Bridge Day to feature 300 rappel teams

Steve Keenan

FAYETTEVILLE — Bridge Day rappel coordinator Benjy Simpson has announced that 300 rappellers comprising 22 teams will dangle off the New River Gorge Bridge this year on Bridge Day, set for Saturday, Oct. 18. The lottery drawing was held earlier this summer at Passages to Adventure, as Julie Titchenell of Mt. Lookout did the honors.

The teams chosen were: Extreme Rappels 1, team leader, Mike Phelps, Ohio; Vertically Inclined, Steve Krock, Ohio; Ohio SRT, Carl Swanigan, Ohio; The TAG Team, Nina Martin, Georgia; Canadian Fire, Tony Macdonald, Canada; Born Rescue Riggers, Russ Born, Ohio; Rope Smokers & Slow Pokers (MIOH), George Stamplis, Michigan/Ohio;

Bridge Abseiling Team (BATs), Kyle Gochenour, Georgia; Monongahela Grotto, Brian Masney, West Virginia; OHKY, Greg Matulionis, Ohio/Kentucky; Good to the Last Drop, Brandon Stephens, Indiana/Alabama; Rock-n-Rappellers, James Wagner, Pennsylvania; 42 North, Ian Murray, Canada; TAG Pit Crew, Bill Putnam, Georgia;

Southern Descent, Casey Walter, Tennessee; VBats 1, Michael Manke, Alabama; High Riders II, John Griffin, Indiana; VBats 2, Nikky LaBranche, Alabama; Team ESSO, Brian Saul, Ohio; Butler County, Anthony Daluisio, Pennsylvania; Long Ropers, Ben Holley, Georgia/Alabama; Extreme Rappels 2, John Cadle, Ohio; and safety team, Bruce Smith, Tennessee.

According to Simpson, new teams will be 42 North and Bridge Abseiling Team-BATs.

The majority of the rappellers are either cavers, firemen, EMTs, rescue personnel, climbers or rope instructors. This year’s rappellers will come from West Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Missouri. There are two teams from Canada.

The New River Gorge Bridge is the second-longest single arch bridge in the world and is the longest single arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere. The bridge, 876 feet above the New River, is the second-highest single arch bridge in the United States. Bridge Day is West Virginia’s largest one-day festival and also one of the top 100 festivals in North America. It has been estimated that Bridge Day contributes over $1 million directly to the local economy of southern West Virginia.

The rappel teams will rappel distances between 700 and 850 feet, depending on their respective anchor spots on the catwalk on the New River Gorge Bridge. The team chosen first is given the anchor spot farthest from the bridge’s south side and therefore will have the longest rappel. Members of Extreme Rappels will again be raising and lowering the American and West Virginia flags to open and close Bridge Day.

Simpson and his whitewater rafting company, Passages to Adventure, have been coordinating the Bridge Day rappel since 1992. During that time, there have been 3,163 rappellers doing 6,624 rappels with only one injury. The age range has been from 14 to 79.

Bruce Smith will again be the safety officer for the rappel. Smith is the co-author of “On Rope,” universally recognized as the authoritative book on single rope techniques. He owns and operates On Rope 1, a company that trains, educates, manufactures and markets custom rope climbing equipment. Smith says, “The New River Gorge Bridge is one of the best long rappels in the world.”

This will be the ninth year that a high line has been staged on Bridge Day. Beckley native Larry Smith will help coordinate the rigging of this year’s high line. Last year, 121 individuals slid 700 feet down a rope from the catwalk to Fayette Station Road. The first Bridge Day high line was in 1994. In 2001, when Bridge Day was canceled, Simpson and his team rigged a 2,200-foot high line beside the New River Gorge Bridge across the New River Gorge.

Simpson has plans for a 2,887-foot “Bridge to Bridge” high line on Bridge Day 2009 (New River Gorge Bridge to Tunney Hunsaker Bridge on Fayette Station).

The 2008 Bridge Day high line is open to the public. Spaces are limited. Call Passages to Adventure at 304-574-1037 or the New River Convention & Visitors Bureau at 304-465-5617 for information about how to take the ride of a lifetime this Bridge Day.

Some of the expected highlights for this year’s Bridge Day rappel include Mark Seyfang doing the “trifecta.” Seyfang, who is from Ohio, will BASE jump, rappel and ascend a rope to the bridge, a feat he accomplished on Bridge Day 2007. His last rappel will be a tandem rappel lowering the West Virginia and American flags at 3:05 p.m.

West Virginia native Bob Handley, 80, will again be the oldest New River Gorge Bridge Day rappeller. Simpson says that there is also an individual training to do the Bridge Day rappel who has lost the forearm and hand on one arm and the hand on the other arm.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Bridge Day rappel and high line can go to www.passagestoadventure.com and/or www.bridgedayrappel.com.

— E-mail: skeenan@

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