‘Did you previously work in a circus?’ Sean Taylor enquires facetiously, grinning up at me from the forest floor. Dangling from a thin wire ten metres up in the crisp, early-morning air, I can only manage a tight-lipped smile in response to the former Royal Marine and founder of Tree Top Adventure. You see, before getting into this precarious – not to mention wobbly – situation, hanging between two pines overlooking the A470 just outside Betws-y-Coed, I had enjoyed a hearty, full Welsh breakfast at the Bryn Tyrch Hotel.
Given my new-found acute vertigo, it suddenly crosses my mind that not only could this meal have been my last, but it also might not be the last I’ve seen of it. Melodrama aside, I know that I’m really in no danger whatsoever as I negotiate the UK’s highest continuous course. I have been given a thorough safety briefing, on hand are Sean and his trained (and as I was to discover, extremely patient) staff, and I’ve been fitted with a Petzl helmet and full-body harness. Better still, that harness is attached to the world’s only continuous belay safety system designed for trees. It allows me to travel the entire 28-section obstacle course without the need to unclip from the safety wire that runs within arm’s reach above my head. When I fall (not if – it’s inevitable), I will stop just five feet from the wire. Locally-born Sean opened Tree Top Adventure, which lies inside Snowdonia National Park, in May 2007 with partner Nick Moriarty, whose company has built more than 550 rope facilities.
In addition to the Ewok village-like obstacle course, there are Developmental Ropes and Low Ropes areas for group activities designed to encourage teamwork and trust, which have proved popular with stag and hen parties and corporate clients. He may like to joke that ‘the course is growing every day’ (in reference to the trees), but Sean really does have big plans for the 900-acre site. He’s hoping to build a grass-roofed log cabin visitor centre and a mountain biking technical and skills-development course; and to offer crag climbing as well as educational forest walks. Meanwhile, orienteering begins this spring.
Continued...
By the end of 2007, 12,000 people had completed the high ropes course – a figure that exceeded the company’s expectations. Given that there are another three high-ropes centres in the area (although these are artificial courses rather than installed in trees), there is clearly a market for what is a thrilling challenge for all ages. The activity’s popularity is understandable. After all, courses remain open in all weathers (except for electrical storms, severe ice and gales), and the whole family can take part. A circuit of the course takes about two hours and a visit provides a great half-day’s adventure. The looped, ‘easy’ section of the Tree Top Adventure high-ropes course at about five metres up is as high as most other UK courses go. Before moving on to the next higher stage, those who want to go no further can get off or repeat the first part. Bravely however, I carry on, ‘motivated’ by Sean telling me that a six-year-old child has completed the course.
A good sense of balance and upper-arm strength help swift progress, so I am left to scramble, tremble and inch my way across rope bridges, hanging tyres, swinging logs and platforms, and past obtrusive buoys. In fact, I only pick up speed on what soon becomes my favourite part, the zip wire. The course cleverly uses the slope to gain height throughout its length, so at first I don’t notice the ground dropping away as I progress. Suddenly I am 15 metres (50ft) up and facing a single, thin log on which to walk to the next tree’s platform, without dangling ropes for support. It’s here that I require the assistance of staff member Jenny Collett, who climbs to my rescue and guides me across.
Jenny’s calm, reassuring manner and professionalism give me confidence, which promptly bottoms out when she points to how we descend from the course. The Powerfan – a complex device that looks like a cross between a winch and a giant yo-yo, slows its rope-feed as you near the ground, offering a Batman-like descent in a standing position at 85 per cent the speed of a free-fall. A lively group of fearless teenage Air Cadets (2132 Sedgley Squadron) are among the next on the course, and make it look easy.
The forest, cast in unseasonably warm sunshine, now fills with the sound of excited banter and laughter. Ahead, a family clambers through the tall pines, the thrilled mother shouting encouragement to her teenage daughter. Sean tells me that an RAF fighter pilot got no further than the second obstacle, but I think he’s just trying to make me feel better. ‘You don’t know how you’re going to react until you’re up there,’ he says. ‘No one is ever pressured into doing something they don’t feel they can do. We want people to leave on a high, knowing they’ve done something they didn’t think they could.’ I am quietly proud that I completed the course. And though I have rarely been happier to return to terra firma, I’d be tempted to have another crack at it the next time I visit Snowdonia. Standard prices: £20 for adults • £15 for those under 18 Minimum height requirement is 1.3 metres ttadventure.co.uk 0870 8031106
