Mount Sima adventure park opens

The Mount Sima ski hill in Whitehorse opened its new summer season adventure park to the public Friday.

The non-profit society that operates the hill hopes the adventure park will help it to become a year-round destination.

The park is like an obstacle course set up in the treetops and features suspension bridges, rope swings and ziplines. Visitors wear a harness and are clipped in to a safety rope. The entire course takes about two hours to complete.

Youth from the Whitehorse Boys and Girls Club tried out the park on opening day.

"It's super fun but there's this scary part and it has green balls where it swings but you've got safety gear so it doesn't hurt you," said Darrien Roger.

Great Northern Ski Society president Craig Hougen said safety is the top priority.    

 "There are guides on the ground and they'll coach you and give you help and it's a very nurturing kind of environment," he said.

"They help you through the course and you kind of do it together. But if you decide you've had enough — and many people do because it goes through a green, red, blue and black level and not everyone gets right through the black — you can get off whenever you like."

A zipline touted as North America's longest is scheduled to open in two weeks, and downhill mountain bike trails in the park are set to open by mid-July.