Crossing the Anduin

[trystero]

I agree that swimming across Anduin is meant to be very difficult, though not quite impossible. Tolkien himself wrote of Isildur's attempt to swim the river:

...in haste he cast off all his armour and weapons, save a short sword at his belt, and plunged into the water. He was a man of strength and endurance that few even of the Dúnedain of that age could equal, but he had little hope to gain the other shore. Before he had gone far he was forced to turn almost north against the current; and strive as he might he was ever swept down towards the tangles of the Gladden Fields.

— "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields", Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

[Heilemann]

Given how central The Anduin is to Wilderland, I really wish there were some clearer rules governing it's crossing. P 54 of Tales talks about swimming across it, but makes no mention of clothing etc. it's all a bit washy-washy. Personally I think I'll go with 'not cross able except at the fords, by boat or very, very difficult swimming, sands clothes if you don't want to sign your own death warrant.'