Airy premiere: First Highline World Championships in LAAX

Like any 23-year-old, Ramun Tomaschett occasionally loses his temper. But not out of anger, rather out of a zest for life. The carpenter from Cumbel in Graubünden is a slackliner. One of the best in the world. He has balanced on highlines that were more than a kilometer long. But Ramun is one thing above all else: really fast. And in the discipline of "speed highlining," he could become world champion. The competition is small but strong. Matheus Vidal, for example, comes from Brazil and is virtually the godfather of speed highlining. An interesting fact: Matheus has never had the opportunity to leave South America – so it's high time he proved his skills in LAAX! At the very first Highline World Championship! It will take place, as befits its status, in one of the most unusual locations in the Graubünden mountain destination: the Galaaxy, which resembles a space station, at the summit station of Crap Sogn Gion.

No missteps allowed: the world's best highliners show off their balancing tricks

Anyone who knows slacklining as a fun balancing exercise ten centimeters above a flower meadow has yet to discover highlining. As the name suggests, highlining is slacklining at height, with athletes secured to the line by a climbing harness, rope, and aluminum ring (known as a leash). In LAAX, the 30 best athletes in the world will now show off their skills on two parallel highlines, each 65 meters long. In the "freestyle highline" discipline, men compete against men and women against women. In the "speed highline" discipline, all gender boundaries are swept aside and everyone starts together. Equality is also reflected in the prize money. The prize money for the daring men and women in the top three places is the same. The speed and freestyle qualifiers will take place on Friday, July 15, the speed finals and freestyle quarterfinals on Saturday, July 16, and the freestyle finals on Sunday, July 17.

LAAX makes highline history: live at the first world championship

Admission to the spectacle is free; you only have to pay for the trip up to the summit. But it's worth it, not only because it's the first ever World Championship in highline history, but also because of the breathtakingly spectacular high mountain scenery around the Crap Sogn Gion mountain station. Don't forget your hiking boots, binoculars, and sunscreen! By the way: a diverse freestyle slackline park with mobile slackboards, tricklines, longlines, and rodeo lines will be set up around Crap Sogn Gion for the World Championship weekend. It will remain in place throughout the summer. This means that even slackline novices can take to the air not only during the first Highline World Championship, but throughout the summer! The best place to watch Ramun Tomaschett and his fellow competitors is directly from the Hammock Park. Two questions remain: Will the local hero from Cumbel become the first world champion? And how will Matheus Vidal like it in LAAX?