Standing at the lip of a ski run at the start of the season, about to plunge downward, always elicits a little tug in my belly. What if I forget how to do it? I think... but I never do, and I'm soon happily whisking downward on the snow.
WATCH: Taking a private zip line tour at Mt. Bachelor:
If it's possible to go downhill so fast on skis, attached to nothing but boots, why does it feel so much scarier to approach basically the same terrain on a zip line, while attached to a harness and a bunch of other safety gear? I don't know—but standing near the top of Bachelor's Pine Marten lift, about to zoom down the new zip line, I had that same tug in the belly—only amplified. Cruising down the first line—a vertical drop of 255 feet from the Pine Marten lift—with my boss, Publisher Aaron Switzer, on the zip line to my left, I started to chill a bit and have some fun.
And by the time we hit the third line, the thrilling "Broken Top Drop," with a span of 3,443 feet and a plunge of 866 feet, I was ready to do it all over again. The final drop is so steep that there's a speed limiter to make sure people don't go too fast. All this, plus those spectacular views of the Three Sisters and Broken Top almost in your face. It's epic.
Mt. Bachelor's zip line opened to the public July 4. In prep for that, we got the chance to check it out. If you're not yet sure whether dropping the $99 for an adult pass (or $79 for kids age 10 to 12) is worth it, see it in action first in the view above, and then let the summer zip line fun begin.
Mt Bachelor Zip Line
Reservations required
More info at:
mtbachelor.com/events-activities/zipline/
$99 adults/$79 ages 10-12