Berkshire East Valley Jump Zipline tour 8-30-13

While not about skiing, it was at a ski area!

Me, my wife and 2 of my friends went on Berkshire East's Valley Jump zipline tour today, as a warm up prior to the Mount Snow Brewer's Festival.

We arrived at the Beast, checked out the construction going on with both a bunch of snowmaking pipe being welded in the parking lot and waiting to be dragged up the hill and set, as well as a decent sized addition to the main base lodge that has had its framing just about completed.

After checking in, we put our harnesses on, not the most comfortable thing i've ever worn, but for the fun it would later provide me, well worth it!

We then boarded the summit triple after meeting our guides and began our ride to the top.

At the summit, our giudes went over all the safety info and instruction that we could want, and after a short hike, we were at the 1st of the 6 ziplines we'd ride today.

The 1st 4 ziplines in our tour were basically at/below the treetops and were between about 700 and 1100 feet long, with each line getting a bit quicker in speed. For someone who had never ridden a zipline before (the same as with the rest of my group) it was a nice way to get used to the feeling of "flying" through the air on the ziplines.

Then after the 4th zipline, you head for the final 2 ziplines, X1 and X2 where the lines are longer X1 is about 1/3rd of a mile and X2 is 1/2 mile long, with both traversing over a ravine and reaching heights over the vallley floor of almost 190 feet and speeds over 50mph. Plus these are dual ziplines so you're "racing" someone in your group who's line is about 15 feet away from yours! It's a really cool thing!!

Most of the lines require a short, mainly flat walk to get from the end of 1 line to the start of the next one, the only exception is between the end of X1 and the start of X2 where it's about a 10 minute hike, climbing about 250 feet to reach the starting platform of X2.

At the end of X2, you're maybe 50 yards from the summit terminal of the Wilderness Peak Quad, upon which you download to the base after finishing your tour.

All 4 of us in my group had a blast, and can't wait to go on this tour again. The guides were great, and made all of us feel very comfortable and safe during the entire tour.

I'D highly recommend making an "off season" trip to The Beast for a zipline tour!

Pretty cool. I checked out the videos on their website. Intense would be a good word for those really big ones. Looks like a blast.

A bunch of ski patroller guide there on the zip lines over the summer. Yeah those X1 and X2 lines are unreal! Did you get a peak at any of the BoneFrog obstacles? Photos up on Facebook look wild!

TheBEast said:

A bunch of ski patroller guide there on the zip lines over the summer. Yeah those X1 and X2 lines are unreal! Did you get a peak at any of the BoneFrog obstacles? Photos up on Facebook look wild!

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There were about a 1/2 dozen or so the Bonefrog obstacles that were assembled in place that were visible either from the lift rides up/down from the zipline tour or near where we had to walk between lines.

I still think, and take this from someone who's done Tough Mudder at Mount Snow twice, that by far and away the most challenging obstacle for the Bonefrog won't be something they build and set up as one of the defined obstacles, but the physical mountain itself and having to climb up and down it over the length of the course! 9 miles of up and down, at least that's what our guides who entered into the Bonefrog told us the course length was going to be a BIG challenge! As I told my guide, "make sure you've got a bunch of Gu gel packets stashed on you!" because speaking from experience, it really sucks when you "run out of gas" and you've still got a couple of miles of hills to go before the finishline!!

Those look pretty sweet! I ran a bunch of super high and super fast zip lines a few years ago down in Cabo........

Awesome report, thanks for sharing!

My Son and I did the Skyrider tour at Hunter. It was pretty cool, the guides think I hit 60mph, I'm currently 240 lbs. You are 600ft off the ground on your first zip. I felt sorry for the kid trying to slow me down at the end, I think I may have lifted him off the ground. I hit pretty hard, but the harness absorbs the impact well. It was fun, but I think the price is kinda steep, $119. I found expired Groupon deals for $89, I think that would be a more reasonable price. It's a lot different than standing at the top of a gnarly ski run, you could actually hurt yourself there.

Nice! Gotta give that a try one of these days.