[TowerTalk] Free Climbers

[WarrenWolff at aol.com]

Hi to all,
 
YES!  There are still Free Climbers, most likely  minimally in the US.
 
I was the Senior Program Manager for a Mobile Telephone  System
in Kuwait - - back in the early 80's.  Kuwaiti prime  contractors are
always involved as middle men when we Yanks have a contract  there.
 
The Prime hired all the climbers for our microwave/cell  towers which
were 100 m (328 feet) tall.   When on site one day,  I looked up to see
one of the Yemenese climbers standing barefoot on the top  cross member.
It was hot, but not windy that day.  He was dropping the  UHF antennas
into their mounting hardware.  Neither he nor his  climbing mate had any
kind of safety appliances!!
 
A few days later, I noticed one of the Pakistani climbers at  about 12 feet
with a large rope around his waist.
 
Of course, I worried about the safety of those guys, but was  advised it
was better to leave well enough alone.  Safety harnesses  would likely
interfere with their comfort zone, increasing chances of  an unmanageable
fall.
 
The site never leaves my rather vivid memories of that  program.
 
Warren; W7WY



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