Above the Abyss: Finding Strength, Stillness, and Survival on the Slackline (Paperback or Softback)

Step out over the abyss and discover the incredible story of professional slackliner Friedi Kühne overcoming personal limits, grappling with mental toughness, and achieving greatness from thousands of feet in the air.

Slacklining is an ever-evolving extreme sport in which an athlete must walk across a thin line of flexible webbing from one point to another. What once began as a trendy hobby―with a person balancing just a foot or two off the ground between two trees―has now evolved into intense feats of athleticism, including performing flips, twists, and other tricks across the slackline (tricklining) and achieving incredible balancing acts from, for some intrepid athletes, heights upwards of 6,000 feet (highlining).

In Above the Abyss, author and professional slackliner Friedi Kühne dives into his slackline journey, from doing tricks as a kid on trampolines and park benches to trying his first highline at 18 years old. Along the way, Kühne learns how to train his body to achieve balance, find focus, and stay resilient. His love of slacklining takes him all over the world as he competes for world records, achieves personal milestones, and ultimately discovers how physical and mental limits can be overcome if we don’t allow our fears to hold us back.

From nail-biting descriptions of highline adventures to practical advice and strategies that have carried Kühne between mountains and skyscrapers, Above the Abyss captures the passion, struggles, and determination at the center of one man’s pursuit of slackline greatness.

Friedi Kühne was born in Erlangen, Germany, and grew up in Rosenheim in close proximity to the Alps. After graduating high school, he obtained his teaching degree English and mathematics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He graduated from the university in the fall of 2017 and has lived in Bad Aibling since, dedicating most of his time and energy to slacklining. In late 2023, he published his first book about his slackline adventures.

During his childhood, Kühne enjoyed skiing, hiking, and mountain climbing. As a teenager, he developed an interest in parkour, freerunning, gymnastics, bouldering, and rock climbing. At the age of 19 he stood on a slackline for the first time and, in his own words, became "addicted to this feeling of balance.”

Despite his initial strong focus on tricklining, he proceeded to walk more and more highlines in the surrounding Alps. After a college exchange year as a language teaching assistant in the United States in 2015, he shifted his professional focus fully to highlining. Kühne achieved several world’s first highline crossings over 100 meters long in popular areas along the Pacific Coast, including Yosemite, Squamish, Smith Rock, Leavenworth, Joshua Tree, and the Columbia River Gorge. During this time, Kühne also became friends with prominent American slackliners like Jerry Miszewski, Andy Lewis, and Spencer Seabrooke. Kühne set a total of 16 slackline world records between 2015 and today.

Besides his part time high school teaching job, he makes a living doing highline shows and motivational speaking.