Ropes Course - Modern Courses

Modern Courses

Since the 1980s, ropes course sophistication has evolved considerably. Modern ropes courses incorporate sophisticated belay and safety systems using wire rope, friction devices, and climbing harnesses to manage what before were unmanaged risks. Recent technological advances in pole hardware and climbing equipment along with industry-accepted installation and design practices have greatly reduced the risk to end users and to the natural environment. Modern courses make use of a variety of materials other than trees, including utility poles and steel structures. Today’s courses can be found in a variety of locations, including wooded areas, open fields, or inside heated buildings.

A recent trend of themed courses (e.g. ropes course meets Disney World) has created a whole new genre of challenge course aimed at recreational pay-to-play users. New, mobile high ropes courses (originally designed by Jim Liggett of Ropes Courses, Inc.) and climbing walls built on flat bed trucks have made challenge courses more readily available to the public for recreational purposes and are generating increased publicity. Recent estimates by builders on the ropes-online listserv estimate that there are more than 7,500 challenge courses in the USA and that an additional 200 to 400 are built each year.

Adventure Parks with a more recreational-orientation are booming in Europe and awake a great interest in the USA and around the globe. They are usually designed for a larger volume of visitors and the Forest Adventure Park is very popular. They do not follow a specific educational concept, but see the individual, physical and mental challenge as a predominantly recreational activity. Neither climbing techniques nor special/specific physical fitness experience are necessary. Typical slogans are: Have fun, Test your Courage and Overcome your Own Fears. In an Adventure Park, the participants independently run a variety of trails of increasing difficulty levels. Each trail consists of several poles or trees that are connected by different acrobatic elements.