By Jim Workman
Register-Herald Reporter
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Burning Rock bills itself as an outdoor adventure park, although it’s best known for its ATV trails.
The addition of a new attraction this summer will go a long way in changing that.
Construction on a new zipline, the Burning Rock Express, began in April.
It is slated to open in June.
“Burning Rock has been very successful with our ATV trail offerings,” said Sarah Powell, marketing director at Burning Rock. “We wanted to be more involved with tourism. We feel like it’s a perfect complement to what people already do in our area. We’re promoting outdoor adventures.
“There’s nothing like it around. It will be the longest and fastest dual-racing zipline on the East Coast. It will be about a half-mile long.”
The public will be able to track progress of the construction on the Internet.
“We just launched a new Web site — www.burningrockwv.com — and we will be updating our blog with photos from the progress of the zipline construction,” Powell added. “People will be able to watch it take place.”
The designer of the zipline is Bonsai Design Inc., a Colorado-based company.
Bonzai completed the Tree Tops Canopy Tour for Class VI Mountain River in Fayette County last spring.
The company also completed zipline projects in Alaska, California, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas.
Managers from Bonsai will be on site along with eight to 10 construction workers for about 10 weeks, which will also include staff training.
“Every single one of our projects is 100 percent unique,” said Thaddeus Shrader, CEO of Bonsai. “One of the big points here is the length (of the zipline). This is the longest installation that Bonsai has ever done.
“Racing ziplines — it’s going to be awesome,” he added. “It’s going to be a one of a kind deal. We haven’t seen this scope of installation in this region. It’s not even close. The next closest one is maybe 1,400 feet (long), so this one is about 1,000 feet over anything that anyone can get to within three to four hours. I don’t know of any one that is even close to this one anywhere near here.”
Riders will be about 150 feet off the ground at their highest point.
Although it is a thrilling ride, visitors won’t see anything that resembles a carnival.
“Our systems are always natural and as integrated as possible,” Shrader said. “On this site, we’ve followed that theme with new designs for launch and landing areas. We did a launch and landing with a 1,500-foot zipline in California. Height over terrain is another unique feature. The structures at launch and landing will be artistically done. It will be a call back to a log cabin, woodsy environment.”
Bonsai ran into some unexpected challenges the first week.
“This is the first time we’ve worked with 3/4-inch cable,” Shrader said. “Our industry uses 1/2-inch cable. So we had to forecast for a whole new set of rigging systems and a whole new set of tools and equipment because of it. This whole week has been a 100 mph scramble for getting things that we didn’t have. We had to order bigger come-alongs, bigger shackles, bigger ground anchors, bigger snatch blocks and barge systems that you typically wouldn’t find other than at a crane yard or a ship yard. People in our industry don’t use this size of material that we’re using here, due to the tensions that we’re working with. It harkens to the half-mile systems that they use in Hawaii. It’s been a challenge.”
Shrader, who lives in Colorado, could certainly be counted as someone smitten by West Virginia’s landscape.
“It’s unbelievable how beautiful it is here,” he said. “Most people just don’t know about it. For people to be able to get out in the hills and experience nature from a new perspective, it’s life-changing.
“This has been one of the most beautiful sites that we’ve built on. It’s been a gift for us.”
Visitors will walk away with the same experience, Shrader predicted.
“People come in (at ziplines) for the ‘yee-haw’ experience,” he said. “They’re here to leap off the edge of a platform, but what happens is they will get a glimpse of nature. They get close to the trees again. They’ll smell the fresh air. It changes them. They walk away with something more than what they planned for. That’s the type of venue that we’re trying to give people to experience.
“When people come, they’ll come off with this wide-eyed look. They usually can’t articulate it. But they feel different. It messes with your head — in a good way. It zaps you.”
The new zipline attraction will also provide jobs at Burning Rock.
“We’re also actively recruiting ATV guides and zipline guides,” Powell added. “We’re getting our staff in place.”
Burning Rock is located at 117 Burning Rock Drive, Tams.
For more information, visit the Burning Rock Web site or call 877-683-9240.
— E-mail: jworkman@register-herald.com
