Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge – February 28, 2017

I first heard about this bridge climb from my neighbor so I checked it out online and it looked doable to me; however, before making the arrangements I made sure Ed was up for it as well. You need to push yourself occasionally and I figured this would definitely be out of our “comfort zone”. Ed agreed he would like to do it as well.

Our climb was scheduled to be a “twilight climb” and it wouldn’t be until the Tuesday after the Saturday when we arrived in Sydney. So, needless to say, we had time to think about it and to see other climbers on the bridge. They looked like ants from our perspective on the ground.

The day arrived and the sun was shining – YAY! The last thing I wanted was to climb in the rain. They only cancel it for lightning storms and high winds. We arrived at our appointed time and were encouraged to eat a granola bar (or something) to be sure we had lots of energy for the climb. (we had eaten a late lunch). Next, we signed all the proper forms and were given a breathalyzer test to be sure we had no alcohol in our system. Then they handed out our climbing suits (one piece nylon jumpsuits – quite stylish). If we had sunglasses, we received a leash for them; a hanky to attach to our wrist in case we were hot or needed to blow our nose; a bridge climb cap – also attached to the suit; and finally, our belt, which served as the harness (and held up my jumpsuit – it was a little baggy). Attached to that harness was a coupling that would slide onto a safety cable and remain attached for the duration of the climb.  We had to do a quick practice of going up two ladders/steps and then back down two ladders/steps, which were about 14 steps each, while our bridge climb leader evaluated us. There were 14 of us in the climb group.

Bridge Stats: 440 feet high; 3770 feet long; 52,800 tons of steel; 6 million rivets; 360 degree view

The last item was headsets so our climb leader could talk to us and do narration along the climb. I can’t say I was nervous but there was definitely a bit of apprehension for the unknown and I was just anxious to get started. And then we headed out – the first area was walking along a narrow cat walk below the road deck – a little unnerving but not terrible. Then we arrived at a set of four ladders we needed to ascend – one right after the other – that was a little crazy, at least for me. But after we got past that level we reached the point where you are climbing the arch of the bridge. That seemed easy – like walking up a mountain. The steps were wide and the railing was there to hold on to – it was amazing to see Sydney Harbour as we continued to climb up and up. We stopped a couple of places along the way to have our picture taken. And before we knew it we had reached the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and it was a great feeling. A cruise ship was backing out of port and we spent a lot of time waving and yelling to the folks on board the ship. A group picture was taken at the top and then some more individual shots before we began our descent.

As Ed and I were having our picture taken at the very top (middle) of the bridge, along with a short video, the Holland America cruise ship (Noordam) cruised under the bridge and blew its horn – that was way cool. These ships often do this as they leave port – we just didn’t expect it to happen when we were on top of the bridge.

There were several groups climbing behind us – they even continue to climb throughout the evening into darkness – the climbers wear headlamps – not sure I would like to do that.So now we’re headed down and all was great until we got to those four sets of stairs – YES, this time we had to climb down. That was a little more intimidating for me but I just kept counting the stairs to keep my mind off the fact that I was on the super structure of really high bridge.  Plus, I knew I had to get down and this was the only way.

Three and a half hours later we were back on the ground and had accomplished what we had set out to do. It was awesome and something I will never forget. I’m so glad we decided to step out of our comfort zone.