At first, I was a bit afraid of heights, but afterwards, I felt like I conquered this fear! Once you build your confidence, this is a pretty safe and very enjoyable experience! I felt challenged and I had a great workout!
We checked in at the Rainbow Valley visitor centre. It's between the visitor parking lot and the aerial park structure. The night before, I bought our tickets online and saved $3 off each ticket. Each adult ticket is $49 regular price.
Like most activities with some degree of physical risk, we were asked to sign waivers. To save time, you can also complete these online. We were then given wrist bands and instructed to meet outside beside the aerial park structure. We waited near the picnic tables. Our guide Anthony prepared our harnesses and then gave us a vital orientation.
There's a special cable attached to your harness with 2 carabiners, one on each end. This will literally be your lifeline during your adventure. You must learn how to hook this on properly.
Along the cables that run through the various obstacle courses, you will find different colored plastic keys. I'm not sure what these are called but this is what I'm calling them. You have to snap the carabiners (initially locking part looks like a C) onto these keys. This snapping action allows the carabiner to secure around the cable. Once in a locked position, the carabiner part that locks, looks like a U (around the cable). Please see my attached photos to see what I mean.
You don't need these keys to unlock the carabiner. There's a gold button on the carabiner handle that you push to unlock.
Your carabiner cable is designed to only allow one carabiner to be unhooked/unlocked at any time. This is an important safety feature. On the ground level, our guide had us practice this important carabiner handling skill. Then it was time to explore!
When we first started, I was very fixated on dealing with the carabiners while going up the stairs in the tower. To my surprise, the next thing I knew, we were at the very top of the tower! Initially thought I could do it...but then I realized HECK NO!
At 50 feet off the ground, I was a pretty freaked out! The ground looked so far away. I was second guessing my ability to do this at all! To calm myself down, my boyfriend and I headed back down to the lower levels. We headed to level 2. In total, there are 4 levels of obstacle courses.
To ensure your safety, you should always be connected to the cables, running throughout the structure. Even if you're just on the stairs. To go up in the tower, you follow the cables with red plastic keys. To come down, you follow the yellow keys. Obstacle courses that have cables with green keys are easier. Routes with with blue and black plastic keys are more difficult. Kind of like how ski hills are color coded to indicate difficulty levels.
The obstacle courses were varied and some were pretty wacky! They had a bicycle, a hanging camper, a canoe, a picnic table, a chair lift, skateboards, an old miner's train cart, skis, tires, a rainbow climbing wall, nets, ropes, slack lines and more!
Some obstacle courses require more physical fitness than others Some are more stable, while others are more wobbly. Some you can practically run across while others...require a bit more time. On the majority of the obstacles, only one person is permitted to cross at any given time. Luckily, there are plenty of obstacle courses to choose from!
It was comforting to know that our guide was available to give some advice on how to complete the obstacles. If anyone gets literally stuck in the middle of an obstacle course, guides are available to save the day!
Overall, I thought this was an awesome experience! I started on level 2 but made it to the top of the tower! In total we spent about 2.5 hours in the aerial park! I definitely recommend trying this place out! read more