Slippery Summit

The Slippery Summit is an obstacle, firstly introduced as the fifth obstacle on American Ninja Warrior 10 in Miami.

It consisted of a bar placed at the middle of track. The track was 24 feet in length and divided into 3 sections. The first section was angled upward with 8 rungs placed unevenly across the section, the second section was straight with no rung, and the third section was angled downward with 7 rungs also placed unevenly across the section. Competitors must move the bar across the track to reach the landing platform. The rungs in the first and third sections varied in size, thickness, and the length of gap between each rung. Also, the bar had 2 stoppers placed in the middle of the bar to prevent the competitors from sliding the bar too much.

During Miami qualifiers, the obstacle was proven to be brutal, as a total of 22 competitors fell on this obstacle, including Reko Rivera, Todd Bourgeois, Casey Suchocki, Rachael Goldstein, Lindsay Eskildsen, Kevin Carbone, Drew Hendry, Jessica Clayton, Devin Harrelson, Oscar Ramirez, Michael Johnson, Jordan Brown, R.J. Roman, Doug Legg, Eli Bell, Nico Long, and Jonathan Brown. The obstacle had been the cut off for the competitors to advance to Miami finals.

During Miami finals, the number of rungs on the first section was increased to 9. However, likely due to the high amounts of eliminations on the second obstacle (the Cannonball Drop), only 20 competitors got to attempt the obstacle. The obstacle wiped out Emily Durham, Oscar Ramirez, Doug Legg, and Ethan Suprenant. With the exception of Durham, each of its victims had failed on the Slippery Summit during Miami qualifiers.

An interesting completion of the obstacle occurred during Morgan Wright's run during Miami qualifiers. Rather than facing forward like most of the competitors who attempted the obstacle, he moved the bar by facing the obstacle backward, much like the Salmon Ladder done by Ben Melick (during American Ninja Warrior 7's Venice Beach finals), Drew Drechsel (during American Ninja Warrior 7's Orlando finals), and Najee Richardson (during American Ninja Warrior 9's Cleveland finals and American Ninja Warrior 10's Philadelphia finals). This technique later worked for him, as he was able to clear the obstacle. Later, Drew Drechsel utilized the same technique and was also able to clear the obstacle.

Competitors' Success Rate

 * All results based on the NBC broadcast and external information found

Trivia

 * The Slippery Summit was one of the obstacles that won the second edition of American Ninja Warrior: Obstacle Design Challenge, designed by 12-year-old Kieran Gault.
 * The Slippery Summit had a similar concept to these obstacles:
 * Rail Runner: the first part of the Slippery Summit (when the competitors moved the bar across an upward-angled section of the track) was similar to the Rail Runner.
 * Stair Hopper: both obstacles used the same bar, except the bar for the Stair Hopper was free-moving, while the bar for the Slippery Summit was attached to a wire at each end and there were 2 stoppers placed at the middle of the bar, in order to prevent the competitors for dragging the bar down with them if they failed (similar to the bar used on the Flying Bar from SASUKE 33 onward).
 * Salmon Ladder Nobori and Salmon Ladder Kudari: the first part of the Slippery Summit (when the competitors moved the bar across an upward-angled section of the track with several rungs to jump for) was also similar to the Salmon Ladder Nobori, while the third part of the Slippery Summit (when the competitors moved the bar across a downward-angled section of the track with several rungs to jump for) was similar to the Salmon Ladder Kudari.