Extreme Zip Lining - Hunter Mountain
?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?Hunter Mountain We Love You! That should probably be the title of this blog, But seriously, zipping 600 feet off the ground with the green valley below and the blue skies above... AMAZING!
The day started off with a scenic drive over mountains and past waterfalls to Hunter Mountain Ski Resort nestled the hills of upstate NY. Upon arrival, it quickly became clear there was adventurer energy here. Just the way we like it!
After signing our waivers we had a helpful meet and greet with our tour guides for the afternoon. They helped us with our safety gear, harnesses and helmets as well as a giving us a great pep talk to get us amped up. This was our lucky day as we got a special ride up the mountain on the chairlift giving us a beautiful view of the valley we were about to soar across hanging from a wire.
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At the summit we attended “Zip Line Pilot Training School”, a short course teaching us the art of flying through the air attached to a wire. Our guides educated us on how our safety gear worked. We received expert and hilarious advice on the different zipping positions we would need to utilize depending on the nature of each Zip. Two important ones were the Cannonball position and the Office Chair position. The Cannonball enables you to zip faster with less wind resistance while the Office Chair is for zips that are too fast for the Cannonball. Another helpful bit of information that was passed on to us was about knowing the right time to open up your position to slow down your approach to the launch pad. Although it’s fun to come in fast, you don’t want to be like George of the Jungle. Or do you?
We could feel the adrenaline beginning to pump into our systems as we walked across the summit to the launch pad of Zip 1! Zip 1 is formidable to say the least. Perhaps even a bit intimidating. Zip 1 is 3,200 ft of cable transporting you 600 feet over the valley below at speeds reaching 50mph… What a rush! Woo Hoo!!!! The sun was beaming and the only sounds were the sweet hum of the trolley going over the zip line and the occasional screams of excitement escaping our lips.
At Zip 2 we were especially thankful for our amazing guides since we needed to be towed in! Zip Lesson #2: If you don't tuck properly you can easily come up short of the landing pad and need a little help from your friends. Watch the video blog to see how fast they can do this. And they did it all day long. Impressive!
You may be wondering what Zip Lesson #1 is. And rightly so, because it is a very important lesson. Zip Lesson #1: If you get caught saying you're sorry you will be forced to sing karaoke to the rest of your group. Remember Zip Lesson #1.
We were also given a choice between zipping across a self powered line or walking across a suspension bridge. Self powered means the incline of the zip line isn't steep enough to get you all the way across. Whether you make it or not is determined only by how fast you can run and take off from the launch pad. Since variety is the spice of life, we chose the suspension bridge. It is definitely worth a walk across if you don't mind stepping your way across a narrow, bouncing, undulating walkway that happens to be a hundred feet off the ground. :-) It’s safe for sure, but your mind can take over especially as more people join the walk across.
Then there was the Yo-Yo Zip. We'll let this one be a surprise. :) Spoiler: The only way to get down from this zip is via a 15 foot step ladder that is rolled under you.
The Final Zip was a mixed bag… you got a little bit of everything. Tuck in the beginning, long, fast zip through the trees, then open up into an office chair to slow before blasting into the landing pad.
Lastly, we got an off road trip back down the mountain to base camp, laughing and cheering the entire way thanks to our friendly and entertaining guides.
What a great experience! Safe yet full of adrenaline pumped thrills. If you ever want to experience zip lining at it's most exhilarating, then we highly recommend this zip line adventure.
