Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire

A wire cable stretches high above the forest ground and connects two platforms for zip lining at Eaglecrest Ski Area. Zip line tours are set to be offered again this summer at the ski area starting in late June after three years of halted operations due to COVID-19 and staffing issues.

Summer zipline tours to restart at Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area

May 22, 2023 // by Black Press Media Staff

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Visitors to Juneau, Alaska can once again take to the skies at Eaglecrest Ski Area, thanks to the return of zipline tours.

After a three-year suspension due to the pandemic and staffing issues, operator Kawanti Adventures is back with its Alpine Zipline Adventure.

The tour, which includes five separate ziplines and starts adjacent to the Ptarmigan Chairlift and ends just southeast of the Base Lodge at Eaglecrest, is anticipated to be back in service starting June 28, according to the company’s website.

The tour lasts a little under four hours, with ticket prices starting at US$235 per adult and US$175 for children ages four to 12 years old.

Christa Hagan, managing director at Kawanti Adventures, said in an email interview that the company recently hired an experienced operations manager for the tours.

In early May, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly OK’d an ordinance allowing the company to operate at Eaglecrest for the next five summer seasons after its previous five-year permit agreement was set to expire in June.

The company is permitted to operate up to 20 zipline tours per day, every day of the week.

Hagan said that though the company has owned the zipline since 2018, it hasn’t been in operation since 2019 due to various factors, including the pandemic and related canceled/limited cruise seasons in 2020-2021, along with difficulty hiring in 2022.

The company also previously owned another zipline on Douglas known as the Alaska Canopy Adventures, however, it was decommissioned in 2017 after 10 years.

Eaglecrest Ski Area general manager Dave Scanlan said the revival of the zipline tours will help kickstart the city-owned ski resort’s ongoing efforts to attract more summer visitors.

“We’re really excited to see them back up and operating — it’s a really popular tourism activity we want to continue supporting,” he said. “With the expected amount of cruise ship tourists this summer, it’s important to have diverse activities that they can participate in and kind of spread them out beyond the core base of downtown.”

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