Climbing a 1768 foot transmission tower.

[onehandle]

If you have a fear of heights, you may not want to watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txdv_oNq81I

[golddigger]

1. OMG. I was getting dizzy watching this.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. How in the world does anyone ever get talked into doing that job?

Wow!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Whew.

I'm not afraid of heights...but that was a bit much.

Imagine building that tower!

I'd think they could equip those guys with parachutes...aren't they high enough for that?

Thanks for this glimpse into a very different world than ours.

[mikelgb]

4. my palms are sweaty and my heart is beating out of my chest

will never complain about work again

[onehandle]

18. I was squirming in my chair and had to turn my head a few times. nt

[mike_c]

5. I'm a former climber-- age and injuries stopped me-- but that was scary to watch....

If it was me, I'd top rope with a pulley just for safety. The free climb up the last ladder was just too sketchy for my taste. I'd do it for the thrill, once or twice, but not routinely.

[zipplewrath]

6. Wow

Part of what makes that so hard to watch is that he is moving his head around so much. That is really disorienting. Throw in the fact that you know how high up he is, and isn't on a tether, and it really gets you. I've jumped out of alot of airplanes, but that was hard to watch.

[Brickbat]

7. Why anyone puts down skilled labor wages is beyond me.

"I could climb towers for a job! Can't be that hard!" It takes a certain type of person, and believe me, you need a certain type of spouse and family to do this kind of work.

[Uben]

8. My son does this every day!

He's been climbing towers for fifteen years. He's 35 now, so his time climbing is getting short. Can you imagine? He has all kinds of pics from the tops of towers. He buys all his own safety equipment because he doesn't trust anyone else to keep their gear in good shape. He has already lost two friends to falls, both were the result of someone else's error, not theirs, but he continues to climb. Most of his work these days are on cell phone towers which are only a couple of hundred feet tall, thankfully, but he still enjoys climbing the tall ones occasionally.

[NoNothing]

9. Serious question:

Why don't they wear BASE parachutes?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. It'd add a lot of weight and guy wires render parachutes pointless.

[mike_c]

14. because every other descent would be a jump...

...AT LEAST! That would be the high point of the day's work (no pun intended, really!). Especially with that much air under your boots-- plenty of room to move away from the tower, etc. Support cables would be an issue, I suppose. Wouldn't want to wrap around one of those on the way down.

Having to climb down tot the elevator is the other reason I'd want to top-rope with a pulley if I did this kind of work. Climbing down is WAY sketchier than climbing up, IMO. At least with an anchored rope you can descend quickly and easily.

[jdlh8894]

17. Boy, did you hit it!

Going up is the easy part. Coming down is where the body and brain have to come together.

[Roland99]

25. +1

[jdlh8894]

15. Like I'd have time to drop 100# of tools

on people below and have time to pull cord in 168 ft.? James Bond I ain't!

[MajorChode]

10. I used to do this

The tallest towers I ever worked on were about 400', but required a climb all the way so there was actually more climbing involved.

[jdlh8894]

11. Only have to climb 168 feet

Took the elevator to 1600! Sure, might be swaying in the wind - even @ 57 yrs young, I can do 168 easy! No brag, just fact!

[Sabriel]

12. I had to quit halfway

My ears were ringing.

[Control-Z]

19. I didn't make it that far.

:scared:

[onehandle]

20. I kept thinking, 'This has got to be the end,' but he just kept climbing.

All the way to the end of the video.

[Codeine]

16. Okay, that was just sheer fucking madness.

I had to stop watching about three-quarters through, when he still had a sixty foot climb to go. Seriously, fuck that.

[MilesColtrane]

21. I nearly heaved.

:puke:

[G_j]

22. what would this be like on a windy day?

I don't want to think about it..

[Zephie]

23. I flip out climbing a regular ladder

I was having a tiny hysteria attack watching this. I have to be honest, I can think of tens of other deadly things that I would rather do every day, than do this just once.

[emmadoggy]

38. You and me both. On all counts.

I couldn't get through the whole thing and I squirmed and turned away so many times during the portion I played that I didn't see much of it!

Hubby and I used to work at a TV station. I remember when the guys came to paint the tower. F'ing madmen, I say. You couldn't pay me all the money in the world to climb one of those things!

:scared:

[Davis_X_Machina]

24. Needs one of these on top....

Low takeoff angle, anyone?

[jdlh8894]

40. CQ

From the KYL7693

[sinkingfeeling]

26. Not the height that bothered me, but the physical exhaustion might be a problem.

[Codeine]

32. Are you serious?

You're made of sterner stuff than I, sir. Just watching that was too vertiginous for me.

[sinkingfeeling]

35. Try 62 year-old lady who just discovered last weekend that she could no longer

swing walk across monkey bars without serious aches the next day!

[closeupready]

27. K&R for later viewing.

:hi:

[Evasporque]

28. my palms are sweating....

that was awesome fun to watch.

I feel sick now...LOL

[TheManInTheMac]

41. LOL, me too.

I have only recently gotten used to the window washers dangling outside my office building 9 floors up. This makes their job look cushy.

[Hosnon]

29. One question:

WHY?

While there might be a sum of cash that would make me really, really, really want to do that, I don't think there is any sum that would make me actually be able to...

[Canuckistanian]

30. That is INSANE

And they have to do this every time they need to change a light bulb?

[Gregorian]

31. That's nothing compared to this-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4FK-hJnNxE

[Codeine]

33. I don't climb stepladders that fast! nt

[Old Troop]

45. Well, now we know Spider man's secret identity

[MilesColtrane]

47. He was very skilled, but also insane.

[damntexdem]

34. "If there's lightning, there's no quick way down." Nonsense!

In any weather, there's a very quick way down. That's why there are rest breaks with safety lines.

Yikes! I have no fear of watching this. But it still makes me nervous to watch it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. whoa

[Sabriel]

37. If you have younger kids, here's a book for them on this topic

"The Top Job," by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. It's a picture book about a girl whose dad changes the lightbulb on top of the Empire State Building.

[Buns_of_Fire]

39. Whatever they pay those guys, It. Isn't. Enough.

I get woozy standing on a chair to change a light bulb overhead. To them, I say: :patriot:

[11 Bravo]

42. Wow! Just wow.

[Xithras]

43. I have zero fear of heights, but that's nuts.

1700+ feet up with no safety line, on a swaying tower, with stormclouds closing in?!?! No effing way! I was completely OK with that video until he got to the freeclimbing part. No. Thank. You.

And this is from a guy who once freaked 100+ people out by hanging off the Diving Board on top of Half Dome in Yosemite, who has been both skydiving and hang gliding numerous times, and who has been peakbagging since he was 12. Heights don't bother me...but risking your life to save a couple of minutes while changing a light bulb DOES.

[Old Troop]

44. Holy shit! I jumped out of planes for a living, but this scared the crap

out of me. I'd have had a heart attack in the first twenty feet after leaving the elevator from fear and exertion!

[Rosco T.]

46. it's been pulled.... gone.

[MilesColtrane]

48. Bastards.

[Canuckistanian]

49. Message from their website about why it was pulled

Where’d the video go?

I sent out an email this weekend advertising a new video about tower climbing. It was a great video and I wish I could show it to you but the person I got it from expressed some concerns about how it reflected on the tower industry and ask me to take it down. So I did. But not to worry, we have agreed to work on more videos in the near future and I am sure they will be as good or better than the one I had to take down.

Sorry if you feel mislead or cheated but it was the only thing I could do.

I will let you all know when we have more videos on tower climbing, hopefully in the very near future. Thanks for tuning in. Russ

http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/

[GOTV]

50. Here you go ...

I saw it earlier and wanted to show someone this evening but found it had been pulled. I searched all over and I found a place that still had a copy.

Watch it full screen!

http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/09/15/climbing-a-1768-foot-transmission-tower/

[onehandle]

51. Great! Thanks! I wanted to pull a copy and forgot to when I started the thread. nt

[mdmc]

52. ..