Photo courtesy of Mount Washington Alpine Resort
Mount Washington Alpine Resort’s newest attraction, the Eagle’s Flight Zip Tour, opened on Saturday, June 27. The attraction opened with COVID-specific procedures including limited tours to household groups, requiring physical distancing, as well as facial coverings or masks for all participants.
Featuring four side-by-side spans, the complete zip tour is 2,313 meters (7,600 feet) long over a vertical drop of 415 meters (1,360 feet). The opening is the second stage of construction; the lower two zip lines debuted as “The Hawk” in 2019.
Construction on the $4 million installation, designed and built by Utah-based Terra Nova, started in 2018. The first phase was finished in 2019, and the second phase was nearing completion when the province went into lockdown in March.
Not surprisingly, completing the project amid COVID-19 restrictions—including a ban on travel into Canada from the U.S.—took some creativity. Canadian customs deemed the final inspection work on the attraction an “essential service” and allowed one member of Terra Nova to cross the border and perform final inspections, provided that he self-isolated on property and remained away from all Mount Washington staff, and employed best practices as outlined by the provincial health office.
