Vail Mountain is considering a new zipline canopy tour
Game Creek canopy tour has not been a success, but plans for another tour remain in place nonetheless
Townsend Bessent/Vail Daily archive
Vail Mountain may not be using its current zipline canopy tour, but that hasn’t stopped officials from envisioning another.
In fact the resort, according to its latest master plan, states that the current zipline tour is indeed being used, claiming “a variety of activities are provided at Adventure Ridge including a canopy tours (sic), ziplines, mountain coaster, challenge courses, summer tubing, scenic gondola rides, disc golf, bungee trampolines, mountain top 4×4 tours, summer tubing, climbing wall and a system of hike, bike and multiple-use trails.”
But not only is Vail Mountain’s Game Creek canopy tour not in operation in 2024, it hasn’t been in operation for several years.
The Game Creek Aerial Adventure is a series of seven ziplines constructed as part of a $25 million summer recreational improvements plan. It opened in 2016, but in the summer of 2017, two injuries occurred on the Vail zipline course. One incident, in which the rider suffered a traumatic brain injury and a patellar fracture, resulted in a lawsuit that a judge dismissed due to the liability waivers signed before the tour.
Those weren’t the only serious incidents to occur on a Vail Resorts’ zipline. At the company’s zipline in Stowe, Vermont, implemented in 2015, worker Scott Lewis was killed on Sept. 23, 2021, when a piece of equipment that Vail Resorts neglected to update failed and caused the crash, according to an investigation.
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Lewis’s former wife and executor of his estate, Molly Lewis, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Vail Resorts, the Vermont Digger reported in December.
The lawsuit alleges that Vail intentionally decided against replacing the $26 canvas lanyard that caused the crash, despite the manufacturer’s recommendation that those lanyards be replaced every year, the Digger reported.
“The Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration, after an investigation, determined the lanyard was four years old and showing signs of wear after being through nearly three full seasons of intensive use,” the Digger reported. “VOSHA fined the resort $27,000.”
In Vail, mountain officials in 2017 said the Game Creek canopy tour was closed indefinitely due to maintenance following the crashes that summer. It was the last official update the resort gave about the zipline tour’s status.
In 2024, however, with the advent of Vail Mountain’s latest master plan, the canopy tour is not only listed as an attraction that’s currently in operation, it’s mentioned alongside another previously approved, unimplemented canopy tour, which the mountain says it would like to install. The other canopy tour is called the Front Side Canopy Tour and was approved to be located from Mid-Vail to the base of Gondola One.
“It would consist of ten interconnected ziplines over 3.2 miles,” according to the plan. “The longest segment is planned to be approximately 3,300 feet long, carrying riders over 500 feet above the ground.”
The Front Side Canopy Tour is one of several new summer activities being eyed for the mountain, according to the 2024 master plan document.
“There are a number of previously approved, unimplemented summer activities projects that Vail would like to implement over the life of this MPD,” the document states. “These activities include the Front Side Canopy Tour, riparian experience, modified horse trail and aerial adventure course.”
But Vail Mountain spokesperson Rachel Levitsky said the document’s inclusion of those activities shouldn’t be taken for an actual plan, instead it’s more of a beacon for the resort to follow.
“The resort’s Master Development Plan is a guide for future improvements and designed to produce an inclusive recreation experience for all guests of the (White River National Forest) while remaining operationally efficient for Vail Mountain,” Levitsky said. “The Master Development Plan was created using an iterative and collaborative process between Vail Mountain planners and Forest Service personnel at the Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District who administer the Special Use Permit. Forest Service acceptance of the Master Development Plan as a planning tool for Vail and does not imply authorization to proceed with implementation of any of the identified projects.”
Levitsky said the 2024 master plan is intended to be a dynamic document, which may be amended periodically to reflect innovations in facilities and recreation.
“It outlines Vail Mountain’s strategies for maintaining a quality recreational facility on National Forest Service lands while allowing flexibility in achieving these goals,” she said.
