When I am planning my next trip, I am always torn between going back to a place I loved, or exploring someplace new.  I went to Interlaken, Switzerland a couple of years ago for an adventure sports weekend, and as much fun as I had, there is so much I did not get a chance to try.

I did go canyon jumping, which is kind of like bungee jumping, but instead of falling straight down and bouncing around for a while, you fall and then swing through a canyon. Believe it or not, canyon jumping is WAY scarier than skydiving.

This is the canyon I jumped.  I couldn’t really get a good shot to show how far down you fall, but it is really far.  If you look to the right, at the bank of the river, that little black smudge is a person, so yeah, it was a long (scary) way to fall.

This is me getting my harness strapped on, and I can tell I was already terrified by the way my hands are making little claws.  When I was on the platform getting ready to jump all I kept thinking about was the harness not holding my weight and me plummeting to my death doing something stupid.  Mom would have been so pissed.

The worst part of canyon jumping is that you have to jump off the ledge.  The safety guy cant push you, you have to make the choice to hurl your body into space.  On my first attempt, my body rebelled and I stopped short of jumping.  I took a few seconds to give myself a pep talk (which went a little something like: “Erica, stop being wuss and do it”) and then I stepped off the ledge.  It was incredible.

I also went helicopter skydiving over the Alps, which was beyond cool.  The least cool part about it was when I was dangling outside the helicopter for several seconds as my jump buddy (still safe inside) made last minute adjustments.  Click the picture below to see the video of my jump!

And now I can’t decide, go back to Switzerland to do the things I missed out on like canyoning and ice climbing, or find someplace new?