I used to do some mountain climbing and alpine mountaineering. Some of it was pretty adventurous. But I'm too old for that now. I still bag a few walk-ups every summer, just for fun.
KC
Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.
I worked on oil rigs for eight years. I worked derricks regularly tripping pipe at 90 feet up. I greased the crown at the top of the rigs many times. We also scrubbed and painted the windwalls using a harness hanging from an air hoist. Glad I never had to use the "Geronimo Line" in an emergency.
I was very into rock climbing in my 20's. I'm a bit skeeved by heights but having control of it via ropes, carabiners, and "pro" somehow made it all ok. Still scared the living [bleep] out of myself a few times. In Utah once I got to the first bolt on an obscure climb, clipped in, then somehow got off-route and ended up doing the last 80' or so essentially as a free-climb (I'd have hit the ground if I fell because I was so far above that bolt). Saw a guy fall about 50' once. His leg was bent in some very wrong ways.
Pic of a pic...
I recently built a house solo and "the roof", in its entirety, which is to say including a bunch of work I had to do on the existing structure we were keeping, took ~ 6 weeks. 6 weeks of waking up at 5 am, climbing a ladder (often with a sheet of 5/8" ply, that's fun stuff there) and working on the roof all day. By the time I got the metal roof all finished I'd completely lost my nerve up there. It just seemed like the odds were gonna catch up to me. I ended up digging out my old ropes and harness and tying off on either a big oak on the one side or my truck on the other. The pitch of that [bleep] was just right at the limit that my feet could "grab" and it was freakin' me out by the end. Took this pic late one evening. The darkness made the colors weird. Kinda cool.
You guys would laugh hysterically if you ever saw me climbing into a tree stand. If I had 10 hands, every one of them would have a death grip on something, and this before I was on the first step. I have an old Loc On archery stand, and I literally stand on terra firma to hang it. That puts the stand about 6 foot hign, and when I'm standing up on it, I'm at about 11 feet at eye level. That's about as high as I can handle. Ladder stands are pretty good. I hunt out of them more frequently, but never much higher that two sections of ladder.
I have climbed radio towers in the past to work on UHF and VHF antennas. Also climbed many mountains. The most dangerous mountain was the Eiger in Switzerland. The highest was Aconcagua in the Andes in Argentina. Climbed Aconcagua by the difficult Polish Glacier route. Aconcaagua is almost 23,000 ft altitude.
Osama and Obama both have friends who bombed the Pentagon.
I was very into rock climbing in my 20's. I'm a bit skeeved by heights but having control of it via ropes, carabiners, and "pro" somehow made it all ok. Still scared the living [bleep] out of myself a few times. In Utah once I got to the first bolt on an obscure climb, clipped in, then somehow got off-route and ended up doing the last 80' or so essentially as a free-climb (I'd have hit the ground if I fell because I was so far above that bolt). Saw a guy fall about 50' once. His leg was bent in some very wrong ways.
Pic of a pic...
I recently built a house solo and "the roof", in its entirety, which is to say including a bunch of work I had to do on the existing structure we were keeping, took ~ 6 weeks. 6 weeks of waking up at 5 am, climbing a ladder (often with a sheet of 5/8" ply, that's fun stuff there) and working on the roof all day. By the time I got the metal roof all finished I'd completely lost my nerve up there. It just seemed like the odds were gonna catch up to me. I ended up digging out my old ropes and harness and tying off on either a big oak on the one side or my truck on the other. The pitch of that [bleep] was just right at the limit that my feet could "grab" and it was freakin' me out by the end. Took this pic late one evening. The darkness made the colors weird. Kinda cool.
You ever need to try that again, use the foam from a couch cushion, as a seat. It will not slide, and makes it easier on your butt. I'm betting your pitch was 12/12 (°45 slope). That gets hard on the ankles.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
About 30 years ago, I hired a high climber to limb up some fir trees around my house, to let in more sunlight.
After watching him, I bought my own climbing gear. Spurs, safety belt with chain, etc.
I cut limbs from about 150 more fir trees on my property.
It gets exciting being up a tree, 90 feet in the air, and you're at about 8 inches diameter of a tree that starts at over two feet on the butt.
When you get a little breeze, you can rock back and forth about six feet. Quite a "ride" (GRIN!)
As I got older (64 now) my Wife told me I was getting too old to climb trees. She worried about me having heart problems up there, and no way to get me down.
I have a ham friend that receives a $50.00 "tip" every time he goes up a tower to make adjustments for another ham operator he knows. I'm a ham, I don't want a big, obvious tower in my yard. Portable or hidden antennas for me.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
Have been some very high places, but had a fear of heights, now that I am older it seems to have gotten worse, but younger days i forced myself twice to climb during goat hunts, both times we got the goat, but not sure I could do it now.
"The 375HH is the greatest level of power you can get for the investment in recoil." (JJHack) 79s and losttrail, biggest waste of air.
Not as comfortable as I was. 30-50 feet is about as high up as I go these days.
Used to build chimney scaffolding. And I've been some places on sheep hunts that it's just as well the lil woman doesn't know about
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.