iStockphoto / raeva
Thrill seekers who haven’t ridden the ‘Roll Air Cable Zip Wire’ (aka zipline) at the Orcières-Merlette ski resort in the French Alps are missing out. This is amongst the most intimidating and wild ziplines we’ve ever seen anywhere on Earth.
I’ve been ziplining in Panama and Costa Rica and they pale in comparison to the Orcières-Merlette zipline which measures 1.8 kilometers or about 1.11 miles long and in the viral video below, the zipline disappears into the Alpine clouds. The clip was posted to Instagram on March 7th and has since been viewed nearly 6 million times with snowboarders worldwide in awe by this.
Would You Ride The Orcières-Merlette Zipline?
The comments on the video are all over the place. One person joked that when you don’t buy a lift ticket they send you off the mountain on this zipline to never be seen or heard from again. Another person asked if this is where snowboarders go to die. And another person joked that the ride is ‘100% safe… 60% of the time’ in a nod to the cologne joke from Anchorman.
Based on my findings from YouTube, this zipline has been open for over a decade. This might be one of those things that’s so awesome the Europeans keep it a secret from us Americans so we don’t overrun their resort to go ride the glorious 1.1-mile zipline. One person rode it with a selfie stick to show the rest of us what the ride is like:
The Orcières-Merlette zipline is open from mid-December through mid-April this year. It will then presumably reopen for the Summer as the attraction’s website lists ‘bring good trainers’ as advice for Summer. They also note that it is available to groups who make reservations.
Would you ride it? Let us know in the Facebook or Twitter comments.