My dad was an electrician for about 40 years - one story he told me when he was training apprentices years ago was teaching them how to climb telephone polls.

My dad was an electrician for about 40 years - one story he told me when he was training apprentices years ago was teaching them how to climb telephone polls. You wore boots that had spikes in the side of them, but when climbing, you had to keep your knees away from the poll so the spikes would dig in properly. Unfortunately, when you get to the top of the pole and look down, some people panic due to the height. And when they panic, they tend to "hug" the poll, which causes the spikes to pull out, which causes the person to slide down the poll which is pretty much a collection of splinters in poll form. They called it "burning the poll".