Should you or should you not be able to climb to the highest point on the Lions Gate Bridge?
My first thought is that I don’t know what else you can do with it, because you certainly can’t get across it in a car anytime during the daylight hours.
But let’s not go there – again.
I’m referring to the intriguing proposal by Legendworthy Quest owner and entrepreneur Kevin Thomson to assist people who are apparently not afraid of heights to scale the Lions Gate Bridge to its highest point.
Climbers would use the 110-metre service ladder to get to the top where they would hug the navigational beacon and try to open their eyes to look around and enjoy the spectacular scenery.
For someone who gets light-headed when he climbs a step ladder to change a lightbulb, the whole idea seems a little flop sweat inducing. In fact, I see the invention of LED lightbulbs lasting 20+ years as the foremost invention of the age.
But I still think the NDP government violated the spirit of adventure when it went back on an earlier Liberal intent to proceed. They even managed to characterize it as some kind of socialist principle at work, as Infrastructure Minister Claire Trevana declared: “This is a private company requesting the ongoing use of a major piece of infrastructure for commercial gain.”
Seriously? As an editorial in this esteemed publication pointed out, much of the province’s revenue comes from licensing the use of Crown assets. Ski resorts, for example.
So the rationale is nonsense. If the minister came clean and said “You Idiots! We’re worried you’ll fall off and die,” at least it would be honest, instead of a so-called ideological principle which is neither an idea nor logical.
Kevin Thomson has done this using the infrastructure for commercial gain trick before. He was one of the originators of the Vancouver to Whistler Gran Fondo bike ride that annually features 4,000 cyclists using a major piece of infrastructure known as the Sea to Sky Highway. Somehow that’s OK, even though a whole lane gets shut down on a busy late-summer weekend. Major distraction.
That apparently doesn’t cut any ice with Minister Trevana, who guards her infrastructure jealously. Even though, before the election, the NDP promised to let Uber operate by the end of the year, Trevana decided to study the matter further. That’s what we need. Another government study.
Anyway, no more studying. Thomson’s scheme to climb to the top of the Lions Gate Bridge is kaput. He has pointed out, to no effect, that he and his team members have been to the top of the bridge about 20 times and no one noticed. (Maybe people are too busy sneaking a peek at their phones while traffic is stalled on the bridge.) He also makes the point that workers have been maintaining the creaky old hunk of infrastructure for 75 years and no one’s noticed them either. Oh, and they do this all the time on the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb. Of course, that’s in Australia, where everyone’s born rugged and adventurous, unlike here in B.C. where the Nanny State has nestled in quite comfortably and plans on staying for the duration.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for safety. I’m really glad there’s something called AdventureSmart, which is dedicated to helping people survive the wilderness experience, always seductively nearby, especially on the North Shore. I have actually seen people in high heels carrying lapdogs in their purses as they scale the BCMC Trail.
As AdventureSmart outreach educator Kelly Uren says, “It’s not Disneyland out there.” In Disneyland, the bears are friendly. Real wilderness bites.
The point is that Skyhugger, which is Thomson’s name for the Lions Gate Bridge experience, is a carefully guided experience. “The biggest physical risk,” he tells the North Shore News, “is bumping your knees and elbows through a careless manoeuvre.”
I do that getting out of my easy chair by the fireplace.
Thomson, good for him, is not giving up. But I suspect he’ll have to wait for regime change before he’s able to guide people up and down the venerable provincial asset.
Too bad. For a moment there, I thought it finally might be good for something other than a historic bottleneck.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Vancouver resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. [email protected]
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