Local charity and outdoor activity centre BF Adventure is launching a separately funded community interest company (CIC).
All profits from Via Ferrata Cornwall will go towards supporting local disadvantaged young people.
Offering the first full Via Ferrata experience in the south of England, the company is set to open publicly this summer.
Originating in the Alps during World War I to enable troops to cross mountains, a Via Ferrata (meaning ‘iron path’ in Italian) is a climbing route like no other. Metal steps, ladders, suspension bridges and zip wires make it one of the most adrenaline-filled climbing activities worldwide.
Sharing BF Adventure’s 60-acre site near Penryn, Via Ferrata Cornwall will enable customers to push their limits as they journey across old granite quarries.
With training provided, customers will develop their climbing skills as they traverse across quarry walls over 20 meters high, face their fears on the High Wire Bridge where they’ll cross the quarry on a 70m single strand of wire and leap from the clifftops on one of the most scenic zip-lines in Cornwall. This challenge offers routes for adventurous 8’s and over, with various difficulty levels.
Via Ferrata Cornwall already has funding ring-fenced to complete the routes and has started the build. The project is supported by Resonance Limited with a Social investment Tax Relief (SITR) Loan Funding and a Business Investment for Growth Productivity grant.
CEO, Adrian Richards and director of Via Ferrata Cornwall, said: “This new activity is a game changer both for BF Adventure in terms of allowing us to open our quarries and allow the young people we support, local families and visitors to challenge themselves, grow in confidence and experience an important part of Cornwall’s forgotten mining heritage up close and personally.
This activity will become another flagship brand for Cornwall and a leader in the experience economy in the south west. We’re hugely grateful to our supporters, cannot wait to open the course to all and will be using the additional funds raised by this activity to ensure that BF Adventure grows ever stronger and keeps supporting some of Cornwall’s most disadvantaged young people.”
