Montana Zipline Adventures offers rides across the sky | Local
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Austin Andrew rides one of the ziplines offered by Montana Zipline Adventures west of Anaconda. Mount Haggin looms in the background.
Mianne and Andre Graa own Montana Zipline Adventures, which offers seven zipline runs in steep and rolling hills west of Anaconda.
Austin Andrew, operations manager at Montana Zipline Adventures, brakes to a stop Tuesday to estimate the distance from the cable to the ground — which was found to be about 85 feet.
Carabiners poised for deployment at Montana Zipline Adventures.
Austin Andrew zoomed over the hill. He plunged like a lanky, long-legged peregrine falcon. A whirring sound accompanied his tethered flight.
He braked to a stop. Andrew dangled, grinning, from the steel cable above his head. Mount Haggin loomed behind him, snowcapped and rugged, looking like an ad for the Pintler Veterans Memorial Scenic Highway.
Nearby, John Turman, a zipline safety expert and inspector for Bonsai Design, used a scope to estimate the distance from Andrew to the ground.
“About 85 feet,” he said.
The day was Tuesday and the morning was crisp and clear enough to merit comment. Standing near Turman were Andre Graa and his wife, Mianne, owners of Montana Zipline Adventures.
They planned to open the zipline courses May 21, weather permitting.
Earlier, Turman said the new business, sited in the rolling hills above and beyond North Cable Road near Anaconda, was on track to get an inspection report affirming that Montana Zipline Adventures met the standards set by the Association for Challenge Course Technology.
“It’s all about safety,” Graa said. “Safety is number one, above everything.”
Graa said he and Mianne got the idea for the enterprise in 2017 while on vacation.
