Flumserberg “CLiiMBER” Rope Park

The CLiiMBER ropes course at Flumserberg is a great one for kids, with a wide variety of obstacles and varying levels of difficulty. Unlike other ropes courses that are in the trees, this is a free-standing contraption out in the open.

We like the flexibility of the regular courses, which allow you to pick and choose your obstacles instead of completing a full pre-determined course.We like the mini-course for kids 4+ because it has lots of fun obstacles and the safety harness is always connected instead of having to clip on and off. 

It’s a bit pricey since you also have to pay for your ride up the mountain. But you have an amazing view of the surrounding mountains, fields, and valleys to compensate. We’ve done the course several times and always enjoy it.

Overview

The CLiiMBER course is a free-standing structure at the top of the Tannenheim-Proalp gondola. There are 100 stations on three levels, at varying levels of difficulty. The regular course requires a minimum height 1.30m, accompanied by adult. A separate mini course at the lowest level is for children at least 4 years old, max height 1.40m.

There is a restaurant next to the course and tables for picnicking. There is a playground, sometimes a mini-golf course. If you want to also hike, you could combine this with the Wild Man Theme Trail just above the ropes course, details here. You could also walk back down to your car instead of taking the cable car.

You can take your stroller on the cable car and easily push it over to the course, but obviously, no strollers on the course.

How to get there

Flumserberg is located southeast of Zurich.

By car: Drive through Flums and up the mountain to Flumserberg, parking at the Tannenheim lot.

By transit: Take a train to Sargans, then a bus to the mountain to Tannenheim.

Tickets

At Tannenheim, buy your tickets for the Cliimber ropes course and return tickets for the Prokamm cable car which takes you up to the course. Your SBB Half-fare and Junior cards will give you discounts on the cable car ride.

There are various combo offers that include the toboggan run and other attractions or walking down instead of riding the mountain. Talk to the people at the ticket booth about your options.

Checking in

At the top of the cable car, you’ll check in at the ropes course office, near where the chair lift continues up the mountain. You will be fitted with a helmet and harness. Unlike other ropes courses, gloves were not included. You can buy gloves from them (CHF 5 when we went) or go barehanded, which we did and found it just fine without gloves.

Your time on the course is limited to 3 hours and your time starts when they check you in at the office. They seemed pretty relaxed and didn’t hassle us when we were a few minutes late checking back in.

Orientation

After getting your equipment, walk to the course where an instructor will meet you for orientation. The instructor will demonstrate proper safety technique and check to make sure you get it. Our instructor spoke English, but even if they don’t, it’s pretty straightforward and primitive sign language is sufficient.

Mini Course

Little kids over 4 smaller than 140cm tall can use the MiniCLiiMBER course. Unlike the regular course, the little kids have a harness that stays attached to the course at all times. This is easier and safer for the kids, because they don’t have to clip in and out of each obstacle.

But can cause problems if your kids needs to leave the course midstream, like if they need to visit the toilet or if they have a breakdown and won’t continue with the course. You can unhook the child, but part of their harness stays on the course which can clog the works for other kids. So if this happens to you, just flag down an instructor and they can help you out.

The course is quite long and took my 5 year old about 15-20 minutes to do it once, longer when more kids were on the course. I think he did the course 4 times with snack breaks in between and that was plenty.

Planning your day

I’d recommend going early. We were having lots fun for the first hour while the course was basically empty. Then a big group of little kids (~12) got on the course and there was suddenly a big bottleneck when two kids at the front of the group refused to continue on the course and the parents weren’t there to manage them. Any little kid is supposed to be supervised at all times by an adult, so don’t plan on dropping them off and going on the big course at the same time. Traffic jam!

CLiiMBER – Big Course

Kids over 130cm tall can use the regular course accompanied by an adult (140cm unaccompanied). My son was just barely tall enough and it caused some problems on some of the obstacles as he wasn’t tall enough to reach certain things and had trouble reaching far enough. But kids between 130 and 140cm are supposed to be accompanied by an adult on the course for safety and to help resolve issues like this.

One of the best things about the regular course is that it is super flexible. Other ropes courses usually have several pre-defined courses, each rated a specific difficulty. At Flumserberg, there are lots of obstacles interconnected in more of a web pattern. You can choose any starting point and pick and choose your path. After each obstacle, you usually have 2-3 choices for the next obstacle, each with a different difficulty. You can also take a break at any time, instead of having to complete the whole course.

In general, I found the course quite difficult. The lowest level of difficulty was fine. But the next step up was almost too much for me. My husband and son did much more of the course than I did. There was a little crying here and there from my son, but with a little encouragement he survived and had a great time.

One of our favorite parts is the freefall. I was terrified but both my kids jumped right off. It catches you quickly after jumping and lowers you down slowly.

When our youngest was just barely tall enough, we took him on the big course. He loved it even though there were lots of obstacles that he couldn’t do because he wasn’t tall enough. And he needed to be “rescued” a few times by us when he got stuck in the middle because he was too short or too light.

Take a break

In the middle of the structure, there are comfy lounge chairs where you can rest and observe the upper levels. This is a nice place to take a break after some difficult obstacles or to take pictures of your kids if you aren’t participating.

There is a playground next to the ropes course. It seems to change every time we go. Sometimes there are trampolines, climbing structures, swings, slides, bouncy pillow, mini golf, etc. This is helpful if you brought kids that are too small for the ropes course. There are picnic tables if you bring your own lunch. There is also a restaurant next to the playground.

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