Photo cortesy of Cyrix.
“When we placed this cache in 2004, there weren’t many extreme caches,” says Erst, one of the cache owners. And yet today Deathwish? is a real bigshot!
Some think the cache is too dangerous, others think nothing at all of balancing under the bridge where the cache is hidden. And that’s the challenge Erst & Mala were looking for from the very beginning.
“We wanted a place that would be hard to reach, but the challenge should be on a psychological level. There should also be several solutions to the problem. So one day when we saw this bridge from the freeway the thought hit us: could this be the right place?” And indeed it was.
Erst explains that there are two kinds of people logging Deathwish? “Those who don’t see a problem in just running out to log, and those who wouldn’t dream of logging without security and who can take the most dodgy ways with loads of equipment to reach it.”
Crazies and Thinkers
The first type he calls “crazies”. The second he calls “thinkers”. “They don’t always succeed, but they don’t put their lives at risk.”
An example of how “Deathwish?” can be logged the safe way using professional gear and good planning. Photo by McB.
“It’s a pleasure to read the logs and view all the images people upload,” says Erst, and one can only agree. There are relatively few logs, but most make for interesting reading. “It’s good not to get all those short TFTC-logs.”
Hepett wrote in the autumn of 2008: “Walked out a few meters. Then I realized that one wrong step would mean no more caching for me. So I came to my senses and walked right back.”
“Impressive placement, but we need both more equipment and a better strategy than what we had with us this time,” says another DNF-log by Linneak.
Erst’s favorites are two cachers who made it all the way: “Two of the most extreme versions of crazies and thinkers appeared when ScandinavianMagic from Germany took the cache over two days on the 19th and 20th of September 2009. While he set up his strategy including the use of a bow and arrow, a geocacher named Snabla shows up, runs out under the bridge, logs the cache and walks back, all in less than five minutes! Both reached the cache, but chose completely different ways of solving the problem.”
Endangered by Groundspeak
A few years ago the cache received some international attention when Groundspeak and geocaching.com questioned its existence.
“With a few friendly replies about the laws in our country they eventually let it stay. It still leads a good existence up there on the bridge. We would never have thought that it would surivive for such a long time,” says Erst.
“On a sidenote, we are very happy that no cachers have gotten killed or injured and hope that things will remain that way. Don’t go out and log the cache unless you know what you’re doing.”
- Cache: Deathwish?
- Type: Traditional
- Placed: July 3rd, 2004
- Owners: Erst & Mala
- Country: Sweden
Awesome Geocaching 
But I thought putting caches under highway bridges was against the rules. To likely to cause police to think of terrorist activity?
That’s more of an American problem than a European, and particularly not a Swedish one. Though of course bomb scares have appeared there too. I’m not entirely sure for what reasons Groundspeak questioned the cache, but they eventually came to the conclusion that it’s allowed.