Ziplining – My Experience
Have you every gone ziplining or done something so completely out of your comfort zone?
I did, I went ziplining about a year and a half ago. I was 56 at the time and ziplining is not something that I ever though I would do. I’m not an adventure seeker or dare devil type of person.
I went on a leadership retreat in Virginia in September 2013. We stayed at the Grey Rocks Lodge, and one of the activities that my leader Laura Parrish had planned for us was Ziplining. She asked before hand who would be up to it…
So I said I would do it. I figured you only live once right!
The lodge is in the Shenandoah Mountains…
A beautiful place…
We get there and of course we had to be weighed because you can’t be over 250 lbs to go on the zipline, thankfully I’m not. The instructors had us step into the harness that closes around your waist, and put on a helmet.
Then they hooked up the ropes to the harness and we went for a walk up the mountain to the starting point. The first thing that happened once we got to the starting point was we had a lesson in how to zipline.
We were told to climb this rope latter up to a platform…
One by one we climbed the rope latter. There were 8 of us in the group. The instructor was young and thought he was funny so as each person got about half way up the ladder he would start to shake the ladder and made it hard to climb the rope. So being the Mother/Grandmother I am I kinda told him to stop it…
So he didn’t do it to me, and I climbed the latter without incident.
Ziplining My Experience – The first zipline
The first zipline was about 60 feet long…
This was our practice run. One by one the instructor clipped our harnesses to the wire. We put one hand on the clip and the other was to hold the ropes which were attached to our harness. I think they were safety ropes. When it was my turn I took a deep breath and jumped…
Bringing my knees up as we had been instructed.
One of the instructors was at the other end to catch us when we got to the next platform…
The platform was a tall wooden pole like a telephone pole with a round platform built on it…
There was a wire around the pole that after the instructor caught us he would unhook the harness from the zipline and hook our ropes to the pole…
There wasn’t a rail or anything to keep us on the platform but the ropes…
Of course the instructor that was shaking the rope latter started shaking the platform…
I didn’t think it was too funny cause I was a little freaked out…
And that was just the first one! There were 4 more!
Besides being a zipline it was also a ropes course so the next thing we did was a tight wire walk to the next platform. Of course our harnesses were hooked to the wire above and we had wires to hold on to as well.
That wasn’t too bad…
I made it…
By the way did I tell you that the only way down was to keep going forward!
Ziplining My Experience – the second zipline
The second zipline was 90 feet…it wasn’t too bad…
The third one was 120 feet…it was a little more scarey…
There was another rope course to complete, this one was rope swings you could swing from rope to rope or walk the wooden plank.
It was about 2 inches wide.
My upper body strength isn’t so good so I walked the wooden plank.
Ziplining My Experience – the forth zipline
The forth one was 240 feet…
A lot more scarey, I held on to the ropes on the platform really tight when I got there!
I didn’t know if I could go on from that point!
Oh yeah I didn’t have a choice…
Laura kept asking me are you OK.
I must have had a freaked out look on my face.
I told her yes…
But inside I was shaking, and thinking…
The next one is even longer!
Ziplining My Experience – the Last zipline
The last one was 420 feet and I think my eyes were closed most of the way.
It was all downhill…
I forgot the instructions on where to place my hands to stop and I got my finger smashed.
I didn’t tell anyone..
Finally to the last platform…
OK I made it! So how do we get down from here…
There was no ladder…
So we’re all here on the last platform waiting for the instructor to tell us how to get down when he begins to tell us that he’s going to hook us to a tension rope and we have to just jump and the rope would adjust to our weight and lower us slowly till we reached the ground…
I think that was harder than the zipline because you had to hold on to the harness that was attached to your waist and jump out.
Now what if the tension rope didn’t adjust and I just jumped to the ground…
OK…take a deep breath and just do it…
I jumped and about half way down I felt the tension kick in and slowing I went to the ground…
Whew…
I made it!
My experience with ziplining was one I will never forget.
Am I glad I did it…
YES!
Was I scared?
YES!
But what it gave me was a confidence in myself that I didn’t have before.
A confidence that I can do anything I set my mind to.
Even as a 56 year old Grandmother I can go ziplining, I can face my fears and I can do it anyway and be OK!
I stepped out of my comfort zone, I did something that was uncomfortable and it showed me that I CAN!
Deirdre Powell (Dee)
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Sounds like so much fun.My daughters 12 and 9 have ziplined at a summer camp they go to.Maybe its time for me.Commenting and sharing.
Thanks for commenting Lisa. You should try it. It was fun and it was challenging.
Deirdre, Great job!
I, too, went ziplining when I was 58 and widowed. Several of my kids went and grandkids even. One of them was so light, she almost didn’t go anywhere. We were wondering if someone would have to go after her.
It was an eye-opening experience for sure. I am very glad we didn’t have one of the guides shaking the ropes and platform!
Thanks for your comment Cathy. It was definitely an eye opening experience. Not sure if I would do it again but I’m glad I did it.
Wow how fantastic… that is one thing on my bucket list I have always wanted to try…. thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks for commenting Kelly, It was fantastic. The best part was I learned I can do anything I set my mind to do.