Suspension Bridges in Nepal in the Himalayas

In Nepal when you are in the actual Himalayas it is important to note a couple of things. Most places you cannot build roads at all because they would be washed away during the Rainy season which usually is during the summer there. So, then you are left with a lot of trails (and now days helicopter pads in remote regions.

But in 1985 and 1986 this wasn't true yet. So, most of the time we were 25 to 50 miles by foot from the nearest road or the nearest ambulance or the nearest hospital. So, for example, you would see people being carried piggy back 50 miles to a doctor. If you couldn't pay someone to carry you the 50 miles you might just suffer or even die.

When we bought our Nepal Trekking permits the walls were covered with pictures of dead westerners who took risks or maybe just broke their ankle and died of exposure. They were trying to impress on people how unforgiving the Himalayan mountain ranges were.

Here are some pictures of suspension bridges. I saw a man carry a woman across this bridge piggy back by the way. I'm not even sure how he accomplished this. I tried to walk across it wearing a backpack and I almost fell to my death, so I took off my backpack and my center of gravity was lower so I could then safely walk across it. You can see the hand hewn pieces of wood put in the bottom to walk on but they are very irregular so you have to hold onto the chains on this top picture to safely cross this particular suspension bridge. Though it is short it is the most dangerous one I crossed because most of them are 2 to 3 feet across with planks going sideways where you can walk easily without falling.

However, in high winds you are taking your life in your hands on these suspension bridges because then the wooden floors to suspension bridges become like sails and you could be thrown off at each and every point especially out in the middle of the span.

The lower suspension bridge is like what most of them were like. Over a 50 mile trek into the Himalayas we probably crossed with our backpacks on about 20 to 25 of these types of suspension bridges over streams and between mountain peaks over canyons with streams sometimes thousands of feet below.