Serious climbing

[bstewert]

Bored with tree climbing? Try this:

 

[Altissimus]

they are high !

 

[sotc]

I'm really not digging the free climbing, make my hands and feet tingle to think about

 

[MasterBlaster]

That makes you grip stronger.

 

[woodworkingboy]

They should have turned the juice off. That things has already cooked the hair off the one dude!

Some folks just rely on solar power.

Interesting perspective in that photo, but kind of a lame way to send a note to a hot secretary on the seventh floor.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Switching over soon enough, I'm afraid.

 

[MasterBlaster]

You know many of them?

 

[sotc]

That makes you grip stronger.

I bet

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I'm really not digging the free climbing, make my hands and feet tingle to think about

Ditto.. But I can appreciate what those guys do..

 

[tntree]

Damm, imagine a windy day up there

 

[SkwerI]

The thought of a lightning storm moving in would scare the crap outta me.

 

[rskybiz]

Takes some nerve! The wind,storms moving in I think I would have a chute on my back!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

WORD!

 

[woodworkingboy]

People looking for the airport....

 

[canadiantreeman]

I'd try it if someone paid enough...for sure I'd bring a camera.

Looks like they have some fall arrest on, but I am slightly sleep deprived and having mild hallucinations...BEDTIME!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Damm, imagine a windy day up there

It's always a windy day UP THERE.

 

[littlenick]

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[Blinky]

That's way high, never been over 750' but I used to do antenna and waveguide adjustments on microwave towers. It IS always windy and cold. The guyed towers kinda hum when it's blowing. Once you get over about 200' the clouds will frig with you if they're moving. On one of my first ones I got dis-oriented, not quite vertigo but dizzy and nauseas from the mixed inputs.

Willie it's not completely free (unroped) climbing, you have a harness and a lanyard. Most towers have a cable on stanchions that you clip into.

My job was easy, all I had to do was climb and turn wrenches. It's the guys that erect the towers that are the real psychos.

 

[sotc]

I bet, seen a vid of that, insane

 

[MasterBlaster]

I once considered being tower builder until I saw the 'lil travel trailers they had to live in cuz travel was all they did. Not for me!

 

[MooseHunter113]

I once considered being tower builder until I saw the 'lil travel trailers they had to live in cuz travel was all they did. Not for me!

i was in the same boat then i found out i would be home roughly a week every 5-6 weeks and with a wifey and 3 kids i couldnt do it!!

 

[Blinky]

i was in the same boat then i found out i would be home roughly a week every 5-6 weeks and with a wifey and 3 kids i couldnt do it!!

That was close to my travel schedule, more like 4-5 weeks, home 2. I was just married and it was like we had to get to know each other again every time I came home. Did it for 11 months and quit. The money was great though.

The towers were usually already up when I got to'em, sometimes they'd still be hanging the top sections and antennae. I slept in the shelters or in a tent inside the fence to save my per diem whenever I could. Did a bunch up in Boston, a bunch more in Cleveland and a couple of big ones in Dallas/Ft Worth.

Nobody climbed if storms or 15+ knot winds were predicted, there was plenty of inside work on those days anyway. Worst electrical shock I ever got was in a shelter in Princeton, NJ.

You should see the lightening protection on those sites, double ground halos with 00 copper wire and 8' ground rods every 12'... and still the radios get fried every once in a while. Cell sites had triple redundant systems, 3 each of every piece of electronic gear, the shelters were 20'x24'... now they're about 8'x10'.

Ice is a big deal too, below was a bad place to be when it started melting and peeling off the arrays in big chunks.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's interesting as hell, Chip. What was the pay like?

 

[Blinky]

In 1986/87, $550/day plus ~$110 per diem (per diem varied). I had to get certified with three different telcom companies to work on their stuff but luckily that was paid for by my previous employer, UNR-Rohn ... who became my primary contractor.

It was fun work but the road got old, I'd been traveling (not as frequently) for 4-1/2 years before with Rohn. I bought my first computer somewhere in there and was already thinking of doing something else. Did a hell of a lot of rock climbing and whitewater boating, took my boat and gear everywhere... life was truly good in those days.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Some months ago they were extending the height on all the high voltage towers that run through town. I'd stop and watch them in the morning, it was fascinating, the crew swarming over them and walking on the lines. I talked with one of the guys, subcontractors for the electric company. He said that once you get used to it, the work was no bigee. I wondered how long it would take to get used to it.