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ZipRider at Wildcat Mountain
Wildcat Mountain in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, is one of America's most prominent ski resorts, but now guests can fly down the mountainside without snow – all year round. Paul Ruben takes a ride.
ZipRider is a new high-tech version of the classic gravity-powered zip line that usually consists of a pulley suspended on a cable mounted on an incline. Commonly found in the canopy tours of Latin America, zip lines can be dangerous, the ZipRider however is not. Hundreds of thousands have ridden without incident.
Just as the outdoor amusement industry strives to extend its operating season, so too do ski resorts. These are no longer five to six-month operations. Summer business is becoming a major part of their strategy to add more attractions and keep people longer, just like the amusement industry. ZipRider is one such attraction, an attractive year-round upcharge addition, just as it can also be for amusement parks. At Wildcat Mountain the attraction commands a fee of $20, or $10 for a repeat ride.
"ZipRider is a high capacity, high revenue producing ride that can operate year round and has minimal impact on the environment," confirms Eric Cylvick, president and CEO of Terra-Nova LLC, creator of the ZipRider. "It allows customers to experience the mountainous terrain of a resort in the most thrilling yet safest way possible.”
"Summer business for ski resorts has become critical to meet business objectives," observes Larry Hays, in charge of exclusive sales of resort attractions for Wiegand Sports and ZipRider North America. "In an amusement park ZipRider would most likely be treated as an upcharge ride. A lot of parks have avoided this strategy and yet SkyCoasters and Slingshots continue to operate under this fee schedule."
For Tom Caughey, Wildcat's general manager, the decision to add ZipRider made sense. "Wildcat Mountain ski area is located in the White Mountain National Forest in Northern New Hampshire," he explains. "We needed a ride that would be permitted by the US Forest Service, the county, and state of New Hampshire. The ZipRider fit the need very nicely.”
Wildcat already had uphill transportation in place and uses a chair lift to move riders up to the top of the ride. A great terrain profile brings the ride to the base lodge. Yet according to Cylvick, hilly terrain is not always needed. “It does help but we can build tall towers if necessary. It just depends on the desired length of the ride and clearance over other obstacles. These two factors often dictate the height of the towers in any design.”
Canopy Discovery
Terra-Nova has its roots in the ski industry, although the inspiration for the ZipRider came from somewhere else, as Cylvick explains: "I had worked for Park City Mountain Resort for 11 years," he recalls, “then while my wife and I were in Costa Rica on a surf trip we experienced a canopy tour in the cloud forest. We were amazed at the range of people drawn to this activity. As an engineer I quickly began to think of ways to adapt this experience to the mountainous terrain of ski resorts."
Riding one of Wildcat's four ZipRider cable lines combines exhilarating feelings of flight with beautiful scenery. It is the only year-round attraction of its kind on America's East coast. Riders are strapped securely into a comfortable harness and fly down the mountainside, descending 2,100ft over trails, tree tops and the Peabody River to a landing platform. During the 50 to 55-second ride they drop 522ft and travel at speeds of up to 45 mph on cables suspended at heights of up to 70ft.
"Everybody loves a thrill and a rush but not everyone is able or willing to work for it,”’ contends Cylvick. “Few people are willing to spend hours on a mountain bike for the thrill of the downhill, willing to jump out of a plane or even willing to strap on skis and jump into a black diamond bowl. With the ZipRider you can enjoy a scenic chair lift ride up the mountain and then experience speeds of up to 65 mph. We call this experience 'No Sweat Adrenalin’.”
For Wildcat's visitors, ZipRider has been a hit. "People love the ride, the ride experience, or just watching people hoot and scream as they pass over the lodge deck and parking area," reports Caughey. "It’s a real eye grabber! We have had a lot of press and many television stations covered the ride too."
Caughey, of course, was one of the first to ride. "I had to; I had no choice. I was part of building it. The feeling of soaring above the ski slopes and treetops, feeling like a bird for a minute, is cool. For many, it’s the excitement of the landing and stop at the bottom that is most exciting."
All Action, All Ages
A two-cable ZipRider can carry 40 to 50 people per hour, four cables nearly 100. The unique all-action ride experience has cross-generational appeal, drawing not only children but parents, grandparents and even the disabled. Weight, not height, determines ridership so anyone between 50 and 300 pounds (22-137kg) can enjoy the experience. After the first summer season at Wildcat Mountain, Caughey decided to expand the ride to a four-cable installation to increase capacity, and it continues to be sold out on a daily basis.
"A zip line is affected by the weather," he confirms. "It is not just a machine that delivers the same capacity continually. The riders, wind and precipitation have an effect on the capacity. Our first season the wait was two hours during peak times. This season, with four cables, the wait during peak was about 30 minutes or less if all environmental factors were good. You need enough crew to keep everyone smiling and moving smoothly to avoid delays. Staffing was as expected when we bought the ride."
As you’d expect from a man that also represents Wiegand, Hays recommends pairing the ZipRider with the German company’s Mountain Coaster (reviewed in these pages last summer – search for it at parkworld-online.com). "Having a ZipRider fly over the top of a Mountain Coaster is excellent synergy because people will want to do both. These two rides operate together at the Park City Mountain Resort in Utah and the financial success for both rides has been tremendous. The Mountain Coaster paid off in 18 months and the ZipRider has a similar payoff."
The impact ZipRider has had on Wildcat's business is notable. "Our summer business has been tremendously successful," reveals Caughey. "Sales are ahead of budget by 20% year-to-date in what has been the wettest summer on record. We have folks calling all day asking about reservations."
In addition to the installation at Wildcat Mountain, ZipRiders currently operate in the US at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort; Heavenly Valley in Lake Tahoe, Nevada; Icy Strait Point on Chichagof Island, Alaska; as well as Bobrovy Log Fun Park in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. New installations are planned for the Grindelwald Resort in Switzerland and Sno Mountain Resort in Scranton, Pennsylvania, with more on the way. According to Cylvick, several amusement parks are currently looking into the ZipRider system too.
Sky Safe Travel
Compared to other zip line systems, Wildcat Mountain general manager Tom Caughey found ZipRider to be, "by far the most well thought out and engineered system for smooth safe operation. The design of the trolley, the terminal brakes, and the ability to handle the volume of riders we experience were key. There are very few moving parts and it can stand the weather we have here – including the world's highest recorded surface wind speed (almost 231 miles per hour on nearby Mount Washington)!”
Opening up a whole new world of sky travel, ZipRider can be adapted to almost any location from level terrain to mountainside and can even be retrofitted to pre-existing towers or structures. It is compliant to ASTM amusement ride codes, ANSI-B77 tramway codes, and is currently being reviewed by the TÜV for upcoming installations in Europe.
Cables are tensioned, which eliminates any horizontal oscillation. Multiple lines can be installed parallel to each other increasing capacity at small incremental increase in cost. Unlike a classic zip line, the ZipRider trolley has a constant brake that prevents excessive speeds and is automatically controlled by the rider's weight and aerodynamics. It can operate year-round, and does not require highly trained operators.
"Traditional canopy tour zip lines suspend cables between trees and typically have a big ‘belly’ in the middle of the cable," explains Terra-Nova president Eric Cylvick. "Riders accelerate down into the belly and decelerate as they climb back up. Our ZipRider cables are tensioned in a manner where there is no belly; it is a straight shot down to the bottom towers.”
“Multiple safety redundancies are included,” he continues, “and every aspect of the ride is patented in the US and Europe. Our terminal braking system at the end of the ride brings riders to a safe and complete stop, for example. Our equipment retrieval system brings the riding equipment back up to the top tower after each ride so our equipment only comes off the cables for routine inspection and spare part replacement. This greatly reduces the chance of operator error."
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