January 22, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Canopy cruising

by Marty Basch/

Guide Heather McKendry zips through the sky during the new Canopy Tour at Bretton Woods. (photo: Marty Basch)

Guide Heather McKendry zips through the sky during the new Canopy Tour at Bretton Woods. (photo: Marty Basch)

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I am in Rosewood Canyon at Bretton Woods, flying through the trees. The giant white pine, scentless old growth hemlock and naked birch are holding caches of freshly fallen snow so light it cascades from their temporary perches with a breath. The trees are always a challenge, and today is no exception.

Except I am above them soaring at about 25 miles per hour on a metal cable some 100 feet above the ski slopes, going from glorious tree to tree.

I am a treetop flier on the latest addition at Bretton Woods, the Canopy Tour. Instead of corduroy cruising, I am a canopy cruiser.

For 2½ hours, our group of four zipped from tree platform to platform, rappelled down the titans of the forest and did our best Indiana Jones imitations as we gingerly navigated a series of two suspension bridges.

The year-round tour provides an incredible birds-eye perspective of familiar ground. Outfitted with a harness and helmet, glide along 10 zip lines of varying length and height, walk over two sky bridges and descend from three trees all under the supervision of a guide.

Though the tour came online earlier this ski season, there is still one more line — a dual line — that is scheduled to open in February. That line will be the final flight for the tour, but will also be available for single rides ($15). Tours are $95 per person with an eight-person maximum and can last four hours.

The tour began with an introduction of our agile guides, Steve Nichipor and Heather McKendry. They went over the gear and safety, and it was there McKendry said words to remember: "We are always your backup."

We looked like a cross between a snowmaker and utility pole worker as pre-flight was a ride up the Bethlehem Express quad and a 10-minute walk along the Mountain Road trail to the glades of Minahan's Ridge. Off the run waited the first of the stations, a mini-line where we went over hand position, hand signals, how to brake and park and other helpful hints.

From there, we flew, an adventure that was 90 percent exhilarating and 10 percent terrifying.

The canopy tour has its origins in the rain forest of South America, where scientists would travel from tree to tree for their research. Now skiers, snowboarders and the curious can take to the air with sliders below on trails like black diamond Deception Bowl and the glades of Inferno and Snowmaker's Gully. During flight, whiz by the Dartmouth Range, Cherry Mountain and the stunning Presidentials. Or, gaze out at them from a wooden platform 60 feet above the snowy ground. See a woodpecker on its own level.

"This is a blend of excitement, adventure and nature," said Nichipor.

It is also a mixture of fear and adrenaline, peacefulness and exaltation. The tour is a progression of zip lines, with the longest run being a sublime 830 feet long and the highest platform a vertigo-inducing 150 feet above hallowed ground.

There are those who embrace the journey with gusto, and those who warily leave the safety of those platform nests.

It is amazing to be so high in the sky. As confidence is gained, so does the ability to look around as you fly through the sky. Look up and watch the the tree tops whip by. Peer down on the slopes in time to see a skier fall. And when you leave the forest for those moments out in the clearings above the trails, envy the birds who soar above it all.

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