Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Afraid of heights?

This helmet-cam video of a technician free-climbing to the top of a 1768-ft transmission tower made me uneasy. (An elevator got him most of the way up,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txdv_oNq81I#t=0m22s

I guess part 2 is how to get down from a 1768 ft transmission tower...I hope it's not a 5 second clip!

"Uneasy"?!?! I thought I was going to puke.

I've turned down ....FAR.... lesser videos!

Added to bucket list.

Like, you have to have a bucket in front of you when you watch the video?

OK, then it's on mine, too.

That's crazy.

Especially how it made my knees knock from just watching that video.

That's just nuts!

The company I work for has 200' towers. I've been up on one. The height itself wasn't bad, but the climb was. I don't think I could physically do over 8x that.

Oh, crap, I'm too late to watch it.

Apparently the video showed more than the climber wanted future clients to see but here's a screen shot...

Yeah, that looks crazy.

I saw the video before it was pulled and I don't think I've ever been that nervous watching something like that. My heart rate was near 100 and I was sweating like I was outside working in the 95/95. I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't think I could do that job. I'd certainly wear a backup parachute. You know, just in case.

Scott

I keep thinking about the guys that built that tower and what they had to go through.

Here's another link that's still working.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uccjrp5NRYE

Strangely, this didn't give me the chills. There's no way in hell I'd do it, but I felt sufficiently removed from the experience to not feel sick.

Now, if this were on an IMAX screen, I'd think I'd die watching it.

Thanks for the link. Definitely not a job I would ever do.

Now there's an idea. This would make a GREAT IMAX short!

Imagine the turnover in the housekeeping department.

No way I would attempt it.

Two 30-something ex-marines either in MA or NH, snuck up one just last month. They both made it down from their base jump. One just happened to descend way faster than the other, as he "lost his ba-lance," as Curly Howard used to try explain to brother Moe, and simply fell.

I know there was video, but the local news outlets refused to show it. Thank God I've already seen all 7 "Faces of Death," so I KNOW what I'm missin' out on.

Thank God I'm only 6'3". At 6'4" I would start being frightened. What these guys are doing is just incomprehensible.

Several years ago while doing an early morning flight out of Orlando I saw two workers at the very top of one of the two grouped together 1,500' 'Bithlo' towers with the ground completely covered in thick fog, it was really a wild sight from only a couple of hundred feet above and a mile away.

There was at one time three 1,500' Bithlo towers but one of them fell to the ground due to structural failure in the early '70s'.

Because when you're considering climbing one of them, you really want to have it in your mind that sometimes they simply fall down!