The most difficult climb I ever had was getting an inexperienced climber
down, who froze in place after looking down.
Thankfully he was only at 60 feet.
I had been doing tower and antenna maintenance for a repeater on a 200'
tower at just under the 100' level (but on a several hundred ft hill,
that put it about 600 feet above ground level down here.) until I moved
to the present location. I was in town when I received a call on our
regional repeater. The other repeater had a problem. The frozen climber.
I had to go back home, get my climbing gear and then drive over 60 miles
to the other site. Once there, get harnessed up and climb the 60'. This
tower sat on a concrete pier that was about 6' tall IIRC.
Once I was up there, quite some time had elapsed since I was called. I
don't know how long he had been there before they called, but I had to
pry his fingers loose as his muscles were now rigid. It became a series
of move the had, climb down, move a foot, then do the same on the other
side. Thankfully the braces were close enough that I could do one side
at a time. Once we were down to the pier, he could not climb down on a
stepladder with out help.
I'll bet he had trouble moving the next day and used a lot of pain
pills. I "think" one of the other hams drove him home.
It's been a long time, but IIRC he free climbed. I don't remember any
safety gear, but there may have been. That was over 30 years ago, so I
would have been in my 40s and a lot better shape than now.
73,
Roger (K8RI)
On 6/14/2016 Tuesday 12:07 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
A ham I know (W6REC) works as an "auditor" for cell site
owners (he works for all the big carriers in a
free lance capability). He has the authority to
essentially act as a "bouncer" if he sees workers
on site working in an unsafe manner. According
to him, the maximum height above ground where
free climbing is allowed is "zero", and
there has to be a rescue qualified backup
climber on the ground at all times. He unfortunately
has to play policeman too frequently.
I didn't know Milt well, but he seemed
to illustrate why 160 is called the "gentlemen's
band". Certainly, his station was a "beacon"
station in any contest. Perhaps this tragedy
will induce greater safety in connection with tower work.
Rick N6RK
On 6/14/2016 8:24 AM, Matthew Kaufman wrote:
Problem comes when you are climbing someone else's tower. After you
fall to your death, you don't get to participate in the liability
insurance fight that ensues.
My understanding is that this wasn't his own tower, and the tower
site owner should be very unhappy with his decision... If a
commercial site, definitely a violation of their policies... Which is
exactly how hams get kicked off of commercial tower sites, and new
hams get turned down when they ask.
Matthew Kaufman
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73
Roger (K8RI)
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