ABC viewers got to watch Nik Wallenda perform a death-defying stunt on Wednesday, as he crossed the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua for the special Volcano Live! with Nik Wallenda. While viewers took to social media to share their amazement over Wallenda’s impressive stunt, others noted that they were confused as to why the aerialist was wearing a safety harness for it.
“Why are watching a man walk over a volcano… WITH A HARNESS? I feel cheated,” one Twitter user wrote.
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“Call me when Nick Wallenda does the volcano walk without the safety harness,” another user expressed.
#VolcanoLive they might as well have done this in his backyard 10 feet up. With a harness on, who cares? Where exactly is the danger they hyped? pic.twitter.com/Yzbvdw4gPv
— BobTheBadgerGuy (@BobTheBadgerGuy) March 5, 2020
“A safety harness? SERIOUSLY? I’m sorry but that’s NOT a daredevil. Time to turn the channel. SAD,” yet another user shared.
Even though some took issue with Wallenda wearing a harness for a supposedly death-defying stunt, other viewers put his feat in perspective.
“I don’t care if Nik Wallenda has a harness and a strap walking across one of the world’s most volatile volcanos, the wind and the toxic gasses are a huge problem!” one viewer noted. “If it were easy and not unthinkably dangerous then everyone would do it!”
“Everyone talking about ‘he’s wearing a safety harness’ like there isn’t an ACTIVE VOLCANO beneath him. I wanna see y’all haters do it,” another Twitter user wrote.
It’s obvious why Wallenda utilized a safety harness for the terrifying-looking stunt. But, if it were up to him, he wouldn’t have worn one. In an interview with the Sarasota-Herald Tribune, Wallenda explained that ABC tasked him with wearing the harness for the stunt.
“That’s for ABC. It is what it is,” he explained. “It’ll be the same as Times Square.”
Wallenda had to take some other safety precautions as well because of the gases that are emitted from the volcano, including wearing a gas mask and a mask to cover his eyes.
“There’s a substance that comes out of the volcano from that lava that almost appears to be oily or greasy that could cause the wire to be slippery,” Wallenda explained to The Wrap. “The gases that come out actually eat wire, eat metal. We left a piece of cable in the canyon for six months and it literally dissolved because of those gases.”
Even though he utilized some important safety measures, his stunt was still on the dangerous side, as he further noted to The Wrap.
“I mean it’s real,” he said about the dangers that his stunt posed. “I mean they’re all real, but this one is more real than anything I’ve ever done as far as the layers, again, of risk and danger.”
