CHICAGO
Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore told the gathered media horde Friday afternoon the projected wind chill at 600 feet for Discovery Channel’s “Skyscraper Live With Nik Wallenda” would likely be below freezing during the high-wire show early Sunday evening. Not to mention sustained winds of 15-20 mph,
Nik Wallenda discusses preparations for his Sunday wirewalk in Chicago. (Staff photo / Thomas Bender)
But with winds moaning against the top floor of the Dana Hotel’s press-conference platform, the Sarasota native was as unflappable as he was during more relaxed training sessions last week at Benderson Park.
“What am I afraid of?” He repeated a question before maybe 100 reporters. “My wife. She hates it when I say that.”
Why doesn’t he use a safety net? “It costs a lot of money to put up a net,” he joked, “There’s a lot of work involved.”
Won’t you get distracted? “I’ve been stung by a bee (on the wire),” he said. Birds have landed on his balancing pole before. He’s had pine cones and footballs thrown at him during training. His own family tries to shake him off the cable at home.
For Wallenda, with the Niagara Falls and Grand Canyon mega-events in his back pocket, the expressed disbelief from a gallery of strangers was worn and familiar, but no easier to explain to those outside the circus community. But he volleyed easily, spoke of his confidence, and assured the press corps he wasn’t crazy, that he wouldn’t be walking in the kind of weather that swept Chicago on Halloween. Rain or snow? No problem. Sustained winds of 50 mph? Reschedule for Monday.
“Look at that,” he said afterwards, as draperies of snow, sleet, and stinging rain swirled in intermittent sideways gusts against the skyscraper plexiglass. “That’s awesome!”
Cantore said Chicago had gotten socked by “a pretty good blow” Friday, recording 67 mph gusts and a Lake Michigan “overwash” that flooded a roadway along the shoreline.
Wallenda projected his 454-foot, 15-degree incline wirewalk across the Chicago River from the “corncob” Marina City West tower might take as long as 15 minutes, although he regularly logged 8-minute finishes during Sarasota rehearsals. The second leg — a 94-foot blindfolded trek from Marina City West to its East Tower, 588 feet up — will go from two to three minutes.
Wallenda said he will not wear gloves but will layer up heavily.