New high ropes courses in 2026

High ropes courses are no longer a new leisure product. The first wave in central Europe ran in the early 2000s, and the sites from that period are now in their second generation. What was built in 2026 therefore follows a different logic: less about the woodland on the edge of town, more about places where people already are — stadiums, shops, museums, municipal recreation grounds.

We have collected what opened this season.

Olympic Park Munich: 22 metres above the stadium

The most striking opening of the year stands in Munich. In the Olympic Park the company KristallTurm from Lenggries in Upper Bavaria has erected a ropes course around 22 metres high with 36 climbing stations. From the tower you look into the Olympic Stadium and out over the city.

The backstory explains why that is unusual. The Olympic Stadium is currently being refurbished for around 300 million euros and is due to be finished by 2028. During the works the "Flying Fox", which normally lets you ride a cable across the stadium, is out of service. The operator was looking for a substitute, and the Olympiapark GmbH provided a site.

According to KristallTurm managing director Michael Haller the idea came up as early as 2024. More than two years passed before the tower stood in April 2026 — not because of the build but because of the permits. The grounds are covered by ensemble, heritage and nature protection. The planners had to comply with the Olympic Park's design manual from the 1970s; only four to five colours were permitted.

The actual assembly then took two weeks with six workers. It was complicated by building into a slope, and by the fact that no concreting was allowed — the company brought its own foundation system. Haller stresses that the whole thing can be removed without a trace, and that the modules could in theory be dismantled and put up elsewhere.

The tower was planned as a temporary structure. Whether it stays is open; the operator reports good initial feedback. In May a 200-square-metre event platform was added.

That makes the tower around eight metres higher than the standard installations, of which KristallTurm says it has built more than 80 worldwide. In the Lenggries workshops orders are running in parallel for playgrounds in Moers and at the Ammersee, for a zoo in Bordeaux and for projects in China.

For visitors that means: if you miss the Flying Fox over the Olympic Stadium, this is the substitute for now. And for the industry it means a ropes course is now a structure you can put up in two weeks in the middle of a heritage-protected ensemble and take down again without a trace.

Marburg: the first consistently inclusive ropes course

In April 2026 the university town of Marburg an der Lahn in Hesse, Germany — not Slovenian Maribor — opened a site on the recreation grounds in its town forest that was planned from the ground up for people with disabilities. Six metres high, with a ramp, rope hoists, a climbing wall and a climbing net as four parallel ascents, with a weight-reduction device for people with muscular weakness and a tactile model for visually impaired visitors. Ascent and descent are wheelchair-suitable.

The city invested 272,000 euros, with a further 10,000 euros in funding from the state of Hesse. It is run by the municipal youth services and was built by ALEA GmbH. The site is aimed at groups from schools, clubs and youth and disability services.

We have given the subject its own article: The inclusive high ropes course – climbing with a disability.

Sonthofen: climbing inside a clothing store

On 1 August 2026, at Berghofer Straße 19 in Sonthofen in the Allgäu, what the company describes as the largest store of the brand "1803 – Born in the Alps" opened. It is run by the Oberstdorf family business Schratt, which now operates four such shops in the Allgäu — in Oberstdorf, Füssen, Oberstaufen and Sonthofen.

What is notable is what sits in the building alongside the clothing: a ropes course called "KletterBande", indoor and outdoor, open from 1.20 metres tall. It is free for shoppers, and birthday children get in free.

This is not a climbing park in the sense of this directory — there is no climbing time, no course grading, no admission price. It is customer loyalty. But it illustrates a development visible elsewhere too: the ropes course is moving out of the forest into spaces that already have an audience.

Bochum: the ropes course that moves on

From 5 to 7 August 2026 the mobile ropes course of the Stadtsportbund Bochum stood on the grounds of the LWL Museum Zeche Hannover. Three days, 2 pm to 6 pm each day, free of charge, no registration.

The structure works at 2.50 metres, secured with helmet, harness and a continuous lanyard, and is intended for children and teenagers from 1.10 metres tall or up to 90 kilograms. Two bungee trampolines came with it.

Travelling installations like this are a branch of the industry rarely written about. They reach children who would never get to a forest ropes park — because the family has no car, because 25 euros admission is out of reach, because the nearest site is 40 kilometres away.

Attersee: climbing as mental training

Not a new build but a new format: at the Hochseilgarten Attersee in Seewalchen the day programme "Hochgefühl" by Elke Pflug starts in September — mental and breathing techniques plus material from brain research in the morning, application on the course in the afternoon. For healthy adults from 18, no climbing experience needed, at most twelve people per date.

More on this in our article Fear of heights in a high ropes course.

Pfelders in South Tyrol: a net course from age three

Slightly outside our directory area but worth mentioning: the SpiderPark in Pfelders in the Passeier Valley has extended its offering with a net course for children open from the age of three. The site is around 15 minutes' walk from the village centre, has four courses reaching 18 metres and a zipline course with four ziplines across the Pfelderer stream, up to 40 metres high.

Prices: 26 euros for adults, 19 euros for children aged six to ten, 10 euros for the net course. The season runs from May to early November, closed on Wednesdays outside July and August.

What this season says about the industry

Four patterns stand out when you line the new arrivals up next to each other.

First: modular construction is winning. The Munich tower went up in two weeks, without concrete, and can be removed without a trace. That changes where sites can appear — including places where nobody would approve a permanent structure.

Second: age limits are dropping. Net courses from three, children's courses from one as in Winterberg, Bambini areas from five. The market is growing downwards, because families with children of different ages otherwise do not come at all.

Third: the ropes course is leaving the forest. Olympic park, clothing store, museum grounds. What used to be a destination is becoming a feature at places that already have an audience.

Fourth: accessibility is becoming a construction topic. Marburg is the first case in our directory in which inclusion was designed in rather than retrofitted. At an investment of 272,000 euros with state funding, that is a political decision — and a model other municipalities can copy.

Anything missing?

Our directory currently lists more than 150 sites in Austria, Germany and Slovenia and keeps growing. If you know a ropes course that is missing here, or if a detail is wrong, let us know — via the form at Report a climbing park.

Sources: Merkur (report on the ropes course in the Olympic Park, May 2026), Kreisbote (opening of the 1803 store in Sonthofen, August 2026), press release of the university town of Marburg, lokalklick.eu (mobile ropes course at Zeche Hannover, July 2026), meinbezirk.at (Hochgefühl at Attersee, August 2026), suedtirolerland.it (SpiderPark Pfelders). All details without guarantee.