Zip Trip Flip Fantaisa

This past weekend I went up to Whistler, BC with my wife and 4 other friends (all in our Acura SUV). It was an amazing trip. The boys did some snowboarding and skiing, and the girls pampered themselves. The plan was to spend 2 days on the hill, however plans changed after the large amounts of alcohol we consumed. One of my friends thought he could bypass 12 stairs and just jump to the bottom. Bad idea. He ended up spraining his ankle.

We decided to forgo day 2 of snowboarding, and found something else to do. With my buddy keeping his leg raised all day he couldn't do anything so his wife and my other buddy (our pregnant wives stayed with the gimp) decided we should go on a Zip Line tour of the rain forest between Blackcomb and Whistler. This may have been the best decision we made all weekend long.

The company, "Ziptrek", calls themselves an Eco friendly company. The Zip line tour includes not only spectacular views and friendly people, but education on sustainability, and the rain forest itself.

I really had no clue what we were in for when we got there, but I was very excited.

We got all our harnesses and helmets on then got in a van. It was a ten minute ride to the first zip line. On the way there they talked about the wildlife in the area, and how rare this type of rain forest is. I learned some very interesting things about it. On the way we also drove right next to turn 7 of the bobsled course that will be used during the 2010 Olympics. We were lucky enough to see a bobsledder go by. Holy shit, they are fast.


Bobsled course


We arrived at the area and walked to the first line. It was the baby of the lines. only 400 ft long. Just kinda a warm up I guess. First thing they did was educate us a little about sustainability and how their company has done everything they can to help in preserving the environment. They did everything from selectively choosing the trees that would be cut for all the wood used throughout the course (flown out with a helicopter so no clear cutting for roads was needed), not using any treated wood, using solar power, and planting enough trees every year to offset the burning of propane in the 5 heaters they had.

So on to the first line. I have to admit I was a little anxious. We were not that high but it looked fast. They don't let you strap yourself in, so everything is very safe, and double checked. There is someone on the other side that breaks you and helps you out of your clips.

So they strapped me in then had me walk down some steps until I was barley touching the last step, I stepped off and then, WOW!!!!! It was a rush. The first one went across the floor of the forest.

This went on for 3 more zip lines, each getting longer, higher and faster. Each had a new lesson on sustainability. When we got to the fourth we were way up in the trees. I felt like the Ewoks would as we crossed long bridges from tree to tree.


View of one of the bridges

This 4th line was amazing. It was 2200ft long with over a 20 story drop. You exceed speeds of 50mph. This was freaking amazing. The view from that high up in the trees is absolutely spectacular, but I couldn't think about it that much because my heart was racing so fast. What a rush.





I will wright more about our trip in future blogs, this was just the most amazing part of the trip, and I do recommend it to anyone. I will also post actual video and pictures we took during the trip.