“You’ll be fine, Lotte!” I encourage my ten-year-old daughter as she dangles in a harness, buffeted by a Swiss alpine breeze at almost 11,000 feet. She emits a yelp as, with a crack and a clang, her small form explodes down Europe’s highest zipline, hurtling at 80 miles per hour over the crevasses of Verbier’s Tortin glacier. With her safe arrival, my smile drops and stomach is gripped by icy claws as the realisation dawns: I’m next.
There had already been high drama on the high line as the pair of us approached and then retreated from the Mont 4 Zipline launch platform no fewer than four times (a record, I’m informed by kindly Jean-Francois, the attendant). With the mothering motto of “lead by example”, before you can cry “Bötchyo!” (“Help” in the local dialect) I’m soaring almost a mile (this overachieving zipline is also the Alps’ longest) into Lotte’s arms as she jubilantly squeals, “We did it!”
