Court Gets Jump on Gas Pipeline Bungee Jumpers

Risking cuts, bruises, heart attacks and even death is all part of the thrill of bungee jumping. But trespassing convictions?

That’s what a group of 10 young bungee jumpers have to show for attempting to throw themselves off a 350-foot-high natural gas pipeline earlier this month in Angeles National Forest. They pleaded guilty Friday in Newhall Municipal Court and were ordered to pay fines of $100 apiece for vaulting a barbed wire fence and edging themselves along a 34-inch-wide steel pipe that spans a cavernous gulch northeast of Pyramid Lake.

Only one or two members of the group managed to wrap their ankle cords around the cables supporting the pipe and leap into the abyss before a U.S. Forest Service ranger showed up and put an end to their adventure, participants said. The ranger was alerted by an employee of Southern California Gas Co., who heard screams echoing off the pitted walls of the sandstone canyon.

The gas company, which owns the pipeline, pressed charges against the 10 men to discourage jumpers from using the remote pipeline. “No Trespassing” signs, barbed wire and metal gates erected by the company in the past 18 months have not deterred thrill-seekers, who continue to favor the tightrope-like pipe over Liebre Gulch because it is higher than most bridges.

“It’s a dangerous situation,” said Dick Friend, a gas company spokesman. “That gas is under an awful lot of pressure--750 pounds of pressure per square inch--and if the pipe happened to break, it could ignite.”

Even if there were no explosion, the gas would escape “with such a loud, whooshing noise that you could hear it miles away in Newhall,” Friend said.

Forest Service officials believe bungee jumpers only use two sites within the 650,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest--Big Tujunga Bridge north of Hansen Dam and the natural gas pipeline.

“I wouldn’t even walk out on the pipe, never mind jump off it,” said Forest Service ranger John Damann after leading visitors seven miles down back roads to the Liebre Gulch area.

To prevent bungee jumping from becoming more prevalent, the Forest Service plans to cite the man they believe organized the jump and charged participants $75 fees.

Saugus District Ranger Mike Wickman said Ricco Nel, 29, of Huntington Beach, will be cited for violating a recently adopted federal regulation prohibiting bungee jumping off structures in national forests and for conducting a commercial operation in a national forest without a permit. If he is convicted, Nel faces a maximum penalty of $5,000 and six months in jail, Saugus District Ranger Mike Wickman said.

Nel did not return repeated phone calls from The Times.

Under state law, the 10 men, including Nel, could have been sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay $1,000 each in fines. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Brad Stone said prosecutors showed leniency under a plea bargain agreement because they believe the men learned their lesson.

The conviction is not exactly the badge of courage 19-year-old Mike Urbina of Long Beach was seeking.

“I didn’t get to jump because the cops came,” said Urbina, who first described himself as an “environmental technician” and then amended that to “janitor.”

“They say bungee jumping is a blast, but getting arrested for it sure wasn’t a thrilling experience for me,” he said.