Swiss plan Europe’s highest bungee jump

A local company Outdoor Interlaken wants to build a platform above the Isenfluh cliff in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, close to Wengen, that would allow thrill-seekers to plunge 250-metres.

That would make it the highest bungee jump in the world after the rarely used Royal Gorge bridge (321 metres) in the state of Colorado in the US.

Outdoor Interlaken expects to be able to attract 2,500 bungee jumpers a year, largely from the US and Asia.

But residents of the village of Gündlischwand, which lies below the proposed installation, are not happy about the project.

“We already suffer from many base jumping accidents in the region,” Peter Brawand, head of the village council is quoted as saying by 20 Minuten.

The council has filed an appeal against the proposal.

Since 1994, more than 30 people have died in the area while base jumping, an extreme sport that involves jumping from cliffs and high structures such as bridges, using special parachutes to break the fall.

Outdoor Interlaken maintains that bungee jumping is a safe and certified activity, 20 Minuten reported.

Company representatives plan to meet with village officials to discuss their plans and address local concerns, the newspaper said.

Switzerland is already famous for another bungee jumping venue at the Verzasca Dam, near Locarno in Ticino.

The 220-metre jump was made famous in the opening scene of the 1995 James Bond film Goldeneye.

View of the Versasca Dam bungee plunge. Photo: Wikimedia Commons