High thrill-to-skill ratio whisks neophytes to `Zipline Nirvana'.

Byline: Dave Philipps

Ziplines are supposed to be reserved for big-screen action heros _ Sylvester Stallone shooting between cliffs, or a pony-tailed Sean Connery sailing through the rain forest to save the world.

But increasingly, life imitates the movies.

Fast, high, Hollywood-inspired ziplines are popping up all over the country. It's now possible for folks who could only hope to be action-movie extras to clip in and get zipping.

"I'm not a thrill seeker _ at best I'm mildly intrepid," said Susan Frensley, 58, a gray-haired grandmother from Texas who stood at the start of a zipline across a canyon on a recent afternoon. "I'm definitely nervous."

She and her husband, Bill, looked down the long cable hanging 80 feet above the rocky deck of Lost Canyon Adventure Park near Salida, Colo. A few hundred feet beyond, the other end of the cable landed gently on the distant canyon rim.

Crowded around the Frensleys were four other helmet-clad tourists who had signed up for a two-hour tour, and Monty Holmes, who designed and built the park's five …