This has been something that I've wanted to do for so long - it's been on my bucket list and now I can finally tick off something big!
I'm quite scared of heights so I wanted to do this just to see how well I could take it and kind of overcome this fear that I have, but I realised that in between the time when I first put this on my bucket list to now, my fear of heights isn't as terrible as it used to be.
I'm still scared of falling and stuff, but it's mainly confined to when I can see through my feet, so when you stand on glass floors or metal grating that you can see through. I think that's why this bridge climbing wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.
Of course it was still a bit frightening; even going up like 3 metres of stairs at the BridgeClimb office was like ehhhh for me because there was metal grating, so I don't think my fear is really of heights, it's just falling in general, even if it's like 3 metres down. But I think also because you get quite used to walking on the metal grating even before your climb starts, so by the time the climb started and even though the metal grating was like quite high up (we were just underneath the bridge), I wasn't that worried. Obviously the safety harness helps so you feel safer and the fact that the instructor and the rest of the group is walking safely and not falling off helps too.
So you get called up to go in to this little room, where they give you declaration forms to sign as well as your uniforms to wear. You then head to the change rooms and put the jumpsuits on, which are extremely large and ugly. Exhibit A:
You absolutely cannot bring anything except glasses/sunglasses and medication if you need it, and even with these you have to attach these securely to yourself. So you can't bring cameras or even watches with you and you have to put everything into a locker. Then you put on your harness plus other stuff they give you, like hats and fleece jackets in case you get cold. The weather was great that day so we didn't need any rain jackets (which they would have provided if you did need it).
Then you do a little simulator of ladder climbing so you get used to it. It's not that scary, but our instructor said that once a woman got to this stage and just said, "I can't do this" and turned around and walked out. Pretty crazy, but it really wasn't that bad. It's not tiresome, it's not too scary even though the platforms have the see-through metal grating, and that part is only for a small section of the climb.
You also get given a headset so you can hear the instructor during the climb and then you start the climb.
You start off the climb just underneath the bridge, as you can see from the diagram on the BridgeClimb website:
Since it's still a bit high up from the ground it can be a bit scary because the whole stretch is either metal grating or wooden planks (that don't seem sturdy enough but whatever). But as I said, it's not that bad and not as scary as I thought it would be. But as we were walking, there was another instructor that had to escort one of the men in his groups back because he got too frightened, so it still can be quite intimidating. There's also instructors who literally just wait at the end of the first section to take people back if they get too scared of the height.
Even on this first section where it's completely flat and not exhausting we had to stop a few times because climbers depart every ten minutes (to really squeeze out the money of tourists) and we need to wait for the group ahead of us to reach a certain point before we continue.
The headsets at this stage are really handy, because you can hear your instructor saying all these cool facts about the bridge and how it was built and even facts about Sydney and Australia in general.
The BridgeClimb revenue actually goes towards keeping the Harbour Bridge maintained. There's lots of maintenance going on because they have to replace rusting rivets or remove the lead paint from the bridge, which is difficult to do because they obviously don't want the lead going into the environment. The bridge was originally estimated to last something like 72 years, but with all this maintenance this is the 88th or so year it's been up and it's not estimated to go for about 150 years.
Apparently the Discovery Climb (as opposed to the Bridge Climb) goes along the inner arch before going up to the top arch and you get to discover (hence the name) more about the bridge and it's architecture and how it was built. But it's a lot scarier because there's a lot more of the metal grating that you're walking on so you could see right below you all the time.
So anyway, when we finish the first section, we get to the ladders, right underneath the train tracks on the Harbour Bridge. This train approaching us honked right above us and it was sooo loud, but apparently the train drivers know we're here so they'll troll us and scare us with the honking.
The ladders here are the same as in the ones in the simulation; they're not tiring or very scary at all because you're concentrating so much on just trying to climb it without hitting your shins on the ladder. And then in less than 5 minutes you get to the bottom of the outer arch of the Harbour Bridge.
As you can see in the picture, it was kinda cold so I put on the fleece jacket. But then it got sunny again and I took it off but shortly after I regretted it because it got really windy and really cold but it was too much of a hassle for me to put it on again. I suggest you just leave the fleece jacket on, or wear a long-sleeve shirt under the jumpsuit for that in-between sort of weather.
The rest of it is just making your way up to the top of the Bridge. Even though it's higher up, it's not as scary as the first section because the steps that you are climbing up are really wide and it's solid metal underneath you, so you can't really lean over and look at how high you are at.
Our group was really small (we only had five people except the instructor and two of the five were meant to do the climb on Wednesday but had to reschedule due to the thunderstorm), so taking photos didn't take up too much time, so we spent more time just chillaxing and admiring the view.
Each person/group of people within the group also get to film a video (for free and it gets emailed to you) to their friends and family back home. But since my mum and I are local we didn't know what to say so the instructor just told us to say that we climbed the Harbour Bridge (the video is pretty bad quality on blogger):
Then we head up to the top and take some more photos.
From the top of the Harbour Bridge, not accounting for wind resistance, etc., it's a 5 second free fall and you can't survive the fall.
The best part of the climb for me crossing from one side to the others, because you get to see the internal structure of the bridge, which is such a great view but unfortunately you can't really take a picture of it with you included because the platform isn't that wide. You can only take the standard shot, which is the very first picture in this blog post.
Also apparently someone vomitted when they got to the top yeesh. I can't even begin to imagine how much splatter there was.
Anyway once we get to the other side there's still quite a lot of stops as we continue down, and we get in one last photo.
Then we head back to the BridgeClimb office through pretty much the same way we came except that we go on the opposite side.
One of the construction workers of the bridge once fell into the water from around the height of the first section of the climb. But he survived because he was into the sport of high-diving and in those three seconds of falling he resolved that he would need to either go in feet first or head first. He decided feet first, and he survived but suffered broken ribs, a few head concussions and his boots were split at the soles and driven up to his thighs.
I really enjoyed this, I think it was a great experience. I think it's quite fair in terms of value for money. It's quite hefty (with the day climbs costing $248 and photos costing up to $50) and prices are only going to rise from now on. In saying that, I wouldn't mind climbing it again later in life and maybe even in a different time, like twilight or night or even dawn. My mum wants to go again during twilight but obviously because she knows either me or my brother will pay for it (I paid for this one).
I also wouldn't mind working here; it seems like great fun and it'll obviously be a unique, refreshing and healthy job. Apparently they hire something like at least 100 climb leaders during the summer season because of the high demand for it, not surprising as well that they have climbers departing every ten minutes...
But yes, definitely a must-see I think. If you aren't too keen on spending too much, just go for the day time, since twilight climbs cost $308 and dawn climbs cost $348.
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