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I'm standing on a platform perched on a hillside, my feet on the edge, ready to jump-backwards-knowing I will plunge nearly 80 feet before zipping through the forest at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour.

"Zip away," says Randy Farwell, co-owner of Alpine Adventures Outdoor Recreation in Lincoln.

"Got it," I smile, my legs shaking slightly and a small lump forming in my throat. Then I'm off, and a moment later my grimace turns to a wide grin as I crunch into a cannonball, zipping as fast as I can through the forest while watching the mountains in the distance.

That moment, from fear to exhilaration-what Farwell calls "the natural Lipitor" to clear out your system-is what it's all about. For some, exhilaration requires a strong element of fear, while others seek a more Zen-like moment, say taking a yoga class just below the summit of Mount Washington.

Demand for that adrenaline rush has spurned a burgeoning industry of unique outdoors adventures around NH, both at stand-alone businesses and as additions to ski areas. In the last few years, new zip lines have opened at three NH ski resorts while elsewhere new sports are being reinvented such as stand-up paddling on surfboards and kayaks. It seems some people are no longer content to simply hike, kayak or mountain bike.

There are numerous explanations for the growing industry, but most focus on affordability and variation, and highlight how the adventures are either the first, the only, the longest or otherwise unique. It's a way to stand out and succeed in NH's crowded tourism industry. These adrenaline offerings include a new $25 off-road Segway Safari ride at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, zip line courses costing $65 to $110 and a $155 tandem hang glider flight thousands of feet above the Connecticut River Valley.

These ventures are run by entrepreneurial thrill-seekers who spend their days zipping, climbing and soaring, sometimes with their heads literally in the clouds. "Finally people are coming back around into nature," says Steven Prepost, head instructor at Morningside Flight Park in Charlestown, which offers hang gliding, paragliding and ultralight lessons, and tandem flights. "They want to see the world and smell the air."

The same armchair adventurers who previously propelled books like "Into Thin Air" about Mount Everest to top spots on book charts now want their own adventures, explains Jeff Blumenfeld, an author and researcher of outdoor adventures who wrote "You Want to Go Where?" a book on funding dream adventures. "People want some sort of soft adventure. They ask, ‘what can we do that's not Mount Everest, but is kind of fun, kind of exciting?' "

That trend is good for NH given that tourism is the second-largest industry, accounting for $4.5 billion in spending in fiscal year 2008 and 7.7 percent of NH's gross state product. And while many industries are hurting, these businesses report steady activity and, in some cases, growth.

On Top of the World
Many businesses spend months if not years perfecting their marketing pitch. Scot Henley's is simple: Visit the home of the world's worst weather and experience 120 mile an hour winds and freezing fog.

Henley is executive director of the Mount Washington Observatory, situated at 6,288 feet. Each year nearly 200 people take day or overnight winter Edu Trips. Participants take a snow cat to the summit and learn about weather, flora and fauna, and other aspects of alpine life. They can also experience walking or sometimes just crawling in hundred-mile-per-hour winds. "I think the common thread is the fascination with extreme weather," says Henley of the baby boomers, teachers, photographers and others who take Edu Trips. "I think this is a niche that our organization is uniquely positioned to fill."

He says Hurricane Katrina created renewed interest in extreme weather, spurring a feature story on the observatory in National Geographic magazine in February. Also, more baby boomers are retiring and seeking adventures, and they can often afford the $500-a-person overnights.

But that's far from the only way to experience Mount Washington. The EMS climbing school has led rock climbing, mountaineering and ice climbing trips in the area for decades, as well as hiking trips. Manager Charlie Townsend, who has been on the job 25 years, says the economy has opened many people's eyes to the unique climbing experiences available without leaving New England or even NH. So while some people now find a day of climbing instruction out of reach, others who used to travel west now come to the Mount Washington Valley.

"A couple of years ago they didn't realize they had peaks in striking distance that are worthy objectives in their own right," says Townsend. "It always seemed funny to me that we'd have a lot of Eastern climbers who'd say, ‘I'd like to climb the Grand Tetons,' and just go when they could get a lot of instruction right here."

Townsend also has a beef with the media's portrayal of his chosen career. TV and movies, he says, portray rock climbing as "people hanging from cliffs by their fingers and falling into the abyss. But we're just lazy hikers," he jokes, explaining that instead of hiking a mountain for hours, "We climb for 20 minutes and suddenly we're above the trees." And yes, they use ropes.

That raises an ironic twist to the recent growth in outdoor adventure. Most people seek a heart-pounding thrill-they don't want to court death. Yet most movies and books about outdoor adventures cover just that. So Townsend and other established businesses work hard to dispel that myth. Prepost of Morningside Flight Park, which opened in 1974, says interest in tandem flights, where people fly with an instructor attached to a motorless glider, has grown in recent years. Still, "people perceive hang gliding as very dangerous. It's actually very safe," he says, adding you fly thousands of feet high at no more than 35 miles an hour with nothing to hit.

Some newer businesses offer the thrill factor without any danger. Carlene Sullivan of Symmetree Yoga takes clients up Mount Washington in vans. They then hike a short distance off the summit and practice yoga. "I wanted to add a little bit more adventure to yoga itself," Sullivan says of the experience, which she added this year. "Usually the people that come on my trips have never been to Mount Washington."

Zip Away
No other industry segment illustrates the recent growth in unique outdoor adventures like zip lining. New Hampshire is now home to at least four zip line courses, three of them at ski resorts and less than two years old.

Alpine Adventures opened its first zip line course, where people travel from treetop to treetop, in 2006. The Sky Rider, added in 2008, features faster, longer zips from platform to ground, including a 1,600-foot ride, by their calculation the longest zip line on the East Coast. It also owns a course in Jamaica.

"It's our ongoing quest to get something new to go out and do and get your heart pumping," Farwell says. The company began in 1997 with snowmobile trips and woods adventures in Safari-type, open-air all-terrain vehicles. It employs 20 guides and leads a few hundred people on zip line tours on busy weekends.

It is now building a ropes course for kids as young as five and a thrill ride that simulates the feeling of bungee jumping by dropping a person 42 feet very quickly. For now, he says, that simulated experience is offered only in Europe.

Besides Alpine Adventures, Wildcat in Jackson installed a dual-run ZipRider in 2007 (where participants ride in seats), and Tenney Mountain in Plymouth and Mount Washington Resort opened zip line courses last year.

Farwell says the increase in courses has not yet saturated the market. Like golf courses, he says, people who experience one want to try another. Still, it's an expensive business to get into. His company co-owns Canopy Tours Inc., which works with about 30 people a year to consult on and/or build courses. He says it costs $300,000 to $700,000 to start up, noting his consulting business has increased lately.

So what's the excitement about zip lines? Blumenfeld, the author who also produces the newsletter "Expedition News," says it's the adrenaline rush. He says the desire for soft adventures "led to zip lines across the country. It's thrilling, it's exciting, you won't die doing it, but you feel like you're going to die."

Farwell disagrees. During trips, his guides characterize zip lines as thrilling-in the safest way. Recently, an 11-year-old girl bypassed one line out of fear. A guide then convinced her to ride others, partly by pointing out safety features on the course.

At Mount Washington Resort, the Bretton Woods Canopy Tour is not only a thrill, but also educational. As part of the tour, which includes rock rappels, guides teach participants about the native plant life and area natural history. Like Alpine Adventures, the course is open year round. Alexa Bernotavicz, director of mountain operations, says it has been a hit since it opened last year. Ten full-time guides and a few part-timers lead four to 10 tours a day with up to eight people each.

Something for Everyone
Thrill seekers now count among their ranks many families, and that's why businesses are clambering to create memorable experiences suited to kids of all ages. Families looking for such adventures have lots of choices.

Regular entry to Clark's Trading Post now includes a five-minute Segway ride, but people can also sign up for 45-minute Segway Safari tours on off-road models. The woods trip includes a scare by the park's Wolfman, skit and all. Callum Grant, the park bookkeeper who thought up the idea, calls it an instant success. "A lot of people are now coming specifically with the Segway in mind, which was the point," Grant says. "We're the only place in New Hampshire where you can do this." Plus, he adds, while Segway rides elsewhere cost upwards of $60, this one is only $25. The park expects to recoup its investment in the Segways by the end of next summer.

Down the road at Loon, the ski area just added a EuroBungy trampoline, where kids as light as 30 pounds can fly 22 feet in the air and get in touch with their inner acrobat. At Cranmore, people tube down the mountain on a grassy summer tubing run complete with sprinklers to keep cool in hot weather.

It's all about living in the moment, whether zipping, bouncing on a trampoline or standing atop Mount Washington in gale-force winds. And increasingly, NH businesses are luring tourists for just such heart-pounding moments.