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I used to do this and, for me, the time it took was entirely dependent on the gear I was provided and whether the climb was enjoyable. The gear isn’t exactly wh

I used to do this and, for me, the time it took was entirely dependent on the gear I was provided and whether the climb was enjoyable. The gear isn’t exactly what you think of when you think climbing gear and, frankly, it’s infuriating. It might be manufactured by Petzl but the weight and utility are terrible relative to their alpine and mountaineering products. Hell, I was expected to wear work boots that were extremely heavy and climbed poorly. As far as scenery, everyone, myself included, would treat these climbs as climbs and would enjoy ourselves if the views were scenic. The work itself wasn’t hard relative to the trips we were guiding during the climbing season.

jasinjames 2y ago
How would someone get into this work?
- walrus01 2y ago
  As a person that hires tower service companies, I seriously would not recommend it as an entry level employee... The pay is horrible, the benefits suck, you'll be travelling 75%+ of the time. The bar to entry is very low if you're physically fit. If you don't have any DUIs and can pass a drug screen you are already ahead of many candidates. Most of the recruiting takes placein social media these days, for instance there's probably 20 or so tower climber related groups on Facebook. One of the reasons for the extensive use of social media is that to put it as politely as possible, the talent pool they're recruiting from are not highly educated, often don't own laptops or any device other than their phone. Many cannot put together a grammatically correct cover letter or CV. There is a very high turn over rate in people with less than 2 years experience. You will be working with (and sharing the cheapest possible motel rooms with) some very crude and uneducated individuals, with whom you might have nothing in common. All that for a rate of pay about the same as Dicks Burgers pays in Seattle to literally flip a burger, and Dicks has much better benefits. The majority of the work will be mundane cellular tower and monopole stuff, unless you are hired by one of the more rare and specialized broadcast industry tower companies. The tower erection specialists are also a whole different ball game from the cellular industry contractors and subs. The industry in general is a frustrating race to the bottom in subcontractors, turf vendors, subs of subs, unpaid invoices, and similar. It's very much like getting into any other hard labor construction job like roofing. For the person in the thread here that said drones can only fly to 400 ft, not quite, the faa has specifically addressed this. ==== https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ The relevant rules under Part 107 are summarized within Section 107.51. This section is entitled “Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft” and contains a set of limits associated with speed, altitude, and visibility. Pertaining to altitude, item B of the Section states that: “The altitude of the small unmanned aircraft cannot be higher than 400 feet above ground level unless the small unmanned aircraft is (1) flown within a 400-foot radius of a structure, and (2) does not fly higher than 400 feet above the structure’s immediate uppermost limit.”
  - geerlingguy 2y ago
    Just as a note, the majority of the climbing industry is probably as you say (I'm not an expert in it by any means!), but the guys featured in this post are both pros at ERI who work on some of the more interesting projects. Still, to me one of the bigger downsides is the travel... Being on the road 50+% of the time (usually more) takes a toll! With drones being so accessible, a lot of the smaller climbing projects are no longer necessary, when it's just inspecting the top of a small tower with simple antennas.
    - walrus01 2y ago
      Really big broadcast towers are a specialized niche... Your average tower crew is working at 200' and less. Many will never see the absolutely huge gin poles used to send up gigantic VHF (fm and tv) band antennas. If I had to guess, crews and people who work on the 1000' class guyed towers are maybe 2-3% of the industry. Everyone else is cranking out new sectors with RRH on monopoles for cellular carriers.
    - assimpleaspossi 2y ago
      Decades ago, I would show up for work on Monday morning with my suitcase in the trunk of my car cause I knew that as soon as I walked in the door I would be told I'd be flying out somewhere that morning. I'll never forget the day I was driving down the road--less than half a mile from my apartment--and making a left turn when, for a couple of seconds, I couldn't remember what town I was in.
  - anticensor 2y ago
    A radio antenna is semi open though.
    - ericcumbee 2y ago
      The part 107 exam has a question about radio towers and the answer is 400 feet above with in 400 ft of the tower. Or up to the point you hit controlled airspace.
  - 2y ago
adriand 2y ago
To what extent do people in this line of work feel fear as they do it? Is it mainly suitable for those rare people who either don’t feel fear, or the less-rare people who are looking for a rush, or does it just become mundane after sufficient experience, so that really anyone can do it?
- stilldavid 2y ago
  I'm a longtime rock climber and climbed a tower professionally back in another life. With most things, it's practice with the gear that builds trust in your system. I can do most anything at a height these days because I know that I'm safe; it lets me push that lizard brain feeling away. I similarly experienced this learning to SCUBA dive a few years ago - it's horrifying! But the more time spent doing the thing, practicing the systems, failure modes, etc... let me relax and enjoy the fish rather than freaking out that I'm 70' underwater.
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    I tried scuba diving. At 30 feet underwater, I felt a constant bubbling panic that took a great deal of effort to push back on. I suppose I would eventually get accustomed to it, but that was the first and last scuba dive for me.
- necubi 2y ago
  I'm a rock climber, not a tower climber, but I've been on climbs that are >1k feet above the deck. For me (and I gather most climbers), just hanging off an anchor at 1000 feet doesn't feel particularly scary. You're firmly attached to the rock with gear that you (hopefully) trust. For a tower, I'd expect it to feel even safer since the gear will be far more solid than some cams[0] jammed in a crack. I (along with most climbers) still feel fear though! But it's specifically fear of _falling_ rather than just fear of being high up. In climbing, that comes when you _lead_ past your point of protection (where your rope is attached to the rock), creating the possibility of falling >2x that distance. In big wall climbing you might climb 10-50 feet before placing protection, so you are risking a potentially very big fall. In tower climbing falls aren't possible (unless you screw up the system), because you are always clipped into at least one point of protection. I'd imagine that it feels more grueling than terrifying for most people comfortable with the heights. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-loaded_camming_device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-loaded_camming_device
cruffle_duffle 2y ago
I would think in a trade like this you’d have your own climbing gear and be expected to maintain it. In many trades most of the tools are property of the workers themselves.

jasinjames 2y ago

How would someone get into this work?

walrus01 2y ago
As a person that hires tower service companies, I seriously would not recommend it as an entry level employee... The pay is horrible, the benefits suck, you'll be travelling 75%+ of the time. The bar to entry is very low if you're physically fit. If you don't have any DUIs and can pass a drug screen you are already ahead of many candidates. Most of the recruiting takes placein social media these days, for instance there's probably 20 or so tower climber related groups on Facebook. One of the reasons for the extensive use of social media is that to put it as politely as possible, the talent pool they're recruiting from are not highly educated, often don't own laptops or any device other than their phone. Many cannot put together a grammatically correct cover letter or CV. There is a very high turn over rate in people with less than 2 years experience. You will be working with (and sharing the cheapest possible motel rooms with) some very crude and uneducated individuals, with whom you might have nothing in common. All that for a rate of pay about the same as Dicks Burgers pays in Seattle to literally flip a burger, and Dicks has much better benefits. The majority of the work will be mundane cellular tower and monopole stuff, unless you are hired by one of the more rare and specialized broadcast industry tower companies. The tower erection specialists are also a whole different ball game from the cellular industry contractors and subs. The industry in general is a frustrating race to the bottom in subcontractors, turf vendors, subs of subs, unpaid invoices, and similar. It's very much like getting into any other hard labor construction job like roofing. For the person in the thread here that said drones can only fly to 400 ft, not quite, the faa has specifically addressed this. ==== https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ The relevant rules under Part 107 are summarized within Section 107.51. This section is entitled “Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft” and contains a set of limits associated with speed, altitude, and visibility. Pertaining to altitude, item B of the Section states that: “The altitude of the small unmanned aircraft cannot be higher than 400 feet above ground level unless the small unmanned aircraft is (1) flown within a 400-foot radius of a structure, and (2) does not fly higher than 400 feet above the structure’s immediate uppermost limit.”
- geerlingguy 2y ago
  Just as a note, the majority of the climbing industry is probably as you say (I'm not an expert in it by any means!), but the guys featured in this post are both pros at ERI who work on some of the more interesting projects. Still, to me one of the bigger downsides is the travel... Being on the road 50+% of the time (usually more) takes a toll! With drones being so accessible, a lot of the smaller climbing projects are no longer necessary, when it's just inspecting the top of a small tower with simple antennas.
  - walrus01 2y ago
    Really big broadcast towers are a specialized niche... Your average tower crew is working at 200' and less. Many will never see the absolutely huge gin poles used to send up gigantic VHF (fm and tv) band antennas. If I had to guess, crews and people who work on the 1000' class guyed towers are maybe 2-3% of the industry. Everyone else is cranking out new sectors with RRH on monopoles for cellular carriers.
  - assimpleaspossi 2y ago
    Decades ago, I would show up for work on Monday morning with my suitcase in the trunk of my car cause I knew that as soon as I walked in the door I would be told I'd be flying out somewhere that morning. I'll never forget the day I was driving down the road--less than half a mile from my apartment--and making a left turn when, for a couple of seconds, I couldn't remember what town I was in.
- anticensor 2y ago
  A radio antenna is semi open though.
  - ericcumbee 2y ago
    The part 107 exam has a question about radio towers and the answer is 400 feet above with in 400 ft of the tower. Or up to the point you hit controlled airspace.
- 2y ago

adriand 2y ago

To what extent do people in this line of work feel fear as they do it? Is it mainly suitable for those rare people who either don’t feel fear, or the less-rare people who are looking for a rush, or does it just become mundane after sufficient experience, so that really anyone can do it?

stilldavid 2y ago
I'm a longtime rock climber and climbed a tower professionally back in another life. With most things, it's practice with the gear that builds trust in your system. I can do most anything at a height these days because I know that I'm safe; it lets me push that lizard brain feeling away. I similarly experienced this learning to SCUBA dive a few years ago - it's horrifying! But the more time spent doing the thing, practicing the systems, failure modes, etc... let me relax and enjoy the fish rather than freaking out that I'm 70' underwater.
- WalterBright 2y ago
  I tried scuba diving. At 30 feet underwater, I felt a constant bubbling panic that took a great deal of effort to push back on. I suppose I would eventually get accustomed to it, but that was the first and last scuba dive for me.
necubi 2y ago
I'm a rock climber, not a tower climber, but I've been on climbs that are >1k feet above the deck. For me (and I gather most climbers), just hanging off an anchor at 1000 feet doesn't feel particularly scary. You're firmly attached to the rock with gear that you (hopefully) trust. For a tower, I'd expect it to feel even safer since the gear will be far more solid than some cams[0] jammed in a crack. I (along with most climbers) still feel fear though! But it's specifically fear of _falling_ rather than just fear of being high up. In climbing, that comes when you _lead_ past your point of protection (where your rope is attached to the rock), creating the possibility of falling >2x that distance. In big wall climbing you might climb 10-50 feet before placing protection, so you are risking a potentially very big fall. In tower climbing falls aren't possible (unless you screw up the system), because you are always clipped into at least one point of protection. I'd imagine that it feels more grueling than terrifying for most people comfortable with the heights. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-loaded_camming_device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-loaded_camming_device

cruffle_duffle 2y ago

I would think in a trade like this you’d have your own climbing gear and be expected to maintain it. In many trades most of the tools are property of the workers themselves.