Lowry Bridge, Salford

So finally I'm back in Manchester again. I arrived late in the afternoon, stashed the stuff at my place and  quickly went out to meet nckt and Jim Gillette. At first sight not much had changed in the city. The same cranes were still standing and the same rooftops were still in view. We were gonna start off with some easy rooftops, but i quickly realised that Manchester had changed during my time away. Every rooftop we attempted turned into a fail due to various reasons. After a number of attempts we gave up and just walked around looking for new things to be attempted in the future.

 

 A few days later and we met up again with a number of places on the list. The initially planned climb for that evening was placed on the waiting list (but will hopefully be done soon) for one that could only be done that night. We arrived in Trafford where a massive stage had just been build for a gig of muse. The frame looked amazing for climbing purposes. Sadly though security was very tight and started following us around after a few minutes of looking for a way in.


 

 

We decided to call this place off and instead move on to our final destination, the Lowry bridge in Salford. Its probably the most climbed structure in Manchester but for some reasons i had never managed to get around to scaling its top. It was built in 2000 as part of the redevelopment of Salford Quays and has a lenght of 95 metres and as a lift bridge a maximum height of 18 metres to allow enough space for big boats.

The climb itself was fairly unspectacular. A nice view awaited us at the top. We took some pictures and i once again realised that i have to buy a new tripod very soon. On the way down some Chinese tourists passed by wondering what three guys were doing half way up the tower of the bridge. 

By the time we got down it was half past midnight. This meant we had just missed our last metro back into town. An hour later, having walked through some rough areas of Manchester and getting weird looks of a police car driving past us twice on a dual carriage way, we got back into town and finished the night in a chippy.

courtesy of Jim Gillette