OMG, NO WAY !! Climbing a 1768 ft tower

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Steve McKellop

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I don't even like getting down off the roof of my house!



I about fell out of my chair just watching this! :throwup::throwup:
 
I used to work in the field service NDT industry. We would climb flare stacks, smoke stacks, and water towers up over 300'. The sway at 300' is incredible. I can only imagine the sway at 1768'.



I would climb the tower with a stack of x-ray film in my back pocket, a crank assembly & guide tubes over my shoulder, two rolls of tape on my wrists, a lead number belt in my front pocket, two radiation survey meters on my harness, and finally a 65 LB Isotope projector hanging 6' below me.



I got out of field service for a reason. That was of the many reasons I left field service.



I don't miss it at all.





Tom
 
About 40 years ago while working for the power company one of the guys was asked to replace the light bulb in the beacon at the top of a 300 foot radio broadcast tower. He charged a dollar a foot, and they were more than happy to pay it.
 
OMG. My heart was pounding just watching that. No way could I ever have done that. My acrophobia would have done me in before ever stepping out of the elevator.

 
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As an instrument tech. I had to stand on the platforms at the top of scubber towers, 10' diameter fiberglass. I had to service anylitical intruments of discharge gases. Glad to be retired. I had to train myself to look only at the work, not the sway.
 
I had to stop after the 1st 30 seconds of the actual climb video. I hate heights. My son could do this and laugh all the way up. He took after his mother...LOL!
 
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I hate heights. Viewing that kind of stuff puckers my ass and makes my prostate want to escape my body. However, I was able to climb and rappel when I did rescue and EMS work. Weird.
 
My neighbor does this, he graduated as a civil engineer but with the current economy this was the best job he could find. To me, 40k is no where near worth it. I don't think I could do it for 200k a year. My heart was beating like crazy the whole way through this video. He says that the senior employees tease all the rookie climbers about using safety harnesses to the point that none of them use them even though they would definitely lose their job if they were seen doing that.
 
I have climbed my dads 200 foot tower often when he was into HAM Radio...



That sad, it didn't scare me but I had great respect for the fact I was 200 foot in the air. I hooked and climbed as I went.



The sway was about 3 feet even with 8 guide wires. I can't even imagine the sway at nearly 2000 feet up...



Cool video though.

 
"I used to work in the field service NDT industry. We would climb flare stacks, smoke stacks, and water towers up over 300' "



found a pic of tom on his last day saying goodbye to the guys..... :banana:.



[Broken External Image]:
 
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Wow, I can't stand heights either for the most part. It's not really the fear of falling that scares me but more so the sudden stop at the bottom. I would have to have a base jumping parachute on if I did a job like that jump for safety.
 
"...after that it's just another 60'..."



Are you kidding me!!!!!!?????!!!! Free climbing? No thank you. Maybe if I could have a parachute on my back...Eh, after further contemplation, f that. No way.



What did they have to do up there anyway?
 
I would've needed a change of shorts after about 20' probably. I used to hate going in the man lift when I worked retail, and that was only 15-20'. I'm super scared of heights. We were born without wings for a reason!
 
At least these guys had something to hang onto. How about that dude that tight-roped between the Twin Towers in NYC years ago? Now that was one crazy SOB.
 

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