Me on an 1100' tower in Birmingham, Alabama, circa 1995
I used to climb towers for a living, until my knees couldn’t bear it any more. I began climbing because I figured I was “uniquely qualified,” meaning that I wasn’t afraid of heights. In my few years working towers, two of my friends died in falls, and numerous others died that I heard about but never knew. The tallest tower I ever climbed was 1735′. I’ve been to the top of a 2000′ tower, but it was rigged with an elevator so I didn’t have to climb. I might add: 2000′ is as tall as they get these days. It’s a very weird feeling to be that high, in open air without any noise around you but the wind. I always related it to sailing, the elation that you feel when you’re skirting across the water but hear no engine noise at all, only the wind. It’s the same kind of sensation.
Tonight, Dateline is running a special on “Tower Dogs,” and, as a survivor of that industry, I’m going to watch it for sure. I’m still in the cellular industry, but thank God now I work on the electronics at the bottom of the tower instead of the top. My company thankfully won’t even entertain the idea of me climbing a tower. Little did I know it’s the most dangerous job in America. I’d always heard that working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier was the most dangerous. Which I also did. Why do I always work dangerous jobs? Adventure, my friend. I love adventure. Case in point: I was an avid rappeller while in the biz; I could rappel down a 285′ tower in less than five seconds (you free fall until you’re about fifteen feet off the ground, and then hit the brakes. The rope will stretch out enough to just let your feet touch ground. Disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS. ONLY STUPID PEOPLE DO THIS (see picture above).
How many times did I nearly die when I was climbing towers? Many. I once fell sixty feet without any injury except a few bruises and a knot on my head. I had a rope connected to me that ran through a pulley (or a block, as we called them), but I can’t imagine it slowed me down that much, it not being anchored at all. And back in those days we free-climbed everything, which means you’re not attached to the tower at all, except with your hands and feet, when you’re climbing. You only “belt off” when you stop to rest. In the end it was too much adventure, even for me, and my knees really gave me the excuse I needed to justify quitting. I just didn’t want to do it any more. One year after I quit, though, I did jump out of a perfectly good airplane just to see what it was like. Except for the initial rush of letting go and freefalling, I found it quite boring. My instructor told me I was the first he’d ever had who landed standing up on their first jump.
Here’s a picture of the ship I served on, which is now at the bottom of the sea.
USS America
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July 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
Jumped out of a perfectly good airplane? Why the heck would you want to do that? You know they land those things on the ground without any wires. Only on ships to they use arrestor wires. Really, most landings are very pleasant.
We have a saying for the young people who do all the dangerous stuff, and twist themselves into knots to get at certain pieces of machinery, we call them, “Young and dumb.” I try very hard not to be that way anymore.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I did it because I wanted to be able to say I’d done it. And at the time, young and dumb was a very qualifying category to stuff me into.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I watched the show and found it very interesting. I wondered if I could do that job. I’ve never done anything exciting in my life although I did bungee jump once. As I was watching the show I kept wondering what it would be like perform a job, day-in, day-out that wasn’t sitting at a desk.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Well, when the day starts out it’s pretty rough. You’ve got a ladder to climb before you can even begin work, and the climbing is very tiresome. Sometimes it’s only 150 to 300′, but often, in the case of radio and television, it’s over a thousand feet. Having an 1100′ ladder to climb first thing in the morning can be a depressing thought, especially if you’re not feeling particularly well. Once you’re up there, though, it’s absolutely grand. It just takes one to three hours to climb a thousand feet, depending on how fast you are and how much weight you’ve got to carry up. Remember, if you’ve forgotten that one wrench that you needed at the top, you’ve only got one choice on finishing the job. Usually Tower Dogs will carry practically their whole tool box up with them, just in case they need something they didn’t think about on the ground. But at the top, well, there aren’t many other jobs that can compare. Even in the summer time there’s a good wind, so it usually isn’t very hot. But in the winter that same wind is brutally cold. I’ve been across the Arctic Circle in winter, but the coldest I’ve ever been in my life was up 1800′ on a tower in Alabama in November in the middle of the night. Exciting? Yeah. For sure. One wrong move, one slip, one simple accident, and you could kill yourself along with a few others along the way. It’s a tough way to make a living.