"This is the tricky part" WOW!!! Made me squirm just sitting here watching it. LOL

 

As an electrician I have worked at some extreme heights- CNTower & Skydome.....however I never had to climb like that without fall protection. Watching that video made my knees wobble.

Thanks for sharing.

 

WARNING: Don't watch this right after eating. It almost made me sick.

 

I have done quite a bit of skydiving in my younger years, and there is no way in H3ll you could get me to do that. LOL

 

My feet tingled from the first moment inside the tower all the way to the top. They actually hurt from it.

It's not that you couldn't pay me enough to do it. I can guarrenttee that I physicaly could not.

Here's a question I kept asking. The guy was climbing a bolted together structure. Much of it was preassembled and the major components were then bolted together on site.

Who had the courage to crank those last bolts THE FIRST TIME?

roadster with a stick

 

When I was in my late teens, I had a "friend" that changed tower lights as a side job. He got paid $50/bulb. He didn't have much for brains.

And then in my mid '30's I worked for MCI where I once climbed the inside of a gided microwave tower to about 500 ft. I was surprised that the experience wasn't too scary as I felt secure inside the triangular cage of the tower. Whenever I wanted to rest, I could lean back on the tower. However, there is no way I would climb on the outside of the tower change. That is typically how they build the towers.

I know of one incident where a father & son company built communication towers. The son was up on the tower, pushed off thinking his safety belt was attached (it wasn't) and he fell to his death. All while his father watched.

 

Too late. I think I am gonna be sick. I had to stop half way up the orange pole. The looking up and down is what got me. These guys have to be making some big bux.

 

In my trade, I've been around tower guys for 31 years. Sure wish I could do it, but no hypnotist has enough of what ever hypnotists have to get me up there.

Watched three guys finish the last 50 feet of a 550 foot tower and then hang a 600 pound antenna at the top in the late 80's. That last 50 feet, hanging the antenna and running the feedline, took two days. I was making $10 per hour to help in the transmitter building (it was an FM station - 94.1 in Jackson, Michigan).

I learned something back then: If you spend your life pulling yourself up vertically, you start to build muscles that make you someone not to mess with in a bar fight!

 

I take it that I'm the only one who thinks this looks like fun?

 

Got a friend in Brunswick, GA that actually does what I do: he's a technician on radio systems. But he also likes climbing somewhat.

One of his sites has a small enclosure on the tower, at 1050 feet (about 100 feet below the TOP of the tower). He rides a one man elevator up to the enclosure twice a year for a PM check on some gov't agencies' repeater. He has a blast going up there.

As for me, I'd tell the boss "Hell No".

No, you are not the only one - but you are one of few.

 

Last Friday, three of my guys replaced the lights on the side of the building. 20- 30 feet up on an extention laddder.

After hearing all the complaints this morning about having to work at that height, the butterflies and ladder shaking, I showed them this video.

Not a peep from them since.


roadster with a stick

 

Its not as dangerous as it looks, He had a safety belt that is always attached to tower as you climb. You attach belt climb a couple of pole studs attach safety harness above you then detach belt below you. The real danger would be a lightning strike and fatigue. Climbing a tower or a pole is straight up, not like climbing a ladder. I climb utility poles as part of my job, thats plenty high enuogh for me.