Fancy a career change? Apply within.....

Tower work is all a state of mind Jakey. Once you go past 35 or so feet, a slip is going to produce the same result, you just get to contemplate the sudden stop a bit longer. This was shot on a very calm day. Usually, the wind is much stronger as you go up.    I was up a 160' mast recently via a topping lift in a canvas bucket chair.  No safety harness because no place to clip on. Just trust in the man tending you.  Piece of cake. 
Rick
edit: One does get a bit goosey when the welds for the step rungs are real rusty though. 
The things they don't tell you about in radio engineer school....

My legs are still jelly!!!
Maggie

Interesting vid.

I own and operate a climbing facility so I suppose you could say I do it professionally. I have been at such heights but although the commentary says that 'free climbing' is allowed in these circumstances to be honest, with what I saw on this video, in this day and age, it isn't acceptable.

I know it goes on, and for the sake of expediency it clearly is allowed to go on but it can't be right. After he exited the caged ladder he climbed without any security except for when he took a break. This was a serious climb and even with experience incredibly tiring. A single krab was his only security over an open rung - no redundancy in the system. Even connected as he was one slip from the rung, a bit of wind and he's a goner.

I mean, if you are doing this on a mountain for sport to test yourself fair enough, but for your job - no way. As an employee or an employer I wouldn't sanction it. The top section for chrissakes. The hand/footholds were no more than bolts with an upturned end. Hooking over that, yeah when you have a secondary sure, otherwise...................

Maybe when they built the thing maintenance and access wasn't properly addressed but some kind of stopfall system could be installed even now.

The irony is the guys doing the work actually would have all the answers but to some extent there is some bravado about doing this. I really don't understand that.

I suppose from the employer and insurance company view the statistics are relatively low. The guys are good at what they do and have all the necessary experience and fully understand the risks so maybe there just aren't that many accidents.

I'm not risk averse and part of what I do enables people to think about their own safety in a practical way, acknowledge it and deal with it. But what is on this video is completely alien to that because this relies 100% on the fitness and capability of the individual. There is no back up system!

I wouldn't and couldn't work in these conditions, it would make me too angry