Riding a zip-line down a mountain

Over the last two years they have been building the world's fastest and steepest zip-line in Pokhara.  It opened last summer.

 The zip-line starts at the top of a small mountain - like the green ones in background of this picture.  The beautiful Himalayas are off in the distance.

Here is the platform where they launch the passengers by two's.  The small net right in front of the gate has the opposite effect of reassuring anyone.

Here are some people going right before us.  As you can see the riders are quite well strapped in. A rope on the right can be pulled to slow you down if you should want.

It's easy to believe this is the world's steepest zip-line.  The first portion of it is at a dramatic angle.  They say you reach 140 KPH (85 MPH) but it didn't feel that fast.  Since we were so high above the trees the illusion of speed was just not there.

I paid for a picture package and video but my computers will not bring up the pictures... so here's a picture of Sanjaya at the very end.  (I'm off to the right.  I'm way behind him because I pulled the brake hard at the end.  I think Sanjaya coming in fast would have been more fun.)

And here we are having triumphantly conquered the zip-line.

I'm glad I did it because it was fun.  I might even do it again someday but compared to paragliding, the zip-line is almost boring.