Services
Four ways we help landowners, tour operators and guides work safely on steep ground. Use one, or let us run the whole project.
Site and trail development
Most great adventure sites start as a landowner saying "there's a waterfall back there." We turn that into something guests can safely enjoy and you can insure.
- Site assessment: terrain, water flow, access, hazards and the guest experience.
- Route and rappel design: drop selection, staging areas, exit routes and evacuation points.
- Anchors: bolts and natural anchors, redundancy, and an inspection plan.
- Trail building: crib steps and rock steps, bog bridges over wet ground, retaining walls, handlines and signage.
- Drainage and erosion control: ditches, culverts, water bars and check dams.
- Permits and landowner agreements: what to ask for and what to put in writing.
How it works
- Talk it through. A free 30-minute call or video chat about your site.
- Site visit. On-site assessment and a written report with options and costs.
- Design, build and train. All three, or just the parts you need.
Before and after
Before
After
Before
AfterOperations and safety systems
Insurers want to see how you operate before they cover you. Guides need the same answers on a busy morning. We write both, from experience, not from a template.
- Operations manual: roles, guest screening, every stage of the tour, and weather go/no-go rules.
- Standard operating procedures: numbered, one page each, easy to train and audit.
- Emergency action plan: incident levels, contacts, evacuation points and a waterproof field card.
- Risk assessment: hazards, controls and how they are checked.
- Logs and forms: daily safety log, gear inspection and retirement, incident reports.
- Waiver review checklist, with final wording by your attorney.
We built and ran the full safety system for a waterfall rappel operation running two tours a day, six days a week: a technical operations manual, 22 standard procedures, an emergency action plan and a risk matrix.
Site and rigging inspections
A second set of experienced eyes on the systems your guests trust with their lives. We check them on site and give you a plain-language report.
- Scope: rappel and canyoneering anchors (bolts and natural), rigging systems, ropes and hardware, trail handlines and steps.
- What you get: on-site inspection, photo-documented findings, a prioritized repair list and a follow-up check.
- Experience: 14+ years of daily anchor and rope-system inspection on a working waterfall rappel.
Management and startup consulting
Running a safe tour is half the job. The other half is getting people to book it. We have done both.
- Launch plans: what to build first, what it costs and when it pays back.
- Booking systems: FareHarbor setup, waivers, payments, affiliate and concierge tracking.
- Pricing and channels: direct bookings, online travel agencies and hotel concierges, and the commission math behind each.
- Marketing: Google Ads, reviews and search visibility. In its first seven months, our Google Ads for a Kauai rappel operation returned more than 7 times the ad spend.
- Staffing and training plans.
Work with us for a one-time review, a launch package, or month to month.
Websites, booking systems and digital marketing are delivered by our sister studio, TradeWindStack.
A waterfall rappel operation on Kauai
Trail building and maintenance, a two-drop rappel progression (30 and 60 feet), a redundant anchor system, a complete safety system and a guide training program.
The result: two tours a day for more than a decade, over 15,000 guests on rope and zero insurance claims.