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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → You think you're brave?
You think you're brave?
2010-09-16, 10:52 AM #1
I think short of going to war, and even on that note, these guys are the bravest people I can't imagine being. I honestly think I'd rather get shot at then do this... and sorry for the link not being embedded.

Climbing a 1786 foot tall tower

Also, anyone else think it would just be easier to fly up there in a chopper?
Quote Originally Posted by FastGamerr
"hurr hairy guy said my backhair looks dumb hurr hairy guy smash"
2010-09-16, 10:56 AM #2
I could do it. I'm not afraid of heights.
My biggest concern would be the same as it is in bed: enough stamina to finish the job. :(
2010-09-16, 10:59 AM #3
It's not so much the terror of heights, it's the fact that one slip up, and you plummet to your death. There are no mistakes up there. Hell if you so much as drop a wrench it could plunge through your car at the bottom....

They don't even use safety lines half the time!
Quote Originally Posted by FastGamerr
"hurr hairy guy said my backhair looks dumb hurr hairy guy smash"
2010-09-16, 11:05 AM #4
I sure as hell couldn't do it, but I'd imagine the trip back down would be even worse.

Also a helicopter might have the odd problem with the guide cables. :P
nope.
2010-09-16, 11:08 AM #5
Originally posted by KOP_AoEJedi:
Hell if you so much as drop a wrench it could plunge through your car at the bottom...

No it won't. It'll dent the roof.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2010-09-16, 11:09 AM #6
Uh I can't imagine going all that way and then not BASE Jumping. Ridiculous. I've been contemplating doing this on a tower near here... not nearly this tall, and certainly not past the interior portion that has a ladder...
2010-09-16, 11:11 AM #7
I don't mean cut through to the ground, but you don't think that it could at least embed itself in the roof of a car? I'm too lazy to do the math in calculating force of say, a 14mm wrench falling 1700 feet, but it has to be enough to do more than dent it.
Quote Originally Posted by FastGamerr
"hurr hairy guy said my backhair looks dumb hurr hairy guy smash"
2010-09-16, 11:15 AM #8
It'd make one hell of a dent, but it wouldn't be enough to actually break it unless your roof is made from something hella flimsy.
nope.
2010-09-16, 11:19 AM #9
I would think it would change greatly depending on how it landed too, on end, or on its side.
Quote Originally Posted by FastGamerr
"hurr hairy guy said my backhair looks dumb hurr hairy guy smash"
2010-09-16, 11:27 AM #10
Well yeah but that's just simple physics. P=F/A. :P
nope.
2010-09-16, 11:30 AM #11
That's pretty intense..

On a similar note, yesterday I had to climb a (roughly) 3 story rope ladder, then pull myself up over the ledge at the top. It was a test in order to get qualified as a VBSS team member. That was really intense (despite being attached to a safety harness and having pads on the ground below me). Of course, a rope ladder is much harder to climb than the fixed metal rungs they're climbing, but I imagine it can get pretty windy up there too, and there's got to be some psychological factors when you're up that high and not safety harnessed in, even if you've done it a hundred times before.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Lassev: I guess there was something captivating in savagery, because I liked it.
2010-09-16, 12:32 PM #12
Nothing makes you look smarter than debating high school physics.

While I was growing up my dad climbed poles every day for the local cable company. He used to do these things called "mid span" or something, where he would take a ladder with hooks on the top and hook it to the middle of a phone/cable wire half way between two poles and climb up to service the line. I always thought that was downright crazy.
2010-09-16, 12:51 PM #13
Originally posted by Dash_rendar:
Nothing makes you look smarter than debating high school physics.


You can't debate physics! It's the law! :D

My Physics knowledge was never the best, and it's been years since that. I do okay at common sense type judgments though, or at least I'd like to think. But math makes a fool of me when it can.
Quote Originally Posted by FastGamerr
"hurr hairy guy said my backhair looks dumb hurr hairy guy smash"
2010-09-16, 12:56 PM #14
I could never do that. I have a severe fear of heights.

And to be honest, they should be given parachutes.

Originally posted by Emon:
No it won't. It'll dent the roof.


I would argue that it would depend on the type of wrench :P (There's some pretty big ass wrenches out there)
2010-09-16, 1:06 PM #15
I knew a guy in Alabama who did this. Though he's on hiatus because he broke his back. Though he's recovering nicely. I guess you could call it a lucky break.
My blawgh.
2010-09-16, 1:07 PM #16
Originally posted by Baconfish:
It'd make one hell of a dent, but it wouldn't be enough to actually break it unless your roof is made from something hella flimsy.


Hella? Is this 1995?
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2010-09-16, 1:09 PM #17
In my country it's still 1972.
nope.
2010-09-16, 1:17 PM #18
Oh **** I couldn't do that.

I'd be better going up than down, and I'd be fine if I was roped, but goddamn I'd have to jump down with a parachute or something.
Hey, Blue? I'm loving the things you do. From the very first time, the fight you fight for will always be mine.
2010-09-16, 1:35 PM #19
I got to where he gets to the base of the antenna and says it's another 60 feet.
"You have to climb that!?!"
2010-09-16, 3:59 PM #20
Originally posted by Phantom-Seraph:
I knew a guy in Alabama who did this. Though he's on hiatus because he broke his back. Though he's recovering nicely. I guess you could call it a lucky break.


I wouldn't call any back injury lucky :/
2010-09-16, 4:12 PM #21
[http://imgur.com/ZAaXf.png]
2010-09-16, 5:29 PM #22
As someone who suffers from severe vertigo when climbing onto chairs, that video made me physically ill.
2010-09-16, 5:39 PM #23
I don't get why they don't have a little more room for them to work. It would cost $10 in steel.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2010-09-16, 6:34 PM #24
I seriously doubt I could do that, maybe to the point where there is still a ladder but the final part...jesh...no way, I shudder just thinking about it.

The thing that would scare me the most is the amount the tower must sway right there up at the top, guess they have limits on what weather conditions etc..

Also +1 for a parachute on the way back down.
People of our generation should not be subjected to mornings.

Rbots
2010-09-16, 6:44 PM #25
Originally posted by Spook:
Hella? Is this 1995?


I say hella every day of my life.
2010-09-16, 6:53 PM #26
What really bothers me is the gloves. They look so loose. Any time I've worn gloves like those for working, I've never felt that I had a secure grip. I suppose that guy's monstrous forearms make up for it, but still. I'd feel like I could slip out of them.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2010-09-16, 7:17 PM #27
Originally posted by Emon:
What really bothers me is the gloves. They look so loose. Any time I've worn gloves like those for working, I've never felt that I had a secure grip. I suppose that guy's monstrous forearms make up for it, but still. I'd feel like I could slip out of them.


I was thinking the same thing. I can't tell if they are special gloves or something but they seem to be just regular old cowhide gloves, which, like you, I rarely feel comfortable wearing when I handle anything that requires the least bit of precision.

I agree on parachuting down.
2010-09-16, 7:32 PM #28
Originally posted by Emon:
What really bothers me is the gloves. They look so loose. Any time I've worn gloves like those for working, I've never felt that I had a secure grip. I suppose that guy's monstrous forearms make up for it, but still. I'd feel like I could slip out of them.


You're talking to guys that climb a 1700ft tower for a living and don't even use safety gear because it takes too much time.
:psyduck:
2010-09-16, 7:46 PM #29
wonder how much they get paid.
It took a while for you to find me; I was hiding in the lime tree.
2010-09-16, 7:50 PM #30
Originally posted by Cool Matty:
You're talking to guys that climb a 1700ft tower for a living and don't even use safety gear because it takes too much time.
:psyduck:

I don't mean for them I mean me
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2010-09-16, 7:55 PM #31
edit: whoops
Warhead[97]
2010-09-16, 8:54 PM #32
Originally posted by Cool Matty:
You're talking to guys that climb a 1700ft tower for a living and don't even use safety gear because it takes too much time.


See, that kind of thing makes me think they aren't brave, just stupid.
You can't judge a book by it's file size
2010-09-16, 9:53 PM #33
They must be thrillseekers. When most regular "extreme" things aren't quite extreme enough so they need something like this to get their fix. I can't imagine the average Joe doing this because the pay is good and you got to earn a living, or something, but then again I suppose you get used to almost anything...

I could not do it and you'd have to kill me before I tried, and then I wouldn't really be trying at all since you'd have to drag my corpse up there and somehow control my hands precisely enough to emulate me doing this. And then you'd have to move my mouth and use ventriloquism to say "Welp, I guess I'll call it a day" to make it seem like I said that.
Looks like we're not going down after all, so nevermind.
2010-09-16, 10:32 PM #34
haha, I saw this the other day.

Yea, I had the same throught about a helicopter.
Just fly over it, dangle down in a harness, and boom you're done.


also, wtf do they even do once they get up to the top? I mean, can't they build these things with redundancies so no one ever needs to go fix something?
2010-09-17, 5:14 AM #35
The closest thing I've done to this is using the access ladders down to the Mer de Glace in the French Alps. As the glacier's retreated it's dropped in height dramatically, leaving smoothly gouged cliffs behind. The ladders down are skinny multi-storey things bolted to the cliff face. Three things really sucked:

1) Having to wear gloves because the ladder was too cold to grip
2) The ladder being so near to the cliff face in places that you could only place the toe of your boot on the rung
3) Your mind goes a little blank after a while and then you get scared you'll do something stupid.

Still, nowhere near the height of that tower and at least I could face the cliff and pretend I wasn't very high.
2010-09-17, 5:31 AM #36
I imagine a helicopter would be unnecessarily expensive.

Also:
Originally posted by Dash_rendar:
I say hella every day of my life.


It is this, then, that must make you incredibly annoying to spend time with in real life.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Lassev: I guess there was something captivating in savagery, because I liked it.
2010-09-17, 5:35 AM #37
Originally posted by Dash_rendar:
I say hella every day of my life.


Lemme just grab my shotgun.



Originally posted by Squirrel King:
Yea, I had the same throught about a helicopter.
Just fly over it, dangle down in a harness, and boom you're done.


It would be very difficult to do any kind of precision work like that. I used to be an abseiler in construction/repair. When you're hanging off a tall building and you're at the mercy of the winds it's a real *****, the higher you go the worse it get's, and with a helicopter above I could see it being very difficult.
Still, you could hang down from the copter and then clip yourself firmly onto the area you need to work on, and disconnect from the helicopter.


Though in the case of these guys they'd probably just drop directly from the helicopter and try and land where they want to work >_>
You can't judge a book by it's file size
2010-09-17, 6:25 AM #38
I guess there's just not enough accidents in that line of work to warrant using a helicopter. From what that video said, apparently even OSHA realizes that these people are crazy and rules don't apply hah.
Quote Originally Posted by FastGamerr
"hurr hairy guy said my backhair looks dumb hurr hairy guy smash"
2010-09-17, 7:16 AM #39
I couldn't finish watching it, once he got up to the point where the antenna had the smaller, iron steps attached to it I freaked out. I think being thrown into a war zone would be a better alternative than having to climb that...at least personally.
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