Mia Noblet is a former figure-skating ace who now excels at walking the line. She’s so good, in fact, she set a highline world record a year after she started the sport. Jann Eberharter reports.

June 2018 update: It’s been a big year already for Mia Noblet. In April she set a new world record with a 614-metre highline walk in Brazil and on May 27 she flew to China for a competition to walk a highline…in high heels! She did in on her first try in 22 minutes and 36 seconds. Here’s the video:

When Mia Noblet is inspired to try something, she fully immerses herself in it. For the Vancouver, British Columbia 22-year-old, this first happened when she discovered figure skating at 11, an arena sport far from her family’s outdoorsy roots. She gave it a try after a friend became involved, and although skeptical about the dresses and makeup, she realized she enjoyed the athletic challenge. “I went from doing it once a week to six days a week,” she says.

Footage of Mia Noblet’s world record highline over Hunlen Falls in British Columbia. Above photo and video provided by LeftCoast Media House.

Figure skating eventually evolved into speed skating, but not for long. Noblet needed something new. As a sabbatical from skating, Noblet bought a plane ticket to Europe with highlining in mind. Her inspiration came from a poster she had seen of Dean Potter walking over vast nothingness. “With traditional sports you really have to follow rules,” Noblet says. “I missed that freedom of just going outside and making your own rules.” She never made it to Europe. Before she departed, Noblet met a group of highliners from her home province—a place she didn’t know the sport even existed.

Fully committed, and with the crossover of her skating skills, Noblet excelled at an extraordinarily fast pace. Barely a year after she first set foot on a slackline, she set the female world record by walking a 222-metre line over Hunlen Falls, British Columbia. However, breaking records is not her goal. “I really want to push the adventurous alpine stuff,” Noblet says, “where nobody has ever walked before.” Something tells us she will find a way.

KMC managing editor Vince Hempsall was on hand at the Arc’teryx Climbing Academy + Festival in Squamish last year to capture world record holder Mia Noblet compete in slackline races.

For more about highline records, including the highest one in the Canadian Rockies, check out our story about Cranbrook native Travis Foster and “The First Highline in the Bugaboos.”