Rockwood – Neverland has a new address about 25 miles north of Durango in the rugged Animas River gorge, according to a world-famous climbing- gear mogul.
Paul Petzl, whose family name is synonymous with innovative gear for ascending mountains and descending into caves, recently tested an application for his European products in a Colorado setting he says fulfills every boyhood dream he had about the American West.
Petzl, president of the Crolles, France-based Petzl, supplies equipment for canopy tours from Europe to Central America, but he says the year-old zip-line course in 300-year-old ponderosas at Tall Timber Resort is an exceptional engineering feat with an incomparable backdrop.
“For me, when I was a little boy, I loved movies with cowboys and Indians,” Petzl says. “Here it is – like everything in my dreams – the canyon, the river, the large trees and the train. I am very impressed. It is very, very fun to fly here.”
The train is the historic Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, one of only two ways to get into this wilderness- surrounded island of private land owned by the Beggrow family. The other way into this 180-acre diamond-shaped flat amid towering cliffs and 14,000- foot peaks is by resort helicopter.
Tall Timber’s Soaring Tree Top Adventures is the first zip-line course of its kind and scale in the United States, where there are only a handful of small courses. National Geographic Adventure recently named it one of the Top 10 Sky-High Thrills in the country – it’s the only zip line on the list.
Flying like the actors in “Peter Pan,” only with visibly sturdy harnesses and cables, guests sail through aspen glades, sometimes crisscrossing the Animas, to the next old-growth ponderosa bearing a steel platform that looks deceptively delicate.
The tallest of the course’s 35 platforms is 100 feet above ground. The longest span will be 750 feet.
The treetops are a different realm, or, “une autre monde,” as Petzl’s wife, Catherine, says.
“We talk exactly the same language,” Paul Petzl says of the Beggrows. “They have the same great passion for verticality.”
Creating the course was a sea change from the tradition of the five-star Tall Timber Resort. Owner Denny Beggrow says his guests were no longer satisfied with being pampered in an exclusive five-star resort with spectacular scenery. Hiking, fishing and horseback riding were too old-school for families who increasingly wanted vacations with extreme or exhilarating sports.
Beggrow and his son Johnroy designed and built their Soaring course with help from metal artisan Ralph Holt. The unique tree-hugging platforms, approved by an arborist, are girdles designed to release pressure off tree bark until weight is brought to bear on the platform. The more weight on the platform, the tighter the hug. But nothing is bolted into any tree, Denny Beggrow says.
They started testing the first spans in August 2004. The course, now more than a mile long, was largely complete and ready for guests in May 2005. And for the first time in its history, the resort’s grounds were open to the general public.
The Beggrows continue to add new spans, such as “Catapult” and “Kayaking,” which parallels the Animas River.
Patented engineering innovations and plentiful “sky rangers” allow fliers to zip to the next platform but to land relatively gently whatever the age, size or skill of the airborne participants. It is exhilaration without exertion or much risk.
“I’ve been zip-lining all over the world, and this is my favorite course,” says 14-year-old Jase Swinden from Laguna Beach, Calif. “On other courses they have giant sponges at the end, and you slam into them. Here you come slowly up on the platform.”
For 33-year-old Klaudia Birkner, it was the adventure of a lifetime. Birkner must often rely on a wheelchair because she suffers from a variant of multiple sclerosis called Devic’s. With a little extra help from sky rangers, she was able to complete most of the course.
“It was wonderful,” she says.
For Petzl executives, Birkner’s story was inspiring because they strive to make the inaccessible accessible to people.
“It’s fantastic they can serve such a broad customer base here,” says Mark “Roody” Rasmussen, president of Petzl North America, who also came to test the course.
“People’s lives are literally hanging on our gear,” says Michel Goulet, the head of Petzl America’s work and rescue division. “We equip hundreds of zip-line courses and canopy tours around the world. Nothing is quite like this place.”
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
If you want to fly high
Soaring Tree Top Adventures hosts an average of 20 people a day. The cost, including the train ticket there, is $262 a person for day guests. The season runs through the end of October. For more information, go to soaringtreetopadventures.com, or call Tall Timber Resort at 970-259-4813.
