Mountain Creek Zip Tours — Local services in Vernon Township

3 1/2 stars

3 1/2 stars

This was my first time ziplining outside of a random high school gym class and I could tell it's something I'd love doing in the future. The problem is that the Mountain Creek setup is less than ideal and in my opinion not the best bang for your buck or time. The Millennial Chum and I attended the 10:30am session yesterday just after Mountain Creek opened. Would definitely recommend going at that time - parking in this area is a chaotic nightmare, which we experienced on our way out around 1pm. If you're not familiar with the resort and the parking situation, try to allocate some additional time.

The staff at Zip Tours is fantastic and by far by the biggest selling point. We had Cooper and Meg (I think?) as our guides, both of whom were super professional and personable. I am absolutely derp level when it comes to straps (airplane seat belts, bras, you name it), and everyone was very patient with me and basically just did all of the buckling and strapping while I just stood there like Ed from the Lion King. The instructions for the actual ziplining and positioning the body for landing at the other end were easy to understand and it didn't take long for everyone in the group to be acclimated.

The session/class was two hours long, and involved four ziplines. The first is the short training line down at the bottom of the ski lift. After that, you go up the ski lift to the top of the mountain and do the other three, which are basically crisscrossing one of the lakes at the top of Vernon Peak. After completing the four lines, you navigate across a narrow suspension bridge to an ATV/trailer/truck that takes you back to the ski lift to wrap up the adventure.

My favorite was the second line, which is the longest and offers the best views. I hike up mountains on a pretty regular basis so heights aren't much of a concern, but I DO get queasy on aggressive rollercoasters so that was a mild caveat in the back of my mind. This wasn't an issue at all; there's no significant dropdowns and the speed isn't that fast. I will say though that the landing can be a little abrupt/hard at the end, which they mitigate as much as they can with this cushioning spring system. Probably given the height/distance, the second line had the most intense landing, but it wasn't egregious.

Here's the main problem - it's two hours for four ziplines, one of which is a very short training line that takes about five seconds if I had to guess. The actual ziplining is minimal (and maybe that's just the nature of the beast - it doesn't take long to zip down a line) and a huge chunk of that two hours is you just standing around waiting for other people to go down the line. Probably the best way to fix that is to either slash the class size in half (which I'm guessing they don't want to do because they'd be leaving a sizeable chunk of money on the table) or investing in adding another one or two lines at each stop to speed up the process.

Another issue (and I think this is more on the company overall and not the guides) is that they allowed three people who were late to join us, and they caused delays as well. The rules on the website clearly say that if you're late you're going to get slotted into the next available session, but they made an accommodation for them. It honestly wouldn't have been a big deal, but these guys were pretty disruptive and self-centered. One of them had a loud Go Pro that he kept turning on and off and he even asked one of the guides to confirm it was recording. It might be too extreme to ban those devices especially given the type of activity you're doing, but it was a definite distraction. The other two were intermittently making out and filming the rest of us; that latter part I think arguably should have been shot down by the guides or cited in the rules. You want to film yourself or the scenery? Fine, but I think it's pretty douchey to film the rest of us without permission.

I don't regret doing it, but I'd like to try this at a different venue with longer ziplines and...

Beware if you are a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf because there is a guy that accompanied the tour with us who made certain comments that ruined the experience for me as it was my first time zip lining. He pointed at my hijab telling me I have to wear a helmet. I didn’t know if he meant I needed to take it off or that it would be an inconvenience in general. Regardless, the headscarf wouldn’t get in the way. He even commented on my attire saying that next time I should wear something tighter. It was very rude and unprofessional. Overall, the experience would’ve been better if the staff wasn’t make such disgusting comments during the tour. It showed a lack of education and quite honestly I wouldn’t recommend to friends and family. The guy was short, skinny, white, and always wore a hat. He talked too much during the tour so if you run into him, you should ask for...

Let me start off by saying the tour itself and the guides were great, so why the 2 star rating you ask? The rating stems from the fact that you pay up front for your party to attend this and there is zero flexibility if a member of your party can no longer attend for any reason. I am not in the business of donating money to any company, if a person is unable to attend a refund should be provided for that person. Anyone that plans to do a zip tour know that you'll have a great time, the guides will be very helpful and friendly, but be sure your entire party can make the event or you will be in a situation like myself, donating money, as the company will not refund if there is a cancellation on the day...