Tower Climbers

[Todd Wilson]

Now these guys have some balls!   Not a go to work with a hang over type of job!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dae7DdfJ1ts



Todd

[A383Wing]

Three words.....

OH HELL NO!!

[elacruze]

Three words.....

OH HELL NO!!

ME TOO!

I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but that was exciting even to watch on video. Free climbing? I'd crap myself as soon as I got to the part where you go outside the frame. I'd have to take a parachute.

Nevermind, I'm not going.

[Bob T]

Three words.....

OH HELL NO!!

ME TOO!

I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but that was exciting even to watch on video. Free climbing? I'd crap myself as soon as I got to the part where you go outside the frame. I'd have to take a parachute.

Nevermind, I'm not going.

"From here its only 60ft from the antenna base to the top"

I could do without that type of life experience too    . I had to put a heat detector at the top of a liftshaft once on a stepladder on the top of the car. and working out of a bucket on a tower crane putting up exterior light fittings.  Went alright, but not something I'd be queueing up to do again

[Back N Black]

Man! they must get paid big bucks, not for me.

[Dans 68]

Man! they must get paid big bucks, not for me.

So what's the minimum daily pay you'd take to work up there?    Mine would be at least $2,000. That is a little over 1/2 mil per year....

Dan

[Wicked72]

I would do it for a base jump! however considering your a lot closer to the ground in a base jump and thats what makes it scary this would cool anyway! 

[chargergirl]

Not afraid of heights at all however that made me nervous just watching it. Climbing on those skinny pieces were a definite no no!

[71ChallengeHer]

Three words.....

OH HELL NO!!

I agree. I'd throw up. I'm so scared of heights. 

[RD]

not without a parachute

[tan top]

  what an awesome view up there     not normaly scared of hights , dont know if it was the camera moving around then looking down  , but damn i feel sick watching that !! ,  especialy when they go out side !!      them guys have guts

[TruckDriver]

Three words.....

OH HELL NO!!

I agree. I'd throw up. I'm so scared of heights. 

I'd pass out if not have a heart attack.

[noff57]

A couple of my friends are tower climbers. And this is what they do on their free time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZukdLg26jg

[PocketThunder]

HOLY SH!T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Maybe when i was 18~25 years old an i was fearless i could attempt that.  but not anymore!   

[bull]

I like how the narrator said there's no fast way down if you forget some tools. Really? I know there's at least one way to get back to the ground very quickly.

[Mr.Woolery]

That was awesome.  Would love to try it, but I'm afraid I'd get tired after climbing for so long.  I'd probably want to BASE jump off the top instead of climbing down, too.

I've climbed some other much much shorter towers, and the views are spectacular and worth it.

[Mike DC]

  
Once you get more than few stories up, the fall ends the same way no matter how much higher it is.  But the psychological effect of being so much higher is probably a real mind-f*ck for those tower workers.


I wonder where the point is when the ground stops looking "scary" far away.  An astronaut doing a spacewalk on the shuttle is 60 miles high, but I get the feeling it doesn't give much vertigo looking down at earth from there.  It's just too high for our primate brains to understand what we are seeing anymore.  It might actually look scarier if the astronaut had a big tower below him to visually demonstrate the distance to his senses.





As for the free-climbing on the radio towers, I'm surprised they don't have a safety cable for that.  I would think it could be feasibly done with some kind of slider track next to the ladder.  The worker would just climb without paying much attention to it, and every few yards the cable attachment would click past another fall-arresting stopping point.

[bull]

I wonder where the point is when the ground stops looking "scary" far away.  An astronaut doing a spacewalk on the shuttle is 60 miles high, but I get the feeling it doesn't give much vertigo looking down at earth from there.  It's just too high for our primate brains to understand what we are seeing anymore.  It might actually look scarier if the astronaut had a big tower below him to visually demonstrate the distance to his senses.

The one sense missing in this scenario is the feeling of gravity pulling your body toward the hard ground at terminal velocity. Just floating around in zero gravity is nothing like the sensation of falling.

[Wicked72]

I used to do Parkour/Free running, open cliff climbing, been bungee jumping and parachuting. Now I am fairly crippled due to a serious case of limes disease and many life experiences.....and im only 26. But I have no regrets and all was well worth it. I just want to drive my car and go fishing and play paintball. 

[Mr.Woolery]

I wonder where the point is when the ground stops looking "scary" far away.

Once you get past about 4000ft, the ground tends to look more like a painting than having a feeling of height associated with it.  That's because you'll lose sight of the common things that your brain uses to automatically gauge things like distance, size, etc (for example, seeing discernable objects like people, cars, etc).  However, these towers are well below that point, and there's plenty of opportunity for you to see the kind of things that will keep your mind "grounded" and able to keep a scale on things (which will allow your mind to generate any fears based on height).

I've flown open ultralight planes for years, and once you lose sight of the common ground things from which to make scale, it almost feels like you're just hanging in space up there, without moving. 

[Mike DC]

The one sense missing in this scenario is the feeling of gravity pulling your body toward the hard ground at terminal velocity. Just floating around in zero gravity is nothing like the sensation of falling.

That's true. 

But I've jumped out of a plane from a couple thousand feet up, and the ground was far enough away not to give me too much vertigo.  It was there but not like I get from looking down the side of a building. 

[Khyron]

Call Mike Rowe.... I want him to say "F- That!" lol

[Todd Wilson]

Call Mike Rowe.... I want him to say "F- That!" lol

HAHAHAHA!



Todd

[Vainglory, Esq.]

Call Mike Rowe.... I want him to say "F- That!" lol

Classic. 

[rustafarian]

I used to be a tower climber,  coolest job in the world.  There is a cable running up every tower,  on your harness has an attachment that arrests your fall, it's a tubular metal piece with a clamp facing one way in it - slides up,  locks when going down.  You have to release it every few feet when climbing down. you could pass out cold and your not going to drop a foot.  You'll bash your face on the tower,  but you won't fall.  You're always double tied off when working on the top - the cell site.  the first time you accidentally disengage yourself from all safety equipment you never forget.  Then always being clipped on becomes second nature.  The view is incredible,  especially over 200 feet.  It's cold up there and windy - there is no humidity even on hot days.  Birds sound different as they fly below you.  As you climb down,  at about 80 feet you're back in our world,  the atmosphere hits you,  it gets warmer.  Tricky part is climbing up the step ladder to reach the bottom rungs of the tower to climb.  And working on watertowers.  No "edge",  the floor just falls away.  Repelled down a few,  that's fun.  It's a beeeatch if you forget a tool,  but you're roping up material on new builds,  so not really a problem.  Dropping a tool is a great way to make enemies below.
I was getting $25/hour plus full bennies for wife and 3 kids,  lots of overtime.  YOu get time and a half for night work - radio antenna's - they need to shut it off for you to climb.  When working around those while powered up (prep work before the climb - and you've gotta work fast once it's shut off 'cuase the station is out of business while you're working) is weird.  YOur hair stands on end when you get too close.  Once it was snowing hard and the snowflakes picked up the current,  little zaps thru your winter work clothes as the flakes hit you.  Scariest moment for me was putting up a new cell tower the first time.  The pole comes in 50' sections,  this was a 200 footer.  Huge crane puts each section on top of and into the one bellow it,  which are lubricated with liquid laundry detergent to ease insertion.  The day after the pole was erected and the platform put on top of it we climbed up to put the cell site together.  Our weight and the lube made the four part pole "settle" about a foot and then another foot.  The "floor" literally dropped out from under us.  I thought I was a goner.  The other guys laughed,  they'd had that ride beore.