Ziplines are cool.

Even cooler would be a zipline that allows me to go out and back, e.g. across a river or between treehouses.

This idea is for a mechanism to allow 2-way (but not simultaneous) traffic on a zipline. The line is fixed at one station, and at the other station there are two heights at which the line can be fixed. One is higher than station 1, the other is lower. There is a remotely-actuatable trip mechanism on station 2 that allows the line to fall from the high state to the low one.

Considered the idea of a (human-)powered trolley but this way seems a bit simpler.
-- afinehowdoyoudo, Sep 26 2014

A reliable movable attach point is going to be expensive because there is so much tension.

I guess this idea does potentially have some advantage over just installing two cables because two cables would put twice the load on the support structure and require twice as much cable.
-- scad mientist, Sep 26 2014


I love the idea of this for trams between buildings in a city.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 26 2014


The problem is that for any decent span, the catenary curve will be severe enough that you need a decent height change to make sure you don't end up stuck in the middle.
-- Custardguts, Sep 27 2014


I didn't think of two tracks. Nice.
-- afinehowdoyoudo, Sep 27 2014


Have both ends move with the same basic mechanism.
-- WcW, Sep 28 2014


The idea of having two zip lines going either direction is great, but seems like somebody would have though of that before. You zipline across the gorge, take pictures etc, then climb up the stairs to the return zipline and go back. Just requires a detachable rolling unit but that's no big deal.

Baked right?
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 29 2014


Much simpler to just make a zipline where both ends are higher than the other.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2014



random, halfbakery