people ask if it's glued if there's
steel rods
a lot of people really don't understand
that it's just balanced
these mine bending rock formations are
held together with nothing but gravity
rock balancing art predates the bible
and can be found across the globe
michael grabb is one of the best
balancers around and his creations have
turned him into an internet phenomenon
the structure that probably got me
noticed first
internationally was kind of this orb
structure that i made
and it's just hundreds of little rocks
kind of balanced on a really tiny one at
the bottom one of my core
drives is to make the formation
as impossible as possible or to
challenge my own skill and kind of
one-up myself each time
a lot of reactions to my process while
i'm building is like oh no that's
impossible that'll never happen
especially when i try to take a huge
rock and put it on a tip
and then people are just kind of mind
blown when i actually let go
anyone can make rock piles but michael
has spent the last
12 years perfecting the art of balance i
started balancing in about 2008
here in boulder colorado and boulder
creek i just fell in love with it
and started doing it every day and it
kind of took over my life
so i ended up quitting my job and doing
it full time
there aren't many people out there who
can call themselves professional rock
balancers
but these fragile creations take a lot
of practice
i pretty much go out on a daily basis if
the weather's nice
mainly the wind is what i consider bad
weather
so if it's snowing or raining i usually
go out anyway
and that's just part of the beauty of
the art form
is just getting out in the elements it
took michael over a decade to get to
this level
a lot of his creations will take
multiple attempts to get right
each sculpture is different but every
time michael builds he follows the same
process
the first thing he must do is find a
location to create the stack
i've built several structures here over
the years
i just like it because i like the
texture of the rock and the way the
water flows over the rock
to create towers that look like they're
defying gravity takes a lot of time
so michael needs to make himself
comfortable
once i decide where i want to build
i need to make kind of a temporary stone
chair
like so and i'm just
trying to make a very stable surface to
plant my body weight on
and one that's kind of level once he's
got a comfy seat
it's time to choose his tools for
balancing i want the rocks to be
completely clean
so either i'll grab them from an area
that's not so
mossy or just kind of loose bare rocks
and i'm looking for different textures
and surfaces
like this kind of has a cup on the
bottom it's really important to find
rocks that have three points of contact
in between these three points is the
center of gravity
it works exactly the same as a camera
tripod you just have to center the mass
so i kind of match that up with my big
base boulder here
and get it in a position that is
completely stable in between the
contacts
so all the weight is going to be
channeled right to this point
he always works backwards picking the
final rock first
the bigger the top rock the more
impossible the structure will look when
he lets go
this is the rock i've designated as my
top rock just because i like the
shape of it and it has a nice kind of
rounded point
down at the bottom here so i basically
want to balance it in this orientation
as michael starts to build he has to
make sure that the structure has a solid
foundation
has to be the most stable at the bottom
because any kind of vibrations will
magnify as they come up the structure
with each additional rock the build
becomes more challenging the weight
increases and rocks could fall on
michael at any time
it actually takes quite a bit of
physical strength to
get this one balanced safely
i have to hold this one with this hand
with all this weight so it's like really
wanting to fall that way
the rocks are heavy so any collapses
could lead to broken fingers
so yeah this whole art form is
definitely not for the faint of heart
you just kind of
go all in or else you might get injured
once all of the rocks below are aligned
the final piece of the puzzle
is also the most risky the top rock
as i'm building up the core of the
structure i'm kind of estimating this
final weight
and position of the top rock and so once
it actually gets up there then it's like
the actual weight that i'm working with
and so sometimes my adjustments that
i've been making the whole time will be
a little bit off
they're pretty close right now
like it's barely balanced
but i'm gonna get out of here because
you gotta do that carefully also because
they're so
finely poised a towel like this may not
last very long
the structures will last anywhere from a
few seconds to a few days
at the end of every build michael likes
to test the integrity of the tower by
splashing it with water
final process i usually do is splash it
with water
and if it can survive through this
then it's worthy to be photographed
this also gives it an amazing ice
sculpture effect if left overnight in
the cold boulder air
part of this whole rock balancing thing
is actually getting into nature
and experiencing it firsthand like
turning over rocks and seeing what's on
these things
and learning about the life that's
around
in a bid to leave no trace michael
destroys all of his structures
after photographing them
i i like to document as much of the
creation as possible so that
includes the build process that includes
the life of the the creation as long as
it's standing
and also the collapse and ideally
a natural collapse due to wind or
something like that
but even still if wind doesn't blow it
over and i'm done with all my
documentation then i'll just knock it
over myself