Eskil Ronningsbakken isn't your average daredevil, if there is such a thing.
The 33-year-old Norwegian has performed death-defying feats all over the world. He's walked a tightrope between two air balloons, balanced on a trapeze below a hot air balloon and done a handstand on a pile of chairs that were more than 3,000 feet above ground.
What makes Ronningsbakken unique is that he doesn't see himself as a stuntman. He thinks of what he does as expressions of art.
"A stunt is something you see in movies, often done with mattresses safety lines or nets," Ronningsbakken told the Daily Mail in 2009. "What I do, is draw a picture with vulnerable human beings and their bodies, in the surrounding of mother earth. That's the balance between life and death, and that is where life is."
Ronningsbakken grew up in the Norwegian countryside, where he loved to climb trees and mountains. While his mother was apprehensive at first, Ronningsbakken's father was quite supportive.
"My mother would be screaming at me to come down all the time," Ronningsbakken told the Daily Mail, "but my dad would be saying 'Wait a minute, let me take a picture first!' I know it sounds crazy, but you learn a lot from that kind of play. You learn to respect the height and danger."
At age 18, Ronningsbakken ran off to join the circus. And during the past 15 years he has become very comfortable with balancing at high altitude, although he is quick to admit that he hasn't lost all fear and hopes he never does.
"I feel fear, of course I do, we are humans and we have a natural sense of self-preservation," he said. "However, I must control that before I undertake any new project because that would lead to lethal mistakes. If I ever find myself totally fearless then that is when I will stop what I am doing."
Ronningsbakken probably had more than a few butterflies in his stomach as he completed his most recent feat, an eye-popping acrobatics display on the Aizhai suspension bridge in China's Hunan province.
The bridge is more than 1,000 feet above ground. The high altitude makes Ronningsbakken's newest prop, a blindfold, all the more scary.
