The World's Scariest Job

I'm glad there are people willing to do that job for me.

The pay is very well for those of us not scared of heights

No thanks.

On a side note, those nut jobs that hang out of helicopter to film stuff are also a bit looney. Harness or not, there is no reason to hang out of a perfectly good helicopter.

I think that video makes it scarier than it is... not much scares me, but the guy rapidly looking out, up, and down before climbing really berkeleys my E36 M3 up!

I'd do it!

Yes, OSHA allows free climbing (at times).

Some jobs don't even require harnesses (like steel building erectors).

M2Pilot wrote: I noticed they're wearing helmets, like that would help a lot.

The helmets aren't for the fall. They're to keep you conscious if the guys above you drops a wrench on your head, or if you make a mistake and whack your head on a structural member.

Unconscious people can't hold on very well.

I've never been at that height, but I've done a lot of work from 50'- 120'.

I find the hard part is at about 30'. High enough to kill you. Once you get past that, and learn to trust your equipment, the rest is all pretty similar.

"If there is a lightning storm, there is no quick way down"

Well now, that is not entirely true...

I did some work on a 90' articulated arm man hoist. Those things sway a lot. I did not like it at all.

For me, it wasn't really scary until the part where he went past the 'electrical box'. For some reason, the rest of the climb spooked me big time. Maybe it was seeing the lightning rods.

ClemSparks thinks sachilles should have written: There is no...perfectly good helicopter.

Youtube has cured me of any afinity toward helicopters.

Seriously...youtube is responsible. Ok...not responsible...but it has enabled me to realize that I don't even like being around those deathmachines.

Clem

I think I'd be OK with a parachute, but without one, there's no way I'm climbing onto the outside of that tower.

I can't imagine a chute would do anything.

Without a static line, the deployment is too slow to help much from that height. Plus, the risk of entanglement or a less than optimum (tumbling) start is huge.

If you've got time to attach a static line, then why not just tie off in the first place, and not take the fall at all?

I know a few people that do tower climbing as a hobby. I'm not sure if I could do it. Ladders give me the willies if they're just propped up against something. The one time I climbed a water tower, it wasn't bad, though.

SVreX wrote: I can't imagine a chute would do anything. Without a static line, the deployment is too slow to help much from that height. Plus, the risk of entanglement or a less than optimum (tumbling) start is huge. If you've got time to attach a static line, then why not just tie off in the first place, and not take the fall at all?

That's way higher than a lot of base jumps.

I helped my cousin take down (harvest) an old windmill tower. It had been used as a HAM radio antenna tower.

Anyway...I estimate it was about 60 feet tall. It seemed HIGH and it was a LOT of work to take it down.

We used climbing harnesses, but I didn't feel like I should rest my weight on the harness, so I used a lot of muscles I hadn't used in a while, clinging to the tower while disassembling it.

When the wasps came out...it got interesting. (I got stung.)

Clem

I feel like this job would help me get over my fear of heights.........

Or give me a heart attack!

I'd still like to give it a shot!

I just pooped a little

When I was out in St. Louis about 20 years ago, 2 guys got killed when a 2100-foot tower collapsed while they were up top. 350 feet taller than that thing - 3 times as tall as the Gateway Arch. We saw the wreckage later and it looked like it went across miles of countryside.

Not for me.

SVreX wrote: I find the hard part is at about 30'. High enough to kill you. Once you get past that, and learn to trust your equipment, the rest is all pretty similar.

Honestly, there is no difference between 30 feet and 300 (or 1700) it is all in your head. A fall from any of those heights will kill you. Once you realise that, heights are not an issue.

The only reason I did not take a job at the local windmill farm.. I have crohnes disease.. and there are no toilets at 200+ft

I used to work in RF communications (paging co) had to climb towers all the time... 200 - 250' were our tallest (the mt tops here help) I HATED it... my boss and co-worker loved the tower work... we worked out a very easy solution.. I became his ground man.. had to climb to bring him stuff occasionally but most of the time just had to rope pull things to him... I still don't like heights ... don't even like going up a 6' step latter

mad_machine wrote:

SVreX wrote: I find the hard part is at about 30'. High enough to kill you. Once you get past that, and learn to trust your equipment, the rest is all pretty similar.

Honestly, there is no difference between 30 feet and 300 (or 1700) it is all in your head. A fall from any of those heights will kill you. Once you realise that, heights are not an issue. The only reason I did not take a job at the local windmill farm.. I have crohnes disease.. and there are no toilets at 200+ft

There's a lot more time to think about stuff when you fall from 1700. There's probably just enough time that you can talk yourself into something like "Maybe if I land just right I'll get out of this. I just need to roll out of it when I hit the ground."

jg

Use a helicopter, dummy!They're doing it the hard way.

.

Nothing about that seems like a good idea to me. Nothing.

I find it funny how unsteady on my feet I become at higher altitudes. Many years ago I had to deliver pneumatic equipment to a bridge job.I could start walking on that gangplank with equipment over both shoulders. By the time I'd be at the top of the bridge, I'd be belly crawling, shoving one tool at a time in front of me. The guys on the job site thought I was hillarious.

You do get calmer with practice. When I first started running around on open mesh gangways a few hundred feet up, my heart would be in my throat. After a time, I became quite casual about it.