[TowerTalk] tower climbers xmas gift

[Tony King - W4ZT]

At 11:08 AM 11/25/2003, Jerry Keller wrote:
>Many of the posts for this subject indicate there's a lot of "solo" tower 
>climbing going on. I don't climb, but if I did I would never do so without 
>a helper on the ground to watch my back and send up stuff. Let's see.... 
>where did I get that good safety idea? I believe it was here on 
>TowerTalk... :-)  73,  Jerry K3BZ
<snip>

This is a very good point. Climbing alone is a very risky thing to do yet 
folks are doing it every day. Even if you climb with a buddy on the ground, 
if you don't haul the end of a string or 1/4 inch line with you, he can't 
help you retrieve something you drop or something you forgot to take with you.

Recently we had a friend sustain a very deep gash in the top of his head 
which required ten staples (that's more than 20 stitches) as a result of a 
falling tower part. Since that accident, me and the other few climbers in 
our group have agreed that we will NEVER climb with folks below that are 
NOT wearing hard hats. They're cheap, available at Home Depot, Lowes and 
many other places (another GREAT tower climber's gift! Give one to each of 
your ground crew).

Fortunately we didn't lose our friend but we could have very easily and 
that lesson will not be forgotten.

Climb safe.  Have a wonderful holiday season!

73,
Tony W4ZT