Well that was a first for me. My wife and I along with our children spent the weekend out near Lancaster, PA. We were at a retreat type place and one of the things they offered was zip lines and high ropes courses, I took my six-year-old son zip—lining and we both had a fun time. Then we got re-harnessed and one on the high ropes course, the first level wasn’t bad at all, then the second level by halfway through it was kicking my ass, and I sorta fell off this one section had to be “rescued” by the staff. It was this goofy set of poles hanging off the main cable with foot holds, you had to stand up and bear hug each pole while pulling the next one in and getting a toe hold then going to the next pole. It was taking a lot of upper body strength and mine basically gave out halfway across. Oops.

They managed to help me across that section then I managed to make it to the end without any further mishaps but I was shaky and winded by the end.

That was yesterday. Now I’m sore as all get out. It sucks getting old!

Here’s my son going across the section that kicked my ass, he thought he was on American Ninja Warrior and had an absolute blast:

Nothing like you have done, but I once had to take a knot tying course. After a day of tying all kinds of knots, I discovered I am proficient with only one knot: The Granny.

I've done one, my experience was much like yours. Lots of fun, but what a workout!

I’ve done several. Usually regretted every one of them after lol.

The zip line part was always fun though.

They sorta had one at a summer camp I went as a kid in the 80s. It wasn’t anything like that pic, but it had stations where you did stuff like climb up a shaky pole (harnessed and roped) and did something like jump off a tiny platform and try and grab a trapeze.

Instead of a zip line at the end of a bunch of high rope bridges they had this pendulum thing where you sat down attached to safety line and then dropped. The line was attached further out to a wire in front of you so when you dropped it gradually became taught and then you swung out. A lot of the kids at the camp were having trouble so the dude at this station was kinda distracted. He got me tied in and I asked what do I do here and he said something like “just hop off”. Well, I interpreted this as jump towards the cable. I guess he didn’t expect me to just go because I think he tried to yell “wait!” but I just launched off the pad.... and basically took a 10ft vertical fall on a static line. That thing didn’t give at all and omg did it hurt. So, hopefully the safety protocols have gotten a little better in last 30 years.

Yes, I have done several and enjoyed them all.

I have done a high, high ropes course. I've also done some lower ones, and some obstacle courses. I was rather indifferent. I neither enjoy them, nor do I hate them. Usually it is a part of a team building exercise. Once I went to an adult birthday party, mostly because my wife wanted to go and they needed stronger people who were not afraid. At that event, several of the adults present discovered new things about themselves, and that aspect of it was worth the time. I did enjoy being a part of helping others break-through barriers of fear in their life.

Super fun!! Theres one at the Junior museum in Talahassee where my parents live. They last stretch over the lake is like 200 foot long zipline. Took my kids on it a few times. Then once outside Branson MO

Did a version of one on a NCL cruise back in March 2020. It was a lot of fun and would like to do it again.
It was interesting doing it while the ship was moving. They had to shut down part of it due to wind.
They also had the Walk the Plank. It allows you to walk out several feet away from the ship over the water on the top deck, however that was also closed because of the wind.
My wife took one look at it and said no way.

not civilian per se

but the US Army Air Assault School and Ranger School have obstacle courses / rappelling components that are definitely designed to weed out those who are afraid of heights

i usually just tried to stay focused on the task at hand and as they say 'don't look down'.

good times

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https://www.forgeparks.com/

Try this one. Close to Chicago.

I’ve done many for work....and it’s one of my favorite things to do....I used to be afraid of heights but now I’m very comfortable on a rope system. Everyone on my job is certified in high angle rescue and we train with it quarterly at a minimum.....it’s one of those low frequency/high risk rescue operations we perform.
I had a lady fall 50 feet off a cliff wedged on a shelf barely alive, teetering over the rest of the 75 foot fall to go we executed a technical rescue which resulted in saving her life...at the time I wasn’t sure she was going to make it through her ordeal as she was critically injured. The operation went very smoothly which I credit to our high level of training.....I may bitch about my job from time to time but give our department credit being progressive and demanding quality training....most FDs wouldn’t be able to pull this off as efficiently and with the proper gear providing everyone the safety it demands.

In my Sophomore year of High School, traditional P.E. was replaced with a program called "Project Adventure". Along with cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, the fall and spring curriculum had a lot of rope work. We learned how to tie a swiss seat, how to belay one another, to rappel, and spent hours on the high ropes course behind the school. A big part was a analog of rock climbing on the big beech trees that formed the foundation of the ropes course. As I recall (we're talking almost 50 years ago) we didn't have zip lines, but we did have a 2' by 2' platform about 50' up a tree; the object was to ascend the tree, get on the platform, and then step off, trusting the fellow 15/16 year old on the other end of your belay line to catch you and bring you down safely. Heady stuff at that age.
We also learned map reading and orienteering, and the culmination of the course was a week long camping trip to Acadia Nat'l Park, where we put everything we learned to practical use.
It was a blast!

Did one up in NH a few years ago. I absolutely love zip lining, and this was the whole way down a mountain.

My wife loves the ropes course and I'm not a huge fan. I definitely fell off once and was sore as hell afterwards. I have no problem with heights on the zip line at all, but that ropes course made me less than comfortable.

I'm very glad that we did 3 days of SIG Academy courses before doing that ropes course, because I'd have been non-functional otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Perry:
I've done one, my experience was much like yours. Lots of fun, but what a workout!

Yeah, same. Though I’ve done a couple. Very enjoyable!

Only rope rescue - started w/ basic (rope construction, knots, friction devices, rappelling, ascension) & moved to advanced (zip lines, rigging, pulleys, etc).

There was a mountain course when I went thru the 5th arm NCO academy at Ft. Carson. Did a lot of rope work, rappelling down cliffs, etc etc. Even did a trip across a fairly deep "gulch" where we were walking on one line, holding on to the second. A tough course, but fun, after the sore muscles disappeared.

I could have used a rope harness one New Years eve several years ago. After drinking several Beefeater Gin Martinies, I switched to wine and Beer and then attempted to walk.

Thank goodness for walls to hang onto.

I was driven home and put to bed.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
not civilian per se

but the US Army Air Assault School and Ranger School have obstacle courses / rappelling components that are definitely designed to weed out those who are afraid of heights

i usually just tried to stay focused on the task at hand and as they say 'don't look down'.

good times

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The Army Jungle Warfare School has a Mountaineering section that incorporates rapelling, what amounts to a zip line course that we negotiated with tree branches in the form of an inverted Y instead of a harness, several other things.

I loved it.