1,700 Foot TV Tower Climb!

[billt]

They say it takes 50,000 gallons, (Fifty Thousand Gallons), or paint to paint the Golden Gate.  Bill T.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_paint_did_the_golden_gate_bridge_take_up

[JC5123]

I worked for Eddy,  a Cousin of mine painting for a couple of years.  We painted Water Towers, Bridges etc...
On morning a friend of Ed's walked in and asked Ed if he knew anyone who would help him for the day changing some bulbs and doing maintenence on a Radio Tower...Ed told him that I was the only one he knew crazy enough to do it.  As it worked out, I happened to have a new Climbing/Rappelling harness I had just bought in my car.   I spent the day atop a 330 ft tower...While not nearly the height or the same level of "Pucker Factor" as this climb....I enjoyed it.
I did have dreams of falling several nights in a row afterwards.

At the top of the 330 ft tower I worked on, there was as much as 12" of sway with a 20 mph wind...can't imagine what the movement would be like atop a 1768 ft structure.

Also worth mentioning...the American Medical Association reports that a fall from a height of a mere 30 feet is lethal 95% of the time....Anything above that height becomes just a mental game...
If you do happen to fall from a substantial height.....just remember this ....One and Half front Somersault then lay it out in the Pike position.  Go for points on form and difficulty cause your only going to get one chance at this dive.

Good point. Climbers have 2 heights that they are very concerned with. 1st is the "death zone" which is anything above 8000 meters in altitude. The second is called the "dead zone". This is that 30' mark. As the prevailing attitude goes, anything lower than that, you'll probably come out ok with a broken ankle or something similar. Anything over 30' you're pretty much done anyway so there is no sense in worrying about it. But that 30' mark is where if you don't die, you know you're going to get severely messed up.

[Solus]

I used to work with a guy that did tower maintenance in his younger years. He said a 1,200' full climb, with bulb changes along the way, was an 8 hour, full day job, bottom to top and back. He said he got out of it before they started putting the elevators like on many of them like the one in the video.

I've never been afraid of heights myself, but the size of the platform under me has a lot to do with it too. Towers are not my game.

I guess you pack your lunch. 

Not likely there will be a pizza delivery and running to McDonald's for a burger and fries would be a pain.

[Solus]

If you do happen to fall from a substantial height.....just remember this ....One and Half front Somersault then lay it out in the Pike position.  Go for points on form and difficulty cause your only going to get one chance at this dive.

I was asked once what I would do, if while sky diving, both chutes failed to open. 

I said I'd strip naked then guide for a swimming pool with a pool party going on and land into it.

You'd get a good chuckle on the way down thinking of all the confused people there would be in a few moments.

[PegLeg45]

I guess you pack your lunch. 

Not likely there will be a pizza delivery and running to McDonald's for a burger and fries would be a pain.

I actually asked him about lunch on the job once. He said they had a canvas pouch hanging from the back of their belts and that they just carried their sack lunch in it. The light bulbs were in a bag also hanging off their backs so that they wouldn't bang into the tower and break. The harnesses they used allowed them to lock-in and sit stationary to work, rest, or eat.
The reason for the 8 hour time consumption, he said, was that they were also inspecting the tower joints and wiring on the way up. As a side note, the company he worked for also did the high voltage electrical tower inspections from helicopters. He said he tried his hand at that, but didn't care for it much.

[Sponsor]

[fightingquaker13]

I actually asked him about lunch on the job once. He said they had a canvas pouch hanging from the back of their belts and that they just carried their sack lunch in it. The light bulbs were in a bag also hanging off their backs so that they wouldn't bang into the tower and break. The harnesses they used allowed them to lock-in and sit stationary to work, rest, or eat.
The reason for the 8 hour time consumption, he said, was that they were also inspecting the tower joints and wiring on the way up. As a side note, the company he worked for also did the high voltage electrical tower inspections from helicopters. He said he tried his hand at that, but didn't care for it much.

I think the difficulty isn't in eating luch. Its getting rid of it without getting arrested or shot by an offended passer by.
FQ13