Frequently Asked Questions
As I've been sporadically posting on tiktok the last few years and my videos have gotten a wider audience, I've noticed that a lot of people have the same questions when first encountering this line of work.
Do you wear parachutes?
No. We wear a climbing harness with two 6' fall arrest lanyards. One of these lanyards will be attached to an anchor point at all times and catch us in the event of a fall. Parachutes would not be a good fall arrest system because they require you to pull the chute and have enough distance underneath you for the parachute to properly deploy, which is not always the case on a tower. Also there is the matter of the tower itself impeding the parachute. We've all seen videos online of people BASE jumping off towers but that is not something I support or condone.
Do you BASE jump off the tower when you're done?
Never. Asides from not being a wise or safe idea due to the risk of getting caught in the tower or it's guy wires, and our company not carrying parachute insurance, I have no desire to do so. If you're someone who is interested in trespassing on tower sites to climb or jump, you absolutely do not want to do that because there is active RF that can cause cancer and being so close to the source of that radiation will give you a very high dosage of radiation. As a tower professional, we power down antennas when we're working nearby and will not work in high RF environments ourselves. Also, tower owners take trespassing and liability very seriously and have lawyers on staff. They will press charges.
What happens when you need to go to the bathroom?
Ideally #2s are handled before or after tower work sessions but there are times emergency situations arise.
In those instances when the need is dire, I've taken elevator or manbasket rides down to the ground.
How much money do you make as a tower climber?
I think people at large have in mind that this is an extremely high paying and low workload job due to a very popular video of a man claiming to change a lightbulb on a 2,000' tower twice a year for $20k a climb. While this may possibly be true if he owns the business and has a great relationship with that station, it is not representative of the industry's pay. We work a regular construction schedule- 10 hour days 6 days a week and make construction money and per diem. There's always work to be done to maintain these towers, and those projects can take weeks to months at a time. There's also always someone who will do it for less, so there's only so much that can be charged. There is no danger or hazard pay, danger and hazards are the job description.
Do you wear parachutes?
No. We wear a climbing harness with two 6' fall arrest lanyards. One of these lanyards will be attached to an anchor point at all times and catch us in the event of a fall. Parachutes would not be a good fall arrest system because they require you to pull the chute and have enough distance underneath you for the parachute to properly deploy, which is not always the case on a tower. Also there is the matter of the tower itself impeding the parachute. We've all seen videos online of people BASE jumping off towers but that is not something I support or condone.
Do you BASE jump off the tower when you're done?
Never. Asides from not being a wise or safe idea due to the risk of getting caught in the tower or it's guy wires, and our company not carrying parachute insurance, I have no desire to do so. If you're someone who is interested in trespassing on tower sites to climb or jump, you absolutely do not want to do that because there is active RF that can cause cancer and being so close to the source of that radiation will give you a very high dosage of radiation. As a tower professional, we power down antennas when we're working nearby and will not work in high RF environments ourselves. Also, tower owners take trespassing and liability very seriously and have lawyers on staff. They will press charges.
What happens when you need to go to the bathroom?
Ideally #2s are handled before or after tower work sessions but there are times emergency situations arise.
In those instances when the need is dire, I've taken elevator or manbasket rides down to the ground.
How much money do you make as a tower climber?
I think people at large have in mind that this is an extremely high paying and low workload job due to a very popular video of a man claiming to change a lightbulb on a 2,000' tower twice a year for $20k a climb. While this may possibly be true if he owns the business and has a great relationship with that station, it is not representative of the industry's pay. We work a regular construction schedule- 10 hour days 6 days a week and make construction money and per diem. There's always work to be done to maintain these towers, and those projects can take weeks to months at a time. There's also always someone who will do it for less, so there's only so much that can be charged. There is no danger or hazard pay, danger and hazards are the job description.