“Don’t ever stop respecting gravity – it’s always switched on”

Nice little article and pics on rope access work

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45902340

Interesting article and also interesting to me because the guy mentioned is a South African. They keep popping up in all kinds of interesting places as they leave South Africa.

God I hate heights, just looking at pictures makes me dizzy.

this pic always amazes me

philippe petit tightrope between twin towers new york

They appear to have made a splat zone under phillipe.

Those pics make my stomach churn.

🤮

About 18 years ago I was sat in a pub with a few mates wondering where my career path was going having got booted off my Chemistry course, I was already travelling and working up Chimney stacks, I reckon I was about 10 mins and a few hundred quid from doing level one, at the time one of the lads was Level 3 and happily working 1 weekend a month. His view was there was a really good progression path if you had a technical/engineering skill set in inspection etc. basically using the IRATA quali to test things in strange places – like the inside of cargo ships halfway across the Pacific.

His other advice was never sign up to put the Christmas lights up, only to take them down – a much less stressful job!!

Would have been a very different life!!

hence my user name [smileyfail] 😉 [/smileyfail]

It’s what I do (IRATA L3). In reality it’s all about doing crap jobs in places other people can’t get to it if it’s too expensive/difficult to scaffold.

Fair play to you irata lot, one of my roles is technical rope in the fire service. My world is all about the rescue side In a team, lot of respect for those of you doing access work and the slickness you all develop.
Just reading some of the situations some of you unfortunately get into makes your eyes pop out.

Love the #stringbling though

I refuse to go up a ladder to clear the gutters! If I get more than my own height above the ground, I break out in a rash.

I hate ladders.

My tickets have expired but I always felt happier climbing with a harness and fall arrest gear (apart from rail-loks, they were rubbish) than working up a ladder.  Even on some of our wobbly Titan masts dodging angry seagulls.

Oh and the other bane used to be monopoles with removable pegs but that was always the keen youngsters job to fit and remove…

I’ve been up the same climb as shown in the OP many years ago. Wish I had a cool photie of it now, but at the time I wasn’t in the posing mood and my shaking legs would have made it blurry anyway.

this pic always amazes me

You do know that is a faked shot from the movie The Walk (2015)? The real Philippe Petit stuff is usually in grainy black and white and is from his crossing in 1974 and was documented in the movie Man On Wire.
The documentary is so good with real footage of a man risking his life that I can’t believe they made a film afterwards.

Started reading it and then realised it was Francois who did my L1 assessment! Absolutely sound guy, could spot a half-screwed up krab from 2 miles and possibly through half a foot of lead. Happily, I passed, though he failed all three blokes trying for their L2, one in the first 5 mins!

This one always makes me a bit queezy, watched as part of a access training thing at work. Can’t get over the fact your allowed to climb this stuff without being latched on permanently.

Did L1 through work in 2001. Loved it and seriously considered quitting being a lampy to do it. Then realised that just being a dope-on-a-rope was a ticket to cleaning windows and painting buildings, and that it was pre-existing skills (that I don’t have) used in a rope access environment that would make the proper cash.

I do enjoy a bit of work at height, but these days we end up risk assessing most of it out, which is arguably way less fun, but on the other hand I’m still here to talk about it!

I can’t finish watching that you tube video about the transmission tower – feeling ill and spinning out. Don’t know how people do it.

Thanks to this I’m going to dig out the DVD player and watch Man On Wire again.
The real version of that movie shot:

As Ming says, I’d rather be up a pole than free climbing up a ladder up the gable of a house! Mine wasn’t rope access though, just being tethered to a telephone pole, or fall prevention so you can work right on the edge of a tower block but can’t actually go over the edge.

We often use contractors to swing off blocks of flats and run cables/trunking up the side of buildings…are you guys generally multi-skilled and turn your hand to anything, such as cleaning/painting/structured cabling/cladding installation, or do you have to get specific qualifications for each type of work, therefore widening your skill set?

This was more my thing. “Only” managed about 400 feet max, as opposed to the nearly 1200 foot pit in Mexico in the video. Some of my mates did get out there though. Not sure my heart would be up to it! And prussicking back out would be a ballache too.

Bit of a mix of guys who have specialist skills and a rope ticket, or guys who get a rope rocket and then do anything.
We use subbies so if a job comes along that needs a specific skill we’ll recruit accordingly but you tend to pick up a fair bit on the various jobs you do.
Last week for example I cleaned windows, fixed cladding panels to a resi building and sorted the internal drainage system in a council office.
It’s what I love about the job really. It’s hard graft a lot of the time but you get to do lots of different things in lots of different places.

Just watched that YouTube radio tower vid. Blimey, thick socks are enough to get my head spinning. Rope work and towers are way beyond me.

lummox

Our stn has just started doing rope, not live yet. I’m actually enjoying it

I started off as an apprentice painter and decorator in the early 90s and it was all off ladders which were all untethered and you were lucky to have someone foot it for you. Silly heights where your boss had to hire bigger ladders.
It’s one thing climbing up them, but then you have to move around working, one hand on the ladder and the other using a scraper/sandpaper/paint roller. Very bloody twitchy stuff.😬
It was always the gable ends of buildings I hate working on as it’s straight down. No pipes or ledges to grab hold of if your ladder slips or slides to one side.

“The documentary is so good with real footage of a man risking his life that I can’t believe they made a film afterwards.”

Well the man himself helped them. So he must have thought it worthwhile.

Well the man himself helped them. So he must have thought it worthwhile.

Money changes people. But I’m certainly glad he got some, and wider recognition. Watch Man on Wire and the The Walk and see which gets you on the edge of your seat though.

Up at 150m today testing anchors.

I wouldn’t want to carry a boat anchor all the way up there. Must be a nice view today though.

Man On Wire

Was gripping stuff.

The man is a nutter and seemed to carry more than a few issues around. His crew appeared to have mixed feelings about what they had done, and him, after the stunt, too.

Pompey… 🤣🔥🔥🔥

The man is a nutter

I didn’t come away with impression.

Watched Man On Wire. Superb. Aside from his wire walking skill it was astounding how single minded and determined he was to plan, prepare and organise everything to get the wire in place.
The scene at the end when he balanced the Oscar Statue on his chin at the awards. Again planned and prepared. He had borrowed an Oscar from Woody Allen, made a replica and practised for a week beforehand.
After Man On Wire J don’t feel any wish to watch The Walk. Don’t think It could be bettered. Though I wouldn’t have minded sub titles for the contributions in French.

Often see the non PPE version of High wire access work when travelling.

This was outside my hotel window in Damascus. Just a piece of wood with a hole in each end and a rope knotted through it. A bunch of guys lowering them by hand from the roof…..

No harnesses! by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

I can’t finish watching that you tube video about the transmission tower

I can’t begin to watch it. Sphincter clenching, just the thought of it.