Why?
Because it's just crying out to be done, and it is unlikely that anyone
has done it before. (Note Aug2001: - we got an email from a guy who did it the 4th of February 2001! True style - one rope with 20ft to spare (freefalled about 225ft). Nice one!
When?
Hopefully sometime in year 2000
How?
There are two ways to do this sort of stuff - either along the
bridge or across the bridge. The CSB is quite narrow so it looks
like swinging along the bridge is most feasible. Click the 3d model
on the left to see a rough animation
of how to do it.
How far?
Ideally a full ropelenght - 50 meters (165ft). On the left you can see
my proposed safety zones. Green is roughly 50 meters and red is hitting
the water/mud at 76 meters (the official height). This leaves 26 meters
for ropestretch which at the moment I have no idea how much is in a standard
dynamic 11mm rope which is what I would intend on using.
What Hardware?
Rope: 50m 11mm dynamic Beal/Mammut?
Sling: Construction-style sling with in-sewn kevlar threads for attaching
the rope to the metalstructure of the bridge (I had one of these, but it got munched in a fairly festive fall test in France)
Full SRT kit for getting up again
Petzl Jump harness + chest harness
The Good News:
They have a trolleylike thing running under the bridge which would make
it relatively easy to:
1. Attach the rope on the middle
2. "Drive" to the one end of the bridge
3. Jump/Swing
The Bad News:
It might be illegal, and the fine might be quite high, so - priority number
one is of course not to get injured but priority number two must be not
getting caught. Hey, by the way - if you are a policeman or solicitor/lawyer
in the Bristol area, please give us an an estimate on the fine - send
an email to fine@willerup.com Thanks.
Latest idea:
Instead of jumaring up the rope again which might take you directly up
into the Lions Den, then the current plan is to jump the bridge at night,
then abseil down to the river (using an extra rope) and swim to the opposite
riverbed (might be a mud issue) where a preplaced bike shoud take one
back to safety.
