Living On The Edge: The CN Tower Edge Walk

I was slightly shaking in my boots as I sat outside the CN Tower in Toronto looking up at the 3^rd tallest tower in the world. “It’s not that high,” I tried to tell myself. I was about to head to the top of the tower to walk around the outside, trusting only a rope and a harness to keep me from plummeting 1,168 feet to my death (Yes, I know I sound dramatic but this is how I was feeling).

The CN Tower Edge Walk in Toronto has been on my bucket list for a while now. This is the highest external walk on a building in the world, and it even has a Guinness World Record certificate to prove it. When we arrived at the tower, checked in and signed our life away, we were left waiting for what seemed like forever until it was finally our turn. We choose the night walk which was happening at 7:30pm. We were hoping to catch sunset but didn’t realize that the actual experience started at 7:30, not the walk, so although we missed sunset it was amazing to see all the city lights.

The first stop on the experience is to a room where they give you a Breathalyzer test, check your wrists, shoes (make sure to wear runners/closed-toed shoes) and pat you down to make sure you have nothing that could fall off of you at the top, and then you get dressed up in your fancy red suits and harness. The one thing the employees definitely did before your walk was check a million times for hidden things, and that your harness was tight enough. It almost seemed like an overkill, but hey, you can’t blame them for being extra careful.

Our next stop was the elevator, where we all loaded in (there was 6 of us total) with our guide who brought us to the top of the tower where we would get attached to a large metal track in a secure room before they sent us out to walk around the tower. Little did I know that since I was the first one to walk into this room, I was the first in line to lead our group out behind our guide… terrifying!

Once we were secured with our harnesses, it was time to head out to the edge. The doors slid open and our guide led the way out onto the edge. Overall you were out on the edge for about 30 minutes (but the whole experience takes about 1.5-2 hours from your start time). You walked the entire circumference of the tower making stops along the way for “activities.” The activities included: walking right to the edge with your toes hanging over the edge and leaning forward, sitting back and leaning backwards over the edge, and before either of those walking closer to the edge and leaning slightly forward. I found the ones leaning forward to be the most terrifying, but the guides are really good and act as therapists for those that are scared.

Towards the end, you’ll stop and take photos. Included in your package, each person gets a photo of themselves leaning back, the whole group leaning back, a certificate of completion, and a video (see below my edited one) of your walk. I found this to be a pretty good deal considering a lot of attractions usually charge more for photos and videos. The one thing I was slightly disappointed about was the quality in the photos. They get you to pose normally and then do some goofy poses, and for some reason I guess my normal one didn’t turn out so I got stuck with a goofy one of me doing peace signs. The group photo you couldn’t see any of the background behind us, which is sort of disappointing since that’s the whole purpose of the Edge Walk and since we went at night, we all had demon looking red eyes that weren’t edited out. I know this sounds minor to some, but when you do something as crazy as this, you want to have great photos to prove it.

After our walk, we had the chance to access the CN Tower’s other attractions free of charge with our ticket. Our ticket was even valid for 3 days in case we wanted to go back. We opted to just leave and go home since I’ve been up the CN Tower before and really nothing was going to compare to the view we just experienced.

Overall I think that the Edge Walk was totally worth the $195 CDN + tax ticket price. You get quite a bit of time walking around the edge, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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