Ziplining at Grouse Mountain

The weather cooperated and produced the most gloriously nice day for us to go ziplining at Grouse Mountain just outside of Vancouver.  Grouse Mountain is where NBC set up their communication center for the Olympics so there were lots of television crews there but no sporting events.  It was about a 20 minute trip by cab to get to the base of the mountain.  From there we took a 20 minute tram ride up (2 miles?) to the lodge.  Not much snow up there, but there were people skiing and snowboarding. 

This was the gear we had to wear.  It allowed us to kind of sit while we ziplined.

There were 5 ziplines.  The first one was short so we could practice.

Here are Duncan and Stephen demonstrating the "landing" position.

Here they go!  Follow the lines and you will see little people hanging from them - it is Duncan on the left and Stephen on the right.

Here is someone coming in to the landing area feet first.  We had no brakes but the big spring and orange bag absorbed our impact and made for a safe stop.

The next zipline took us over a mostly frozen lake.  That's Stephen on the left and Duncan on the right this time.

Here is one of the guides going through the prep process before Stephen was allowed to go.  The guides were great and followed the safety procedures completely every time. 

Here they go again!  This was a really long one!

This was the 5th zip we did.  The guides warned us to try to go fast and stay streamlined or we wouldn't make it all the way to the other side!  The views were great - I wish I had been able to take photos while zipping.  Check out the big windmill at the end.  It was enormous!