Thursday, June 18, 2009

Zip lines upside down

I previously showed the young women who were in our zip lining group going down the zip lines with no hands, one of them rappelled down the canyon upside down, and I described how my wife went down the zip lines in a horizontal "Super-Chica" position.  For the last zip line in our Adventure Tour at Hacienda Guachipelin, the guide asked is if we wanted to zip line upside down.  The three women who were in our group eagerly accepted the challenge, as did my younger son, Stuart, but not I.

Here is a photo of the guide positioning one of the women upside down.  I am sure that your attention was drawn first to the pulley mechanism that is shown in this photo.  You will note that there are riders are attached to the zip lines in two ways.  In addition to the hook hanging from the pulley, there is a safety hook attached around the cable behind the pulley at all times.   The attendants were very careful to make sure that the safety cable was attached whenever we were hooked or unhooked to the pulley.

The three women from New York who were in the same group with us said it would be OK for me to take their photos and post them on this website, but I used my discretion to post a photo that was made somewhat more modest due to the location of the guide's elbow and forearm.

My younger son, Stuart, also did the last zip line upside down.  I think he figured that it would be too much of an insult to his manhood if the women were the only ones to do the trip upside down.  I decided that I am too old for such thrill-seeking, and the regular zip lining position is plenty adventurous for me.  (And of course I had my camera to think about and protect.)

What does it look like to zip across the canyon while suspended upside down?  By now in this series of photos you have probably anticipated my teaser:  the answer will be shown tomorrow.

5 comments:

  1. I think I could do this adventure but no upside down zip lining for me. I would rather see the view while zip lining

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  2. I'll just enjoy your photos. That's enough of a thrill for me.

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  3. I sure hope there weren't any obstacles at their landing site; coming in head down must make it a bit difficult "land":-)

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  4. Lordy, I'm just catching up with all this activity. This is incredible, so are all the other photos showing how brave everyone is. I'd still like to do it but I'm not sure about the upsidedown bit! Stunning scenery.

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