new line. All of Daniel Monterrubio’s friends were there when he made it to the other side, in addition to a lot of tourists who had walked up to Taft Point, with many of them cheering. He walked the new line for the first time in 38 minutes and eventually did it from end-to-one with only one fall on June 11. The rigging team, comprised of at least 17 people, deserves the most credit, Daniel Monterrubio said. The Monterrubios and