The dramatic topography and environs of western Massachusetts can fulfill a group’s recreational team-building objectives with a thrilling array of options.
In June, Zoar Outdoor in the Pioneer Valley town of Claremont will debut Massachusetts’ first zipline and canopy tours, known as Deerfield Valley Canopy Tours. Adventurers will go on an aerial trek through the woods, using ziplines and sky bridges suspended from trees. Included will be platforms suspended as high as 60 feet in the trees, as well as one or two sky bridges. Participants will experience stands of oak, pine, maple, hemlock and birch trees—typical New England second-growth forest amid stunning views of the northern Berkshires. Team building is part of the company’s repertoire.
“While student and youth groups are especially fond of it, ziplining has an inter-generational appeal,” says Bruce Lessels, president of Zoar Outdoor. “People of all ages love the adrenaline rush of the tour as well as the peaceful intimacy of being inside nature in a way they’ve never experienced before. It allows participants to enjoy trust and team building in the process.”
Lessels says groups of eight do the tour. Larger groups have ground-based options to occupy them while others are in the trees.
Zoar also offers other valley adventures, including white-water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing and fly-fishing—with or without facilitators.
Aside from Zoar’s offerings, groups can opt for an array of other four-season team-building and recreational choices, including ropes courses in the Berkshires and cycling on the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. Other available activities include sculling, golfing, horseback riding, fishing, white-water rafting and skeet shooting. Meanwhile, hikes up Mount Greylock in the northern Berkshires or Monument Mountain in the south take participants in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne or Herman Melville—to be inspired as they were by the natural surroundings.
Life doesn’t slow down, even in winter. Activities such as downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing occur amid these scenic historic hills, accented with mountain streams and lakes. When it’s time for a break, there are quaint retail options—from antique dealers to outlets and specialty shops—as well as eateries where attendees may warm up and discuss the more intensive business endeavors on the itinerary.
