Better Than Bungee? Switzerland’s Terrifying Canyon Swings
The Swiss are fastidious. They are neat. They are prim and proper and certainly timely and would never be so adventurous as to hurl themselves off a perfectly good ledge while attached only to a flimsy rope, right?
Wrong.
Strap your harness and get ready to fly. (Photo: Les Guides de Verbier/Facebook)
Switzerland is home to dozens of massive adventure swings.
Here’s how it works:
You attach yourself to a rope or cable, jump off a ledge, and swing wild and free through a canyon, over treetops or over a raging stream below. It’s something like a bungee jump, but instead of falling straight down, you drop into a massive arc. You feel like you’re flying because, well, you are!
Related: 10 Tourist-Free Adventure Destinations
The start is simple enough, having found your way to the launch point of one of these Swiss thrill rides; you don a harness, then clip into a cable or climbing rope that’s fixed high above the canyon floor. The guide checks you, gives you the OK, and then you jump out into space. Of course, for some the actual jump takes a little longer than others…
Stepping off a ledge into the light Swiss air, a simultaneous rush of both wind and panic hits you as you first plummet toward the rocky torrent below, until the rope/cable losses its slack and you start to swing. Now it’s time to fly. You rocket up the canyon as joy (and relief) rolls from your brain down to your toes and back up your vocal chords.
You’re going to let out a hearty yell as you jump off the platform. (Photo: Outdoor Interlaken)
At this point, it’s considered proper Swiss etiquette to yell something (now that you can actually breathe again) at the top of your lungs. “WHAA-HOOO” is good, “OHMYGODOHMYGOD” is always popular, and the ubiquitous “WOO-HOOO!” is well regarded as well.
I’ve done two types of canyon swings in Switzerland and, while very similar, their experiences were quite different.
Related: 9 Ways to Survive Dating an Adventure Dude
One, outside the stunningly quaint town of Pont de Finhaut in the Verbier / St-Bernard region, is a 50-meter ‘pendulum swing’ beneath the Finhaut Bridge.
Swing above trees and beneath the Finhaut Bridge with Verbier Guides. (Photo: Les Guides de Verbier/Facebook)
The local pros at Verbier Guides provide your helmets and harnesses and a safety brief. Note that the European version of a ‘safety brief’ is often much shorter, less specific, and sometimes more curt than ones you might be used to getting in North America or the UK. Their style is much more to give you the very basics, and then just let you GO! Don’t – ever – be afraid to ask for a more in-depth brief, more information, further clarification, or additional questions until you’re clear on the activity, your part in it, and your safety gear.
Next they unlock the cable, get you clipped in and checked out, then you jump right out into space. The fall is minimal, a few meters, and then you quickly start to swing, back and forth, over the raging waters below. It’s a great thrill and will leave you beaming from ear-to-ear.
For an intense adrenaline rush, swing through a narrow glacial canyon. (Photo: Outdoor Interlaken)
For a more extreme ride, head to Switzerland’s ‘adventure capital’, Interlaken. There, the good folks at Outdoor Interlaken will pick you up from your hotel, then buzz you out twenty minutes to the Gletscherschlucht canyon.
There you’re again provided a harness and a safety brief, then clipped in and checked out. You step out onto a steel-mesh deck. Here, the step off is significantly tougher because the drop is far (FAR) longer and the previously robust-seeming climbing rope suddenly starts to look pretty flimsy.
Once you step off though, you free-fall for a few frightful/exhilarating seconds (that may feel much longer than a few seconds to you), before the rope stretches out and you start to blissfully swing through the glacial canyon (a note to the fellas: unlike in rock-climbing, keep the leg straps on your harness somewhat LOOSE… this is important… trust me). You then swing back, a human pendulum that cruises up and back down the canyon several times in progressively more mellow swings. This one will leave you and your mates absolutely pumped with adrenaline for sometime after. It is a major-league thrill ride.
Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Check out our original adventure travel series A Broad Abroad.
