Interesting job

miir · Post by **miir** » March 29, 2006, 4:21 pm

Post by **Xouqoa** » March 29, 2006, 5:12 pm

No fucking thanks.

I wonder how he gets up there though? Does he have to climb the whole thing or does a chopper set him down on a platform halfway up or something?

Drinsic Darkwood · Post by **Drinsic Darkwood** » March 29, 2006, 5:23 pm

Heh, I was expecting it to zoom out to show some long distance to the ground but I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near that high.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 29, 2006, 5:45 pm

that would be so awesome.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 29, 2006, 5:47 pm

Jim Guentzel readily admits he gets high on the job, really high.

Guentzel works for Tri-State Communication Services and changes light bulbs at the very top of television towers.

Those light bulbs are more than 1/4 of a mile up in the sky, and while the view from his "office" is spectacular, it's not one many people could be paid to see.

And Guentzel is paid $600 a day to climb to the top of the world, secured only by his harness.

The climb does take the better part of a day. Guentzel goes straight up, reattaching his harness cables with each new rung.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 29, 2006, 5:51 pm

All that re-attaching would be tedious as fuck, but I would totally do that for a living.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » March 29, 2006, 6:01 pm

I have to agree...that would an awesome job.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 29, 2006, 6:10 pm

He should parachute down to save time.

Post by **Xouqoa** » March 29, 2006, 11:40 pm

Winnow wrote:He should parachute down to save time.

That sounds like a good idea until you jump off the tower and the wind slams you back into it.

I don't think you'd be able to get enough clearance horizontally away from the tower to parachute off without it being pretty risky, would you?

Trek · Post by **Trek** » March 29, 2006, 11:57 pm

I wonder if on bad days/Mondays he gets to the top and finds that he forgot the new lightbulb....

miir · Post by **miir** » March 29, 2006, 11:58 pm

Xouqoa wrote:
Winnow wrote:He should parachute down to save time.
That sounds like a good idea until you jump off the tower and the wind slams you back into it. I don't think you'd be able to get enough clearance horizontally away from the tower to parachute off without it being pretty risky, would you?

Base jumpers do it all the time.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » March 30, 2006, 12:42 am

Xouqoa wrote:
Winnow wrote:He should parachute down to save time.
That sounds like a good idea until you jump off the tower and the wind slams you back into it. I don't think you'd be able to get enough clearance horizontally away from the tower to parachute off without it being pretty risky, would you?

Not to mention you'd be landing in a major city.

Landing in traffic, or on top of another building just doesn't seem very practical.

Then again, Winnow isn't much for practicality.

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » March 30, 2006, 2:57 am

that looks like it would be sweet to do once. just once.

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » March 30, 2006, 3:27 am

I doubt he could go a year without a failed parachute.

Withefel · Post by **Withefel** » March 30, 2006, 4:43 am

Have a bad day at work for most people? Have a drink or do something else to relax and go get em' the next day. Have a bad day at that job and there is no next day. Fuck that job, no thanks.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » March 31, 2006, 6:18 pm

One of the most astonishing things I've seen on those video clip sites.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » March 31, 2006, 7:03 pm

Nick wrote:One of the most astonishing things I've seen on those video clip sites.

hey do you think you could word that in a way that insults the united states?

noel · Post by **noel** » March 31, 2006, 8:34 pm

cadalano wrote:
Nick wrote:One of the most astonishing things I've seen on those video clip sites.
hey do you think you could word that in a way that insults the united states?

LOL.

Oliadar · Post by **Oliadar** » April 1, 2006, 5:22 am

Climbing a 1500' tower without any gear but a parachute (10lbs) takes about 1 hour 15min. The jump down is about a 10 sec freefall with 5-15 seconds under canopy. People jump towers all the time, of my 110 BASE jumps, towers make up nearly half.

As for the failed parachute comment, BASE canopies almost never fail. Having your parachute open facing the object on a low altitude jump is the #1 killer. While it's true that you're almost guaranteed serious hospital time (think ICU) if you become a BASE jumper, I can think of a couple of people who have over 500 jumps without injury (for reference, 1500 is the most jumps anyone has). There hasn't been a death in BASE due to gear failure in over 10 years.

Also, we always jump with the wind at our back, so we're being blown away from the object. I've only jumped bridges in a headwind. To whoever commented on the landing area, that one is huuuuge. For something like that you can just turn back and land towards the tower, as there's so much space (usually field) around them. As of now, my most technical landing area was an area about 6' wide and 40' long, with trees on one side and a ravine on the other. We're used to tight landing areas.

By the way, that job is the most dangerous job in the US as of 2005. People climbing cell towers (the little 200-300' ones that are triangular with a platform thing on top) die at the rate of about 2-4 a month.

PS hi everybody

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » April 1, 2006, 10:32 am

Oliadar wrote:Climbing a 1500' tower without any gear but a parachute (10lbs) takes about 1 hour 15min. The jump down is about a 10 sec freefall with 5-15 seconds under canopy. People jump towers all the time, of my 110 BASE jumps, towers make up nearly half.

As for the failed parachute comment, BASE canopies almost never fail. Having your parachute open facing the object on a low altitude jump is the #1 killer. While it's true that you're almost guaranteed serious hospital time (think ICU) if you become a BASE jumper, I can think of a couple of people who have over 500 jumps without injury (for reference, 1500 is the most jumps anyone has). There hasn't been a death in BASE due to gear failure in over 10 years.

Also, we always jump with the wind at our back, so we're being blown away from the object. I've only jumped bridges in a headwind. To whoever commented on the landing area, that one is huuuuge. For something like that you can just turn back and land towards the tower, as there's so much space (usually field) around them. As of now, my most technical landing area was an area about 6' wide and 40' long, with trees on one side and a ravine on the other. We're used to tight landing areas.

By the way, that job is the most dangerous job in the US as of 2005. People climbing cell towers (the little 200-300' ones that are triangular with a platform thing on top) die at the rate of about 2-4 a month.

PS hi everybody

damn that is sweet. I bet Xouqoa and Truant feel like a couple of pussies now

Nick · Post by **Nick** » April 1, 2006, 11:33 am

LOL!

Oliadar · Post by **Oliadar** » April 1, 2006, 5:26 pm

cadalano wrote: damn that is sweet. I bet Xouqoa and Truant feel like a couple of pussies now

Why? It's not like the technicalities of BASE jumping are common knowledge. Even most skydivers don't fully understand how we assess objects and go about planning things. Truant is actually pretty accurate with cars. Cars can't see you due to their vision restraints and normal habits (no one is looking up for us). If a street is your primary landing area, you make sure there's either no cars or a red light. Building landings, while not practical, can and have been done, just not on purpose

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » April 1, 2006, 5:51 pm

yeah

i was just sassin' the boys. thats all.

miir · Post by **miir** » April 2, 2006, 2:05 pm

It's not like the technicalities of BASE jumping are common knowledge. Even most skydivers don't fully understand how we assess objects and go about planning things.

A used to be friends with a couple of base jumpers.
They were obsessively meticulous when it came to planning their jumps... even moreso when it came to packing their chute.
I had the priviledge of going along on a few jumps with them (to shoot video). Breaking into the buildings (under construction), going up with them and watching them jump was very cool. Hauling ass back down and getting the hell out before the cops came was a major rush.

Oliadar · Post by **Oliadar** » April 2, 2006, 2:48 pm

What area, Miir? I probably know them somehow.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » April 2, 2006, 8:28 pm

cadalano wrote:yeah

i was just sassin' the boys. thats all.

haha!

and STAY down!

miir · Post by **miir** » April 3, 2006, 12:41 am

Oliadar wrote:What area, Miir? I probably know them somehow.

Toronto... and this was over 10 years ago... back when they didn't have 24h security on building construction sites.

Oliadar · Post by **Oliadar** » April 3, 2006, 12:48 am

miir wrote:Toronto... and this was over 10 years ago... back when they didn't have 24h security on building construction sites.

You say that like it makes jumping impossible... Anyhow, it's cool knowing that someone else here is somehow related to BASE. VV is probably the last place I expected to find anything.