New zip line offers soaring views, speed

GLACIER VIEW — What started five years ago as a jet boat tour company is now home to the fastest zip line in Alaska.

“The G2,” as the 250-feet high zip line is called, is part of a joint venture between Glacier View Adventures and MICA Guides. It’s also the brainchild of co-owners Arnie Hrncir and Don Wray.

“The ride’s about a minute long and it’ll be the fastest minute of your life,” Hrncir said, of the G2.

But once you begin your descent, everything seems to go in slow motion.

“You’re so high up, it’s like being in an airplane,” Hrncir said.

And the views are even better. Riders simply step away from a staircase and glide over the edge of a cliff, soaring through a sort of canyon with trees to the left, a river below and the waterway’s source, Matanuska Glacier, right out in front.

“I felt like I was in a movie,” said Roz Reynolds, a newcomer to Alaska, after riding the G2 Friday.

And there’s no need to worry about the stop. The $25,000 brake system at the bottom slows the rider with a slight jolt, then halts all forward motion about 15 feet later. The rider is left hanging a few feet above a tall gravel mound, awaiting the pull from a guide to the sliding metal staircase.

“You can send a 200-pound person or a little kid down and it stops them in the same distance,” said lead MICA guide Katie Connor.

Connor and her co-worker, Hira Shamsuddin — who is the lead logistics person but “does everything,” she said — know all about how the zip lines work. After four years for Connor and two years for Shamsuddin of checking the lines and user equipment daily during the season, they can even hook a person up with their eyes closed.

“We need to make sure that we visually and physically check everything before we ever send anyone down,” Connor said. “If we have anything go wrong on the zip, we’ll know who was checking it, when they checked it, what was going on.”

But the plan, of course, is to not have anything go wrong.

“You can’t have accidents,” Hrncir said, because it could spell not only the end of a life, but the end of the business.

That’s why he and Wray have hired people like Connor and Shamsuddin. Connor, for example, has a degree in outdoor leadership and education with a focus in natural history.

“It means helping people have fun outside in a safe way and teaching them about plants. And geology,” Connor said.

But she takes more stock in her work experience prior to the completion of her degree. Connor worked on trail crews in Washington, Idaho and Oregon when she was 15, started commercial fishing when she was 16, and obtained a management position with the Soil and Water Conservation District in her hometown of Homer around the same time.

“Risk management has always been a part of my life,” Connor said.

And again, the specs of the new zip line are such that riders needn’t worry about the risks outlined in the waiver they sign before launching themselves from the great height.

Wray said the tension on the cables anchored to 35,000 pounds of concrete, six feet underground, was pulled to 10,000 pounds by a D-9 bulldozer.

“It’s almost like something you would see at Disney World as far as the construction and the safety systems,” Wray said.

And the best part is, The G2 was made in Alaska, by Alaskans, after an experienced Colorado team taught the MICA guides and Glacier View employees how to rig everything up.

“It’s all built to industry standards (and) we built it ourselves right here in Glacier View,” Wray said.

Wray already had years of experience building zip lines and ropes courses in the Lower 48, but his friends from Colorado helped them to amp up the caliber of their entertainment.

“I just like the challenge of coming up with something new in this area,” Wray said.

Connor and Shamsuddin said they, too, like the challenges their jobs provide — and the people they work for.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a boss that lets you have so much say in what you’re doing and what you want to accomplish … and Don’s amazing for that,” Shamsuddin said.

Plus, her co-workers know what’s up.

“We have a group of people who understand (this company) and want to work as hard as they possibly can,” she said.

Connor said it’s all part of good business.

“Good companies and good businesses … care about how the employees feel, they care about how we’re doing,” she said.

Ride the zip line

For $149 — or less if you use their current coupon code online — those with an adventurous spirit can fly off a cliff toward Matanuska Glacier, take a short hike led by a MICA guide, and climb the tower to The G2’s shorter, slower, but perhaps trickier sibling, “The Nitro.” The G2 is 2,200-feet long, 250-feet high at maximum, and allows riders to reach speeds of up to 63 mph, while The Nitro is 1,500-feet long, 150-feet high and can get riders to 40 mph.

To book a zip line tour or a glacier trek or climb with Glacier View Adventures, visit glacierviewadventures.com.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.