A daredevil who calls himself an extreme balance artist celebrated his 40th birthday in style by hiking to a cliff’s edge to perform a handstand at 1,300 feet above ground.
Eskil Rønningsbakken captured the footage of his stunt at Rampestreken viewpoint in Åndalsnes, Norway, on June 24 — just in time for his 40th birthday.
Rønningsbakken hiked a mile to reach the area where he would perform the death-defying stunt, 1,300 feet above the breathtaking Norwegian scenery.
At the edge of the lookout point, Rønningsbakken constructed a ladder which he would perform his handstand on. He climbed the ladder extending over the cliff and placed his hands on the top handles of the ladder.
Rønningsbakken has performed his death-defying stunts for years on camera, including a 2011 stunt where he balanced “on the edge of a ravine on a bike, a stack of chairs, and a trapeze — all without a safety harness.”
He also performed a breathtaking one-armed handstand over a fjord in 2013, 2,000 feet above the ground.
Rønningsbakken, who considers himself more of an artist than a daredevil, says his performances are for “the sake of creating art.”
“There is simply no room for mistakes, but this is what I do and in the sake of creating art,” Rønningsbakken told the Daily Mail. “You don’t see much of the view while balancing, since it’s simply room for surviving, but before and after I do look at the nature and enjoy it a lot.”
“It was a pleasure to be allowed to be part of something beautiful as this,” he said.
Rønningsbakken also has a website dedicated to his performances, which have taken him all over the world from China to Mexico.
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