To get to the Forest Adventure in Vercorin you’ll need to take two different cable cars.Then, at about 1800 meters, you’ll have to climb in the trees if you want to zipline down.

(ZIPLINE)

Don’t worry. The course is full of safety measures. You’ll get a harness, a helmet, a safety carabiner and a carabiner pulley for riding the ziplines.

There are 12 challenges here with different ways of climbing up the trees and some that will test your balance too.

BAPTISTE NEUROHR: Before the exercises, you find this billboard here with the name of the exercise and its difficulty in colors, like a ski slope: green, blue, red and black. The hard is the black, but we always have an easy way to go. But for you, the easier is closed.

HELMICK: It’s closed? Oh OK. So we have to do the hard one.

Batiste Neurohr has been working at forest adventure for seven years. A guide like Batiste will run through all the safety procedures and then test you on a relatively easy challenge to make sure you get it. Once you’ve mastered the safety techniques and conquered the challenge of walking across a wire between trees, it’s on to the zipline.

(ZIPLINE)

OK. Landings are more difficult than I anticipated.

On the zipline you often spin around and go backwards as you are dangling the air. And landing backwards results in …

(ZIPLINE CRASH) 

Ropes: Vercorin">

Ropes: Vercorin

NEUROHR: Oopla! OK. Great landing…

HELMICK: You like that landing? That’s a 10. I’ve had worse crashes.

But the second landing would be different.

HELMICK: Alright, we’re at our second landing here. We’re going to try a better landing this time.

NEUROHR: OK.

HELMICK: Alright.

(ZIPLINE)

HELMICK: There we go.

NEUROHR: If the other was 10 points this was 20 points.

HELMICK: Alright! See I’m learning.

Unfortunately, I would never get the landings. Let’s call it hit or miss.

(CRASH LANDING)

Anyway, the course gives you a lot of different challenges designed for the whole family. Each challenge offers a difficult side and an easy side.

Some ofthe tasks include bridges attached by ropes that swing, trees that are balance beams and  the Tarzan challenge.

NEUROHR: So you must attach the line and after you have two meters when you fall. And after you advance into the net. For me it is the best because it is very fun.

HELMICK: This is your favorite one in the entire park?

NEUROHR: Yeah, my favorite.

HELMICK: Baptiste the Tarzan.

HOT TIP: You may want to take gloves (for protection, not warmth). The ropes and the trees can rough up your hands a bit.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: This is pretty accessible to almost anyone. You will need to have a little balance and upper body strength to climb into the trees. But if a challenge is too difficult, you can use your pulley to slide across the safety wire before you get to the zipline.

(TARZAN CHALLENGE)

After the course, you have an option to go down the mountain. You can go down withthe cable car, the same way you came up, or a very fun alternative…

(SCOOTER)

…a 40 minute scooter ride. These are big wheeled scooters made for the mountains. No engines needed.

Climbing trees and zipling through the forest and then ending on a fantastic scooter ride could be some of the most fun you have in Switzerland.

Our expert today is Baptiste Neurohr, and he’s been with Forest Adventures for seven years… he grew up in Vercorin and knows the area inside out. An adult can expect to pay about 52 francs for the course. The cable car ride up is separate and the scooter ride down is another 15 francs.

Forest Adventure is loaded with activities for children and adults. It can beat you up a little though.  You may bump your leg or cut your finger and if you don’t stick the landings right your legs may be a bit sore. But if this sounds like your thing, the park is perfect, but you have to take the scooter ride down. It’s the perfect dessert on a twelve course adventure.

That’s today’s Adventure Switzerland on WRS.  I’m Alex Helmick.