Lisa Lorenzin (she/her)<p>Twenty years ago, <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://infosec.exchange/@mbroome" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>mbroome</span></a></span> and I joined our rope team, Extreme Rappels, for our first Bridge Day rappel (<a href="https://bridgedayrappel.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">bridgedayrappel.com/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a>). We've since gone on to longer and deeper drops - Fantastic! Golondrinas! El Cap! - but we keep heading back to WV almost every year to free rappel 850 feet to the river's edge below. </p><p>Rain or shine, cold or fucking freezing - there is no "warm" at this point in the day! - we get up at 0-dark-30, make our way to the bridge, and walk out the maintenance catwalk suspended under the roadbed. There is no other experience quite like walking along a 3' wide metal walkway with open metal railings on each side as the ground drops away underneath, til you're out on the W plate hundreds of feet in the air and it's time to put your weight in your harness, trust the gear and your own competence, and unclip that final safety tether. </p><p>We had a glorious bluebird day Saturday... Almost *too* gorgeous. I neglected to strip off my base layers before we started up the 700' ascent ropes, and the sun was blazing hot as soon as we cleared the treeline! But the views were incredible, and I'll take dripping sweat over pissing rain any day. </p><p>Every year it gets a little more expensive, and the logistics get a little more annoying, and I wonder if maybe we've done this often enough. And every year we go anyway, and it's *always* worthwhile. The friends, the views, the workout on the way up, the ride on the way down... </p><p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/bridgeday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>bridgeday</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/rappel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rappel</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/SRT" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SRT</span></a></p>