Published: August 11, 2006 03:37 pm

Locals on team to rappel 800 feet at Bridge Day

ASHLAND — For Kent Morrison, it’s about adrenaline. And the rush.

Of sliding down a skinny rope from the second-highest bridge in the United States to a riverbank 867 feet below.

“It’s one of those things you gotta try at least one time,” he says.

Morrison, 47, of Ashland, is one of several Tri-State residents here who will rappel from the New River Gorge Bridge this fall during the 27th annual Bridge Day in Fayette County, W.Va.

Billed as the largest extreme sports event in the world, Bridge Day attracts some 200,000 spectators a year on the third Saturday in October.

It’s known mainly for the hundreds of BASE jumpers who parachute from the span, but nearly two dozen teams are allowed each year to rappel on fixed ropes from a catwalk underneath.

“We wanted to do it for the thrill of it, because it’s one of the biggest drops in the area,” said Jeremy Chapman, team leader, who took his first ride down a rope there last year.

“And it’s one of the most awesome events in my home state,” he said.

What started out in 1980 as a small gathering so people could walk out onto the western hemisphere’s longest single steel arch bridge, later grew into West Virginia’s largest one-day festival, organizers say.

Morrison, who first rappelled in ROTC at Eastern Kentucky University, has since been to the festival quite a few times, but only as a spectator.

“I thought I’d never be able to, and when the opportunity came up, I had to jump at it,” he said. “It’s really been a pet desire for years, from the rappelling point of it.”

And his wife, Diane, who only started rappelling three years ago, will join him on the adventure.

“So I’m really looking forward to it.”

The Morrisons and Chapman are among the 14 members of Team ESSO — named for the local Eastern States Speleological Organization, a caving club, to which many belong — whose names were drawn in a lottery of rappel spots earlier this year.

Among those who’ve pledged to make the rappel this Bridge Day are Charles Munn of Ashland, Tim Mootz of Ironton, Mark Walker of Olive Hill, Brian Saul of Portsmouth, Dennis and Lee Ann Blevins of Kenova, Ron Patrick, Don Davis, David Beebe, Dave Young and Tom Vertrees.

Together they’ve trained on 50-foot drops at Lake Vesuvius in Lawrence County, Ohio, on 100-foot cliffs at Hocking Hills farther north, and this weekend at Big South Fork’s 275-foot cliff.

The team’s final run will be at Whiteside Mountain in North Carolina, where many come to practice each year on its 750-foot face.

“The whole thing is not a one-person deal,” said Brian Saul, who with Chapman has organized Bridge Day plunges, and trainings.

People come together to learn technique, to practice, to watch each other’s backs, and end up finding out that to be a competent individual on a rope, or in anything in life, it takes teamwork, he said.

“Unlike a King’s Island ride where they rig it for you, everything we do is on our own,” Saul said. “We purchase our own rope, train our own team and take responsibility for our own lives.”

“Everybody does it for different reasons,” Saul added.

But, they all come away with the same drive that’s helped them accomplish one of the most extreme rappelling feats in the country; to do what they’ve dreamed of, he said.

In the end, though, there’s a downside of sorts to all the height and thrill of it, said Chapman.

“It spoils you,” he said. “It’s not the same after that, at Vesuvius or somewhere ... You look for bigger and better things to jump.”

ALLEN BLAIR can be reached at ablair@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.